In 2018 several European countries investigated whether so-called "loot boxes" in certain video games, especially ones that are purchased with real money, could be considered a form of gambling and thus would violate the gambling and lottery laws of those countries.
The investigations arose primarily because of raising concerns that these "loot boxes" were potentially as addictive as other forms of gambling, especially for younger people, which is particularly bad when real money is involved in the purchase of these boxes. It was noted that they seemed to fulfill the definition of a "lottery" or "raffle" to an extent that falls under the definition and thus restrictions of the gambling/lottery laws:
- Each "box" is purchased with real money.
- The contents of the "box" are randomized rather than fixed.
- The customer does not see the contents of this randomized box prior to purchase.
- Some of the potential prizes that can be gotten from these boxes can be considered highly valuable. This is particularly bad if they in any way can be sold for real money.
Some countries, such as the Netherlands and Belgium, ended up banning these "loot boxes" as they were in 2018, and required changes to these video games. The loot boxes also came under heavy scrutiny in other countries, prompting the same pre-emptive changes to them.
On a rather different topic, several so-called collective card games (CCGs) sell so-called "booster packs", which are sealed packs containing randomized cards. And you probably know where this is going even if this is the first time you hear about them:
Yes, they fulfill the exact same definition of "lottery" or "raffle" as those loot boxes do: Customers purchase these booster packs for real money, their contents are randomized and sealed so that the customer cannot know what the packs contain before purchasing them, and some of the random cards that can be gotten from these packs can be incredibly valuable.
And not just "valuable" in terms of how strong they are in the card game, but literally in terms of real money: The second-hand market for collectible card games is strong, very well organized, and has existed for decades. And some of the cards can sell at these markets for as much as several hundreds of US dollars. There have been cards that sell for thousands of dollars.
Their situation is exactly the same as with the video game loot boxes: Their value might not be direct nor set by the manufacturer, but they do have real tangible monetary value and people can actually sell these valuable cards and get real money. In fact, many of these cards can be significantly more valuable than anything you could get in any "loot box" in a video game, even if there's a real world market for those things.
Yet, even in countries where video game loot boxes are banned, CCG booster packs are not. In countries where there's a huge amount of legal scrutiny about loot boxes, nobody is scrutinizing booster packs. Essentially, CCG booster packs get a free pass.
Why? I genuinely have no idea. There's a very clear legal double standard, and I have no idea why.
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