• 15 European+ 1US gambling regulators unite to tackle gaming's gambling problems
    30 replies, posted
15 European gambling regulators unite to tackle loot box threat .. The collaborative effort, organised at the 2018 Gambling Regulators European Forum, includes signatories from the UK, France, Ireland, Spain, and even the US (via the Washington State Gambling Commission). The key focus for the parties involved appears to be "tackling unlicensed third-party websites offering illegal gambling linked to popular video games". If you're wondering what this is, think back to skin betting site CS:GO Lounge, which allowed users to bet real money on a pot of their CS:GO items until Valve cracked down on the site in 2016. Many of these still exist, and regulators want both the video games industry and technology platforms "to play their part in helping crack down on these websites". But the investigation won't stop there. The regulators stated games providers must "ensure that features within games, such as loot boxes, do not constitute gambling under national laws". This indicates more countries will now examine whether loot boxes can be classed as gambling. The list of regulators: Austria: Alfred Hacker, Director, Federal Ministry of Finance Czech Republic: Karel Blaha, Director of the State Oversight Over Gambling Department France: Charles Coppolani, Chair of the French Online Gaming Regulatory Authority Gibraltar: Andrew Lyman, Executive Director, Gambling Division, HM Government of Gibraltar Ireland: Brendan Mac Namara, Principal Officer, Gambling Policy Division, Department of Justice and Equality of Ireland Isle of Man: Steve Brennan, Chief Executive, Gambling Supervision Commission Jersey: Jason Lane, Chief Executive, Jersey Gambling Commission Latvia: Signe Birne, Director of Lotteries and Gambling Supervisory Inspection of Latvia Malta: Heathcliff Farrugia, Chief Executive Officer, Malta Gaming Authority The Netherlands: Jan Suyver, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Netherlands Gambling Authority Norway: Henrik Nordal, Director Deputy General, Norwegian Gaming Authority Poland: Paweł Gruza, Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Finance Portugal: Teresa Monteiro, Vice-President of Turismo de Portugal, I.P Spain: Juan Espinosa García, CEO, Directorate General for Gambling Regulation Washington State: David Trujillo, Director, Washington State Gambling Commission UK: Neil McArthur, Chief Executive Officer, UK Gambling Commission
Please let this shit finally come to an end. Government intervention is literally the only way this lootbox bullshit can end.
At this point lootboxes are so widely vilified I genuinely believe it's only a matter of time before the problem fixes itself (not that this isn't a welcome addition). You already have companies going out of their way to say their unreleased games won't have lootboxes for extra brownie points. Even just the remote possibility of their games getting banned/restricted in a bunch of countries is going to make publishers far more hesitant of just shoving them in their games just because they can
Games seem to think they're somehow untouchable so it would be nice if somebody could take them down a peg.
If the industry doesn't police itself, there are outside forces - ones with far more legal power and far less patience than the common consumer - who are willing to do so. "Companies exist to make money", huh? Had that line parroted at me by one too many corporate fanboys throughout the years. Well, regulators exist to bitch-slap companies back into line.
As I saw it so aptly put, a decade ago we were outraged by horse armor. Now we're praising companies when they advertise that they "just" have horse armor in their game.
Fucking hell Denmark, get in the game!
i find it interesting that the only US Gambling Regulator is from the state Valve's headquarters are based in, was that on purpose or just pure coincidence?
The Washington Gambling Commission already has a history with Valve, hey at least Valve's lawyers have something to do now, must be the cushiest job on the planet
I still find it funny that they haven't done anything about this, but they got WoW's referral program blocked back in the day even though there was nothing bad about that one.
We are!
Vilified by adults. Kids do not give the slightest shit, and will happily spend whatever they can rather indiscriminately.
Holy shit, CZ is in there as well, did not expect this but I'm quite glad.
I see Poland finally does something good for once.
Woo Portugal!
I absolutely do not trust the EU to regulate this properly.
And this is a time I'm willing to step in for their own good. Kids gain absolutely nothing from these scams.
Didn't expect my country to do stuff about it ! Wow !
You're not wrong but the two things are not equal, one is selling overpriced content of questionable value (shitty but not necessarily unethical) the other is praying on gambling tendencies, even on children
If Belgium can do it properly so can the other countries. All of the legislations I've read about coming out of my country are a mess that miss the purpose except the gambling box thing.
Uh, now we're not. That article specifically states that our gambling-regulation does not consider loot-boxes gambling.
It's telling how the Government are quick to jump on Gaming when it means shifting the blame off themselves for shit mental health care, but when it comes to gambling, it takes them ages to give even the slightest of fucks, despite the mental health issues associated with gambling.
Europe has a very different mentality around the potential harmfulness than America, in that they base their assumptions wholly in reality, guided by the science of psychology.
Hopefully soon we can going to look back at microtransactions as a bad memory, because they've really dominated this era, for the worse. And then of course they'll bring DLC back in a big way, but honestly I don't mind, DLC has always been MILES more manageable than microtransactions
I'm not surprised to not see Germany on this list. Politics doesn't care about games here and half of the ones we do make are browser and mobile titles. (I'm not sure how much lootboxes they have, though. They mostly seem to be "wacky" and "raunchy" evolutions of browser war games with a nicer interface. Also a ton of smartphone casino apps, but I think that's already classed under normal gambling law. (Hopefully...)
Football(soccer) lootboxes are fucking huge in germany though, definitely one of if not the biggest consumer in europe of that specific type.
Where is my nanny state when you need it?
Gwan Ireland
This is a pretty good sign, there's none of the super duper corrupt Gambling commissions on the list, most of these regulatory bodies are pretty sound - the worst is Malta and even then they're nowhere near as bad as places like Antigua and Curaçao When I was in the industry I worked with a fair few of these organisations, and I'm interested to see how they will implement similar rules with video games For example, under most of these commissions you are required to be fully KYC verified once you have spent/won a certain amount on a gambling site. This includes sending photos of your ID document, masked copies of your payment document (credit card, Paypal Screenshot etc) and a valid proof of address. Which is so inconvenient for people that it might genuinely kill lootboxes dead in the water.
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