The facility to purchase loot boxes and game skins when playing video games on video game consoles and PC setups, have once again come in for criticism, with the Royal Society for Public Health having published a report this morning covering these features, revealing that minors under 18, see them as addictive.
A couple of months back, we reported on the current Children’s Commissioner, Anne Longfield, calling on loot boxes and in game purchases within video games to be classified as a gambling product. With the report released this morning by the RSPH further backing up this plan of action.
Indeed this just further backs up the research undertaken by the site Live Casino Comparer, which found that 60% of the British public regards loot boxes and in game purchases such as game skins, should be classified and regulated as gambling.
Shirley Cramer CBE, Chief Executive Officer of the charity the Royal Society for Public Health, commenting on their findings, said: “The rise of loot boxes and skin betting have seen young people introduced to the same mechanisms that underpin gambling, through an industry that operates unchecked and unregulated on the back alleys of the internet, which young people can access from their bedrooms.”
“As with any public health issue, this is one that requires a combination of measures focusing on both education and regulation. Young people are not universally opposed to gambling and gambling-like activity, they simply want to be able to recognise where it appears in their lives and to make an informed decision as to whether to avoid it altogether, or to participate in a way that lowers the stakes for their health and well being.”
