Gambling authority in Belgium has also declared some lootboxes as gambling.

[Noppie]

Last week we heard the Netherlands seeking to ban some games after having declared those games (Fifa18, Dota2, PubG and Rocket League) to break the gambling regulations. Belgium also did their own investigation on a few games and found that Overwatch, FIFA 18 and Counter Strike: Global Offensive are in violation. The board also investigated Star Wars Battlefront II, but as that game removed all lootboxes at launch it's not in violation.

The board has four precautions to view something as a gambling game of chance: 1) It needs to be a game. 2) The player must put something at stake. 3) The result is either a loss or profit for the player and 4) Chance needs to be involved. The board finds the three games mentioned to be in violation of these precautions.

The board also states that it is shocked that none of the protective measures to prevent addiction to gambling are in place. The board fears children and teenagers are getting accustomed to gambling and will view it as something normal.

The penalty that can be invoked is a fine of 800 thousand euro's and jailtime of up to five years. This can double when children are involved. The board also reprimands Disney and FIFA and encourages them to take action.

Source: http://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20180424_03481096

 

[GrantDaNasty]

Good that they look at examples such as Overwatch and CS:GO as gambling as well with regards to how they handle lootboxes.

From my perspective, I get why people were up in arms about games like Battlefront 2 encouraging "pay-to-win" mechanics, but lootboxes are complete random chance and charging money for it, even if it's just for cosmetics (hell, that almost makes it worse) will result in people going down a hole and spending way too much money just because they want "Summer 2018 bikini skin for Lucio" (the worst part of that example btw is that limited-time items will ONLY add to the pressure of people doubling down on random chance to get a specific item).

The best option for companies is to have lootboxes, but also have those specific items available for sale at 5x lootbox price or something like that.

 

[MadMod]

This is good news, especially if other countries follow. If other countries dont follow, then the only people getting hurt will be Belgian gamers, who cant play their favourite games. Or it will be like china where Blizzard find a way around it.