Loot Boxes Aren't Gambling in the UK

Recently, EA made news by having their VP of legal and government affairs Kerry Hopkins, go in front of UK parliament and make the rather hilarious claim that they don’t’ have ‘loot boxes’ – they have ‘surprise mechanics’, which are ‘quite ethical’. While it was the flames that forged some mighty fine memes, what was often missed was the context: specifically, that the interviews were about the UK’s gambling commission trying to determine if loot boxes constituted gambling or not, and if they should be regulated under those laws.

Well, the results came in. And the results won’t be surprising from a government that thought Brexit was promoting Boris Jonson to Prime Minister was a good idea: they think loot boxes are a-okay.

The news was announced by Gambling Commission chief executive Neil McCarthur, who said that while there are “significant concerns” about an in-game mechanic that uses elements of chance, they didn’t fit under the current definition of “Gambling” in UK law because what’s won in these packs have no intended financial value.
 

"There are other examples of things that look and feel like gambling that legislation tells you are not - [such as] some prize competitions but because they have free play or free entry they are not gambling... but they are a lot like a lottery.”

He did acknowledge that these games, FIFA in particular, did create secondary markets where people could use what they won in loot boxes to make money, but he made it clear that while it was EA’s responsibility to try to clean up those sites, it was not their responsibility to change how their games run in order to deter that kind of behavior.

A part of me is disappointed at that ruling, because it means EA gets away with their bullcrap, but another part of me is relieved because it means less intervention from a government, which tends to be bad for media like gaming. So for now, we’ll just say “that’s a thing” and move on.