Parents warned that computer game loot boxes could be a 'gateway to gambling'
Listen to our documentary on the dangers of loot boxes
Industry experts are warning that loot boxes in computer games may be setting some children up for a future of problem gambling.
Loot boxes are featured in many of the most popular computer games including Fortnite, FIFA and Apex Legends. They can be purchased with real money and give the player the chance to unlock an item within the game.
The controversial system is being investigated by the UK and US governments and in 2018 they were banned altogether in Belgium with the Gaming Commission there saying they were "in violation of gambling legislation".
Listen to our documentary - Loot Boxes - A Hidden Harm?
Loot Boxes
Since they started featuring in popular games in 2009 loot boxes have been the subject of a debate surround whether or not they should be classed as gambling. Currently, they are not classed as gambling and feature in many PEGI3 games.
Jonathan Peniket is a Gaming and Esports consultant, he spent thousand of pounds of savings on loot boxes in FIFA after buying his first as a child.
"I'll always remember that he said to me at that moment I shouldn't because it's gambling and as a 12 to 13 year old FIFA Ultimate Team like most of my friends at the time I thought 'that's just ridiculous' ultimately it's just a video game."
"From that point about three to four years passed of spending more and more money on more and more packs but it became slowly more secretive from my parents who always tried to be very aware and responsible around gaming."
"I ended up buying vouchers in shops without my parents seeing me, playstation vouchers, that I would take home and redeem in the game and hide in an old book once I'd use them so my parents wouldn't know how much I was spending."
"It kept increasing until a few weeks before my A-levels my spending was really out of control and I was spending about £80 three or four times in one night in the game. The point came when eventually the money just ran out. "
Loot boxes could be leading to gambling
Ellie Mulcahy is the Head of Research at the Centre for Education and Youth.
"What we're finding, to quote the most recent research on this, is that there's an unambiguous link between problem gambling and people who purchase loot boxes."
"The links between problem gambling and purchasing loot boxes is stronger than the link between problem gambling and things such as alcohol abuse, substance abuse and depression."
A lucrative source of income
Loot boxes have proved a lucrative source of income for computer game developers with FIFA's Utimate Team mode raking in $1.62bn dollars for their parent company Electronic Arts in the 2021 financial year.
Electronic Arts deny that loot boxes are the same as gambling. Chris Bruzzo is the company's executive vice president of Marketing, Commercial and Positive play:
"There is no real money cash out for loot boxes in our video games. The best way to explain this is to put on a collectors mindset, if you were a collector or concert posters or a collector of music, you'd be interested in building out your collection and finding that last thing in your collection that makes it great. In our games that's the same thing that happens."
When asked what EA would do if loot boxes are found to have a link to problem gambling Bruzzo said "We will engage, we will be part of the solution. We'll continue to evolve and improve." - Hear the full interview in our documentary in the link above.