Tag Archives: Gambling

For years, there has been controversy around CS:GO and its links to gambling, with many players often looking betting to win skins with high monetary value. This practice has been fuelled by a number of popular streamers over the years and with Valve seemingly unwilling to do anything about this …

Throughout closed alpha and beta tests, players have come away from Diablo Immortal with positive impressions. Interestingly, these pre-release versions did not include any microtransaction content, but it would appear that loot boxes will indeed be part of the game, leading to it being cancelled for the Netherlands and Belgium.  …

Earlier this week, the Dutch Gaming Authority announced plans to fine EA millions of dollars for its inclusion of “addictive gaming elements” in FIFA in The Netherlands. EA previously threw in the towel and removed the ability to buy FIFA points when it ran into this problem in Belgium, but …

The Dutch Gaming Authority has officially fined EA and demanded that the publisher remove “addictive gaming elements” from its FIFA games. As you would expect, this concerns FIFA Ultimate Team and the expensive card packs/loot boxes EA sells for that mode.  Over in The Netherlands, the Dutch Gaming Authority has …

The UK's Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has been investigating video game loot boxes for a while now, all in an attempt to figure out whether they should be considered as a form of gambling. There have been plenty of arguments on both sides of this debate and …

The idea of ‘gaming addiction' and loot boxes encouraging gambling behaviour has been a heavy topic of discussion for the last few years. The World Health Organisation and NHS already recognise Gaming Disorder as a mental health condition and now the NHS is specifically targeting loot boxes too.  NHS mental …

The ongoing loot box debate continued late last week when the UK’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee announced that it would be recommending that video game loot boxes be regulated under gambling laws. As you might imagine, the Entertainment Software Association isn’t too happy about this. The committee, which …

Over the last couple of years, there has been plenty of debate surrounding in-game loot boxes and whether or not they should be considered gambling. Investigations have been launched and politicians have gotten involved all across the world. While some countries took the view that loot boxes were fine, others …

Although Australia’s ECRC has already concluded that loot boxes are “psychologically akin to gambling”, a new report from the Australian Senate has called for further action. Just days after the FTC launches its own investigation in the US, pressure has mounted for the Australian government to follow suit following a …

Two weeks ago, Ireland was one of 16 countries to sign a declaration to keep loot boxes in check, investigating where the in-game practice steps over the blurred line of gambling laws. Despite this, and ongoing attempts to redefine gambling laws in the country, Department of Justice David Stanton has …

The loot box narrative continues, as French regulator ARJEL released its 2017-18 activity report. While it determined that loot boxes don’t legally pertain to gambling, the practice does warrant a closer look from the board, with ARJEL stating that Europe should form a combined consensus on the matter, rather than …

While EA helped popularise the debate over gambling in video games, the original title to bring forward the discussion was Valve with third-party gambling sites abusing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s trading system. It seems that history is repeating itself as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has its personal trading temporarily suspended on Windows PC …

Over the last six months, there has been no shortage of politicians and regulatory groups getting involved in the gaming space due to the controversy surrounding loot boxes. Last week, the Netherlands Gaming Authority released the results of a study that found that four out of ten loot boxes did …

Over the last six months, there has been no shortage of politicians and regulatory groups getting involved in the gaming space due to the controversy surrounding loot boxes. The Netherlands Gaming Authority recently conducted its own study of ten games featuring loot boxes, and while the majority of them were …

Following the announcement that Germany’s Youth Protection Commission is considering an outright ban on loot boxes, Sweden will potentially be classifying the practice as gambling by early 2019. The shift in categorisation would mean that any game to include loot boxes would be subject to much harsher regulations under Swedish …

While the United States jumped into the loot box foray last year, its only represented state was Hawaii thanks to representative, Chris Lee. It seems that Washington is now getting in on the action, as senator Kevin Ranker has introduced a bill to determine the connection between loot boxes and …

Update (22/11/17): After announcing that it would be launching an investigation last week, the Belgium Gaming Commission has announced that it now deems video game loot boxes as a form of gambling. Initially, the Belgium Gaming Commission was investigating the crates obtained in games like Overwatch and Star Wars Battlefront …

Previous UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Tracey Crouch has responded to Cambridge Labour MP Daniel Zeichner's two questions regarding the concern that loot boxes are a form of gambling.

Update 17/10/17: Conservative MP and former Culture, Media and Sport committee member, Tracey Crouch, has officially responded to Cambridge Labour MP, Daniel Zeichner's questions. Unfortunately, the government has yet to respond to Connor Rhys Deeley's ongoing petition which seems well on its way to achieving its 100,000-signature goal. Original story: Last week, game …

Gaming at the moment is facing a loot box epidemic, in that any and every other release seems to contain the randomised content crates, causing quite the controversy for many reasons. One of the most severe concerns was that these loot boxes could be considered gambling and are accessible to …

The FTC settles for a slap on the wrist and calls for more disclosure.

The first Youtuber to be sued for unlawfully promoting gambling websites to minors in their videos, is due in court next week. Craig “Nepenthez” Douglas, was charged with illegally promoting a lottery back in October 2016 and is now set to go to court on the 6th February to face …

Valve has announced that it will be cracking down on sites that allow people to gamble with their Team Fortress 2 game skins. It the short term it will be banning accounts associated with the sites, putting users at risk of losing items. In the future though, it may well look …

Although a lot of games involve some element of chance, pure luck-based item and money gambling is not something that developers want to encourage, especially when it's outside of their game. That's why Valve recently cracked down on CS:GO gambling and it's why CCP is doing the same for EVE …

Update: Earlier this week we learned that two YouTubers were charged with advertising unlawful gambling and inviting children to gamble here in the UK. At the time we didn't know which channels were affected by this or what game these two were leveraging to promote gambling to youngsters. However, now …

One of the world's largest Counter Strike: Global Offensive betting sites, CSGO Lounge, has announced that it is applying for an official gambling license, in order to legitimise itself. This comes after it received a cease and desist letter from Valve, as well as a lot of negative attention from …

Like a number of organisations in recent weeks, Twitch has made it quite clear that it doesn't want its streaming platform to support content creators that encourage Steam item gambling on sites like the recently infamous, CSGO Lotto. To back that up, it's now banned prominent streamer PhantomL0rd. “The community has …

Last night, Valve finally spoke out about all of the recent news surrounding the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive gambling scene. In short, Valve never made any money from it and the company does not support it and will begin taking action against sites using Steam's APIs to run a gambling business. Now, …

Update: Following revelations surrounding a pair of popular Youtube content creators and their underhanded involvement with a Counter Strike skin betting site, other Youtubers have now been caught up in the scandal, with some looking to hide their tracks. Josh Beaver, otherwise known as JoshOG, admitted in a recent stream …

While eSports is still growing here in the UK, over in  Korea it is taken quite seriously with many tournaments taking place in huge stadiums and players hitting celebrity status. However, as always there are those looking to game the system to make a profit, as eight people have been arrested in …