It was only this morning that we reported on GTA V's Diamond Casino being unavailable in over 50 countries, presumably because of gambling restrictions in various territories, but now the topic of gambling in games has come up once more, with regards to lootboxes this time.
The practice has been widely discussed over the last few years, especially by government bodies, with various countries like Belgium choosing to crack down on the practice. In the UK, however, the gambling watchdog doesn't oversee the purchase of in-game content like lootboxes or FIFA packs, as reported by the BBC, because it doesn't fall under gambling legislation. They claim this is because there's no official way to monetise what's inside, despite unofficial sites allowing these to be used like real money, for example with CS:GO skins.
Speaking at the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport select committee, the Gambling Commission chief executive Neil McCarthur did say that there were "significant concerns" regarding children spending money on games, but reiterated that it doesn't classify as gambling in their eyes and in the legislation.
"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 said.
"We have said [to the video games industry], 'it's not enough to say we don't want this happening'," added Gambling Commission programme director Brad Enright when talking about these unofficial markets to gamble virtual items. "We've been robust and said, 'we can see you have T&Cs, what are you doing to apply them?'."
"Where we have drawn their attention to British consumers, including children, taking part in gambling, they have closed [skin betting sites] down," he added, but emphasises the responsibility of developers to crack down on this, like "Valve in the US".
The fight against lootboxes rages on then, but they still sit in a grey area for many that raises difficult questions for regulatory bodies. FIFA points have been removed from sale in Belgium, for example, and PES suffered the same fate in the country.
What do you make of this decision coming out of the UK?