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From: JAB <noway@nochance.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Re: Just Another Necessary Reminder That Valve Promotes Underage
 Gambling
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2024 20:53:26 +0000
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On 30/12/2024 15:54, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> Legally, they are right on the edge. Valve skirts the law through
> loopholes, but they are neck-deep in the gambling industry and profit
> off it mightily.
> 
> But even disregarding the antics of the third-party websites, it's
> still gambling. The lootboxes they sell (yours only for $2.49USD on
> Steam) present you your goodies through a roulette-wheel aesthetic.
> It's purposefully designed to make you think you just might get the
> big-ticket item ("Oh, so close, instead of the super-ultra-rare hat,
> the ticker stopped 1mm to the right and landed on the completely
> worthless and common gun), encouraging people to try-try-again until
> you get the good stuff. This is a very obvious gambling mechanic.

There's quite a few European countries that have looked at this and the 
majority have all come to basically the same conclusion they may have a 
lot of the aspects of gambling they aren't technically gambling. Belgium 
was the exception to this.

The is some positive news though, Spain has a draft bill in progress 
that would ban lootboxes for minors and the EU has a draft report due 
looking to if not ban them then at least make them far more transparent 
and have better controls for consumers over them. The good thing about 
the EU is that do generally have a consumer friendly attitude and 
importantly have the clout that means companies literally can't afford 
to ignore* what they say.

*One of the ironies of Brexit and how it was going to free as from the 
'shackles' of the EU is that a lot of companies still have to 
effectively comply with EU regulations it's just that the UK no longer 
have a say in what those regulations are. A good example is vacuum 
cleaners (I kid you not) that have a limit placed on how powerful they 
can be. Not much point of manufacturing one if you can't sell it into 
the EU though. Oh and double irony, the owner of Dyson was a keen 
Brexiter and took advantage of the opportunities offered by it to move 
all their manufacturing to Malaysia.