The Loot Box Bill Becomes Bi-Partisan

That loot-box banning bill has taken the next critical step forward toward becoming a law over the weekend, as two democratic senators -- Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Ed Markey of Massachusetts have officially co-sponsored the bill, making it a bi-partisan effort to protect your nations youth from predatory gambling mechanics. Im told.

Anyway, heres Josh Hawley, the republican author, on Twitter:

Its pretty simple. Video game companies shouldnt put casinos targeted at kids in their games. Proud of this bipartisan effort

While Richard and Ed had this to say to GamesIndustry.biz:

"Only the addiction economy could produce a business model that relies on placing a casino in the hands of every child in America with the goal of getting them desperately hooked I'm proud to introduce this landmark, bipartisan legislation to end to these exploitative practices.

"Today's digital entertainment ecosystem is an online gauntlet for children. Inherently manipulative game features that take advantage of kids and turn play time into pay time should be out of bounds."

As a reminder, this bill would make any pay-to-win and loot box style mechanics in games aimed at kids illegal, and punishable by a fine not just for the creator of the game, but for the distributor as well, which means Valve or Google Play, for example. It also outlaws selling time savers, where you can, for example, pay to skip over a timer. Not a bad idea in itself, but it becomes a bit tricky when you remember that this much government oversight is almost always a bad idea, and that the bills definition of a game that appeals to children is so incredibly broad and has no mention of the ESRB, which means it could theoretically apply to just about every game ever made.

Still, theres a long way to go before that happens. The bill has been referred now to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. With approval there, itll move on to the floor.

Its still anyones game.