15 European gambling regulators unite to tackle loot box threat

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Orbitalx wrote:

Hopefully some good will come out of this and eventually gambling boxes will be made illegal or at least highly regulated and treated as gambling.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-09-17-15-european-gambling-regulators-unite-to-tackle-loot-box-threat

"The regulators stated games providers must "ensure that features within games, such as loot boxes, do not constitute gambling under national laws". This indicates more countries will now examine whether loot boxes can be classed as gambling."

Sweet!

OMG Really!!???

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Towlg wrote:

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Miská wrote:

The babies in this thread are unreal. If you can't control yourself, maybe stop being on the internet. There are scarier things out there then this bullshit waste of time.

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Paldamus wrote:

Yeah waa waa we need regulation, we need this, we need that. Compose yourself and don't be a fool that spends irl money on rng boxes lmao. More bureocracy rarely helps.

Voice of Reason in sea of no-brain hate.

Hope the idiotic governments will fail. I like loot boxes and no one will have the right to ban me (adult) from purchasing one. Abuse of freedom is literally worse than everything else.

Regulation and ban are different words. You're free to go to casino but they're regulated.

This is not against gamble, this is against addiction.

The headline is a little misleading as a declaration of concern which is what the headline is referring to is not necessarily a prerequisite for incoming regulation or even changes in current regulation.

It basically a piece of paper saying we know folks are worried about this issue and we will have a look at it. Indeed one of the signatures, Ireland, have already stated that they will not regulate lockboxes under their current legislation and have said their Department of Justice

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does not have a role to regulate game developers on how their games work nor, in the offering of in-game purchases”.

Source: https://www.irishlegal.com/article/government-shies-away-from-crackdown-on-loot-box-games

It should be noted that Ireland is pursuing a major overhaul in their gambling laws which is something that has been ongoing since 2013 and is not a result of the declaration.

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Gulch wrote:

Loot boxes are not gambling.
But with all of the snowflakes out there nowadays, they cry when they don't get what they want, and call this gambling BECAUSE they didn't get what they wanted.

You get EXACTLY what you pay for....a CHANCE to get what you want.
If you got NOTHING, then that would be gambling.

You do have a chance to get nothing. You get duplicates of the same items which in my opinion are worth nothing. So it is gambling if you consider duplicates nothing.

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AsbelFar wrote:

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Towlg wrote:

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Miská wrote:

The babies in this thread are unreal. If you can't control yourself, maybe stop being on the internet. There are scarier things out there then this bullshit waste of time.

"

Paldamus wrote:

Yeah waa waa we need regulation, we need this, we need that. Compose yourself and don't be a fool that spends irl money on rng boxes lmao. More bureocracy rarely helps.

Voice of Reason in sea of no-brain hate.

Hope the idiotic governments will fail. I like loot boxes and no one will have the right to ban me (adult) from purchasing one. Abuse of freedom is literally worse than everything else.

Regulation and ban are different words. You're free to go to casino but they're regulated.

This is not against gamble, this is against addiction.

Regulation is required for gambling in casinos for a reason. So you don't get cheated out of your money and so children are not gambling. Regulation should be required for gambling in video games for the same reasons.

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Orbitalx wrote:

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Gulch wrote:

Loot boxes are not gambling.
But with all of the snowflakes out there nowadays, they cry when they don't get what they want, and call this gambling BECAUSE they didn't get what they wanted.

You get EXACTLY what you pay for....a CHANCE to get what you want.
If you got NOTHING, then that would be gambling.

You do have a chance to get nothing. You get duplicates of the same items which in my opinion are worth nothing. So it is gambling.

But you're NOT getting nothing. Regardless of your opinion.

why does lootboxes and poe matter at all. its a mature rated game last i checked. thus nobody under aged should be playing, thus nobody under aged should be buying loot boxes unless they have permission from their guardian anyway, thus its the guardians fault and not GGG

if it is considered gambling, which it basically is, not sure how that changes anything.

this is from the ToS

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Age restriction: If you are based in the European Union, you must not use the Website, Materials and Services if you are under 16 years of age, and if you are between the ages of 16 and 18, your parent or legal guardian must have consented to you accessing and using the Website, Materials and Services. If you are based outside the European Union, you must not use the Website, Materials and Services if you are under 13 years of age, and if you are between the ages of 13 and 18, your parent or legal guardian must have consented to you accessing and using the Website, Materials and Services.

now im not exactly sure the legal age to gamble in certain places, but i know in my country its 18. so if you're the age to use the website you're the age to gamble, thus you're the age to buy lootboxes. its on you, not GGG

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LowBudget780 wrote:

It's still gambling bro, feel free to defend it all you want but shit's gonna get regulated to all hell and back.

I'm not your fucking bro.
It's not gambling, that is your opinion.
You get exactly what you pay for.
With gambling, you could get nothing, in this situation, you never get nothing.

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Gulch wrote:

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Orbitalx wrote:

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Gulch wrote:

Loot boxes are not gambling.
But with all of the snowflakes out there nowadays, they cry when they don't get what they want, and call this gambling BECAUSE they didn't get what they wanted.

You get EXACTLY what you pay for....a CHANCE to get what you want.
If you got NOTHING, then that would be gambling.

You do have a chance to get nothing. You get duplicates of the same items which in my opinion are worth nothing. So it is gambling.

But you're NOT getting nothing. Regardless of your opinion.

I mean technically you are correct. You are getting a duplicate item. You can technically use the same item on multiple characters. Okay. While that is true, most people would place little to no value on a duplicate item. For me and most people, including yourself they are worth very little or nothing at all.

So do you agree that that duplicate item is worth drastically less than the first copy of that item that you received?

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xMustard wrote:

why does lootboxes and poe matter at all. its a mature rated game last i checked. thus nobody under aged should be playing, thus nobody under aged should be buying loot boxes unless they have permission from their guardian anyway, thus its the guardians fault and not GGG

if it is considered gambling, which it basically is, not sure how that changes anything.

this is from the ToS

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Age restriction: If you are based in the European Union, you must not use the Website, Materials and Services if you are under 16 years of age, and if you are between the ages of 16 and 18, your parent or legal guardian must have consented to you accessing and using the Website, Materials and Services. If you are based outside the European Union, you must not use the Website, Materials and Services if you are under 13 years of age, and if you are between the ages of 13 and 18, your parent or legal guardian must have consented to you accessing and using the Website, Materials and Services.

now im not exactly sure the legal age to gamble in certain places, but i know in my country its 18. so if you're the age to use the website you're the age to gamble, thus you're the age to buy lootboxes. its on you, not GGG

The issue is kids under 21 or 18 are playing the game and are gambling with real money. You can buy steam gift cards and use the money to buy lootboxes. Also, there are tons of games out there that are much worse than POE for gambling boxes.

This is why there needs to be regulation. Casinos are responsible to check id's of people gambling and they get in trouble if people under age are gambling in their casino. Right now there is nothing in place to prevent kids from gambling in these games. Now you can say well they need a credit card but they don't. They can buy steam gift cards with cash and use that. They also do use their parents credit cards for these games with or without their parents knowledge. It is a fact. There are numerous stories in the news and online about it.

While POE does a decent job at making gambling boxes fair they still are misleading with your chances at winning because your chances go down after each box because of duplicates. The more you play the worse your chances are.