Path: ...!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: JAB 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 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 36 Message-ID: References: <0hf5nj9el3v2vijthtpe4m5460gf5aaq3l@4ax.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Injection-Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2024 21:53:30 +0100 (CET) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="2e9b12f56831d648346e04713dd796cc"; logging-data="1889123"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+2SK/kPVmFKrI64ve3ltIi" User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird Cancel-Lock: sha1:LNduBPg+OFaIUZ88NSjFicvgphg= In-Reply-To: <0hf5nj9el3v2vijthtpe4m5460gf5aaq3l@4ax.com> Content-Language: en-GB Bytes: 3265 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.