A consultation period informing ministers and officials overseeing the review closed this week. The government has said it will consider classifying loot boxes as gambling, as part of its ongoing review of the sector. “It is now for politicians to review this research, as well as the evidence of other organisations, and decide what legislative and regulatory changes are needed to address these concerns.”

“GambleAware funded this research to highlight concerns around loot boxes and problem gambling, ahead of the upcoming Gambling Act review.

“ We are increasingly concerned that gambling is now part of everyday life for children and young people,” said the chief executive Zoë Osmond. GambleAware, the leading gambling charity that commissioned the report, also backed tighter regulation.

“Real regulatory action is needed as soon as possible.” “They are regulated in the same way as football stickers were when I was a kid and it is clear that these products have moved on so much fasters than the laws governing them,” he said. The Conservative MP Richard Holden said they were a “loophole” in the law.

They were “structurally and psychologically akin” to gambling, the report found, yet are used by nearly half of children who play video games.Īpproximately 5% of loot box users generate half of the £700m that video games companies make from them each year and about a third of that group are problem gamblers, the report says.ĭespite growing concern about their characteristics and rising popularity, loot boxes remain unregulated in the UK, whereas countries such as Belgium have deemed them to be gambling products. All but one of the studies showed a clear correlation between the use of loot boxes and problem gambling behaviour, under the commonly-used Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) measure.

Ea says loot boxes aren't gambling