Belgium says loot boxes are gambling, wants them banned in Europe

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GribbleGrunger said:

SecondWar said:

Because it's passable when the initial game is free - people get that the developer has to get their money from somewhere. But most people take issue when its tacked onto full-priced console games, as its a sneaky way to boost margins.

Naa, you're thinking about your own motives for disliking it. I'm talking about their motives for disliking it because they apply to phone games too:

 "The mixing of money and addiction is gambling," the Gaming Commission declared. Belgium's Minister of Justice Koen Geens also weighed in, saying, "Mixing gambling and gaming, especially at a young age, is dangerous for the mental health of the child." 

And there have been numerous stories over the years of children costing parents hundreds of dollars/pounds because of mobile game transactions. So why now? 

Could be because mobile games (and by extension any digital-only game) doesn't have age restrictions. The games with lootboxes wouldn't be outlawed if ruled as gambling in the EU too, but possibly turned into adults only games, which is a whole other can of worms.