Belgium has become the first country to declare that loot boxes are gambling,”The mixing of money and addiction is gambling,” Belgium’s gaming commission stated. They also say they will be trying to ban Loot boxes at an EU level, but if that fails they will try and at least ban them locally.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet, Democratic State Representative from Hawaii Chris Lee held a press conference where he accused EA specifically of “predatory practises” and said they would be investigating legislation to ban children from playing games with loot boxes. Whilst that might not seem much of a threat, many stores in the U.S. not stock mature rated games, and if they do they ask for ID before purchase.
Mr. Lee says he may pursue legislation on a national scale, you can watch his video below.
UPDATE: There seems to be some confusion as to whether Belgium has or has not banned loot boxes, different sites are reporting different translations.
Andrewww
Maybe the Belgians are just trying to become more popular..? ;o)
Starman
Can see EA patching out loot box purchases from their games if this momentum keeps up.
Avenger
I can see everyone avoiding loot boxes at this rate. The quotes coming out of that hawaii video put the Star Wars name in very bleak territory. I wouldn’t be surprised if Disney made yet another call to EA, this time even more damning.