The danger of video games with gambling inside

Some countries have begun in recent months a mobilization that can end in legislative measures that affect videogames with micropayments within the game(in-game) with a random component. This "chance" factor refers mainly to loot boxes and envelopes that the player buys with money from the game he has obtained playing or buying with real money and whose content can be merely aesthetic or object that allows him to play with an advantage over the other players. The content of these boxes or envelopes is random and the player does not know what it contains until he pays and opens it, and this is where the element that worries some legislators lies since these games are available to minors and that mechanics that It works like a lottery or a slot machine can become addictive.

Belgium has been working since February for the content of some videogames to be considered gambling in Europe and, therefore, must comply with the corresponding legislation that would equate them to casinos and betting rooms, and the Dutch Gaming Authority reached the conclusion in May of that these characteristics of those games "in terms of design and mechanism, are comparable to slot machines."

Different response in each country

Either because the buyers felt the unstoppable advance of the loot boxes or because the companies had gone out of hand when implementing this mechanism, a growing malaise arose in the community of players and alarms jumped in some countries to know how it worked the mechanism. In the United States, the ESRB, the entity that marks the age classification of the games, will include a label on micropayments and will take this detail into account when marking the minimum age for each title. China has decided to force companies to indicate in games such as DotA or League of Legends the probability that the player gets the item they want in a box trusting that they buy them rationally, while in the United Kingdom the Betting Commission he established that loot boxes are not games of chance since its legislation establishes that in order to have such consideration it should be possible to convert the object obtained in the box into real money.

How ludopathy boxes and envelopes can enhance

But why do rulers care about the boxes and envelopes of a video game? One of the reasons is because gambling in video games is taxed differently, and another because minors would have access to them, although part of these games is not recommended according to the European PEGI code for children under 12, 16 or even 18 years old. This code, which appears in the boxes of all games, does not indicate the difficulty of the game like the puzzles, but the minimum recommended the age of the players taking into account the content of the game.

Supervise the best game to avoid scares

How can parents prevent their children from focusing on these random purchase micropayments? Sanz gives some guidelines: The first thing is to tell the boys that they can't spend real money, and the second, talk to them so that they turn their game into something rational. There are many boys who make inappropriate use of the games, but very few are going to need professional help. The most important thing is for the parents to talk with them, to find out everything, even what the videogames are about.