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The ongoing row between whether lootboxes in games do constitute gambling is evidently not going away anytime soon, and  now after both Hawaii and Belgium have weighed in, over the weekend the British Gambling Commission has released a statement of their own.
The statement, posted on the official body’s website, begins by setting out the BGC’s role, saying ‘The definition of what is legally classed as gambling is set by Parliament rather than by us. Our role is to apply that definition to activities that we see and any changes to that definition need to be made by Parliament.’
The BGC stops short of making any firm statements yet, still being very early in its investigations, but notes that what constitutes ‘gambling’ is obviously very murky waters and it’s not as simple as whether what’s being done is illegal: ‘Many parents are not interested in whether an activity meets a legal definition of ‘’gambling’’. Their main concern is whether there is a product out there that could present a risk to their children.’
‘We are concerned with the growth in examples where the line between video gaming and gambling is becoming increasingly blurred. Where it does meet the definition of gambling it is our job to ensure that children are protected and we have lots of rules in place, like age verification requirements, to do that.’
Meanwhile, across the pond senators in France are also jumping into the debate, with one Jerome Durain posting an open letter on Twitter to the French President Emmanuel Macron (helpfully translated here by Reddit user Artfunkel) asking about the possibility of offering some kind of consumer protection in regards to the practice.
#lootboxes je dépose une question écrite @mounir et écrit àl’@arjel pour trouver le meilleur moyen d’éviter des dérives pic.twitter.com/1p65PW4wjq
— Jérôme Durain (@Jeromedurain) November 16, 2017
That’s quite a lot to take in. If you’re a little confused as to just part of the reason for all this attention, Alice has done her best to explain why everyone’s up in arms about the lootbox situation as it pertains to Star Wars Battlefront II specifically here.
