Younger audiences in Australia may be exposed to too much gambling, the Australian Gaming and Screen Alliance (AGSA) shared. The body shared its concern with the lack of adequate measures that protect young people from the dangers of various gambling mechanisms, such as loot boxes.
According to the organisation, problem gambling has become a serious issue that neither the Federal Government nor state authorities have addressed adequately, and as a result can cause both serious physical and psychological harm to more vulnerable individuals.
The Australian Gaming and Screen Alliance challenged so-called loot boxes – in-game digital items that can offer a certain prize based on chance and luck – and even some bets on the possible outcome of competitive video games.
The chair for the AGSA, Professor John Saunders, has criticised the aforementioned mechanisms that have been used by gaming companies for monetisation, arguing that they actually constitute a gateway to gambling, and as such have not been addressed properly by the competent authorities. The professor cited the accounts of players who reported that they had identified massive shortages of money from their accounts after their children had used their credit or debit cards to make in-game purchases or buy loot boxes. This eventually resulted in significant financial problems and ruin for them and their families.
Loot Boxes Serve as “Gateway to Gambling”, Australian Gaming Alliance Warns
The lack of control over the negative consequences of the problem involving an increase in the popularity of loot boxes has led to a lack of appreciation of the negative consequences of the problem. As a result, young Australians are expected to remain exposed to harmful gambling-like products that can create a generation that finds it difficult to control its reckless spending and later in life faces other issues associated with financial and psychological health.
The Australian Gaming and Screen Alliance has assessed the results of a total of 19 studies, which have been trying to get valuable information from some customer and operator data in the sector, finding both visible and hidden associations between gambling addiction and loot boxes.
Logically, despite the calls from various lawmakers and anti-gambling campaigners, not everyone would easily accept the proposals of loot boxes branding as a form of gambling. However, the trend of leaving them in-game items, and loot boxes in particular, mostly unregulated is not something Australian lawmakers should be blamed for, especially considering the fact there has been a lack of global effort to regulate such items as a form of gambling.
According to some market experts, some countries may make a move and pass legislation at the expense of their own traditional game development industries, but it is hard to predict whether or not this could become a global trend.
The AGSA has also explained that a growing number of cases involving young people getting more and more hooked on video games and the available in-game purchases had been registered in Australia, with such an infatuation of more vulnerable consumers resulting in more drastic problem gambling behaviour and spending patterns. Despite that, such young people’s parents and society, as a whole, are not ready to address the issue and deal with it.
- Author
Daniel Williams
