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After announcing its intentions to investigate loot boxes in video games last week, the Belgian Gaming Commission has concluded that ‘the mixing of money and addiction is gambling.’
VTM News (via PC Gamer) reports that Belgium’s Minister of Justice Koen Geens has also stuck his oar in, stating that ‘mixing gambling and gaming, especially at a young age, is dangerous for the mental health of the child.’Â
Geens added that he’s keen to prevent games from including paid loot crates in the future, but notes that this might take some time because ‘we have to go to Europe.’ However, Geens seems pretty gung-ho on the issue, saying ‘We will certainly try to ban it.’
This investigation came about around the launch of Star Wars Battlefront 2 and the controversy surrounding the game’s use of microtransactions. The Belgian Gaming Commission looked into both EA (because of Star Wars) and Blizzard (because of Overwatch) in an effort to decide whether both publishers were effectively Paddy Power in disguise.Â
As neither Blizzard nor Electronic Arts have permits to run bookies in the country, they could face hefty fines due to the ruling that loot boxes are in fact a form of gambling. EA’s decision to temporarily remove microtransactions might turn into a permanent one, it seems.
