Since the beginning of their existence, video games have always attracted concerns and criticism from parents, religious and political groups: among other things, they have been accused of accustoming children to violence, encouraging delinquency, and leading to social isolation. However, studies that have attempted to determine whether these concerns are justified have provided conflicting results.
In contrast, there are types of concerns that appear to have more credible confirmation in the scientific literature. There is a theory that playing video games whose mechanics are similar to gambling leads to the development of similar addictions, and interest in those types of games even outside of video games. This concern also concerns paid video games that are very popular with children and teenagers.
There are some video games that explicitly simulate gambling: on Roblox, an online gaming platform much loved by teenagers, for example, there are many games where you can spin a wheel to try to win prizes in exchange for virtual money.
However, in many cases, gambling is within the internal mechanics of the game that seem to have nothing to do with it.
This type of mechanism has been around for a long time, especially for “free-to-play” mobile games, that is, games that can be downloaded for free but require a small payment within the app to level up. In this case we are talking about “Gacha mechanics” (because they are inspired by Japanese toy capsule vending machines, ie gashapon). In video games based on this mechanism, players pay virtual currency – purchased with real money or earned by playing, often very slowly – to participate in random “draws,” called interestingand win prizes. For example, this is how the very popular Chinese video game Genshin Impact works.
This is an economic model based on the fact that a small percentage of players will develop a relationship of dependence on the game’s prize system and will spend large amounts of money – even thousands of euros – on draws. The fact that the outcome is random activates the same dopamine release mechanism that a person feels when he wins some money, even a small amount, on a slot machine. And just like slot machines, object extraction is accompanied by very satisfying sounds and graphics.
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For approximately ten years, paid video games have emerged which are very popular with children and teenagers, such as supervise, FIFA, call of duty, Apex Legends have started to introduce this type of mechanic. In this case we are not talking about Gacha but about “loot boxes”, “gift boxes” that players can buy with in-game currency or real money. The whole point of a “loot box” is that, until the moment it is opened, the player has no idea what he or she will find inside.
Gachas and loot boxes are very similar in terms of mechanics, but they are based on very different business models. Therefore, in the first case, in free games for smartphones, extraction is the main monetization mechanism: playing without ever spending money is often deliberately frustrating and slow, and sometimes impossible.
However, in the second case, in paid games for consoles and PC, it is quite possible to play with satisfaction without having to buy loot boxes. The companies that produce them often underline this by stating that loot boxes are not worth gambling because players are not required to purchase them to enjoy the game. However, in a context where many people buy them, not doing so still makes for a less than satisfying experience. «They are mechanisms explicitly designed to manipulate the player, although they may not affect the playability of the game», explains journalist Simone de Rochefort. “However, these conditions have completely normalized.”
In recent years, various researchers have explored this possible correlation, and observed that, indeed, players who tend to spend more money playing video games are also more likely to gamble. However, these studies repeatedly underscore that it is impossible to determine whether video games have “paved the way” to actual gambling or whether, simply, people who are more likely to develop gambling problems are also more likely to seek out such stimulation in video games.
But a few days ago, in a scientific journal International Gambling Studies a new Belgian study has been published that appears to suggest a greater cause-and-effect relationship. In this case, researchers interviewed the same group of hundreds of teenagers at two points, one year apart, asking them various questions about their video game and gambling habits. Thus, they showed that adolescents who a year earlier reported frequently playing video games featuring mechanics such as loot boxes were, a year later, more likely to have started using scratch cards and frequenting casinos.
In addition, in recent years an industry has developed in parallel with video games: that of “skin gambling”, where “skin” means virtual objects won by playing or opening loot boxes. These virtual objects can almost always be exchanged between players, and therefore initially a secondary market was born that brought together players who wanted to buy the rarest items, even for real money. Some virtual weapons have even been sold for tens of thousands of euros.
However, for some time, sites have also opened that allow you to gamble in exchange for skins: players put money on certain outcomes and, if they are lucky, they get the skin they want. If not, they can spend more money to try again. None of these sites are licensed by official gambling regulators, and almost none of them check the ages of their users.
Denmark has banned several skin gambling sites, and France and the Netherlands are considering doing the same. However, many other countries have introduced regulations regarding loot boxes and Gacha-style extraction, based on concerns that such regulations exploit the mechanisms and weaknesses of human psychology, support the development of problematic relationships with gambling, and expose users to significant economic losses.
Both Belgium and the Netherlands have determined that loot boxes “violate gambling laws” and make them illegal to purchase “with real money.” China has enacted laws forcing developers to publish information about the chances of winning loot boxes, stating the name, contents, amount and probability of extraction, and has banned the sale of loot boxes to children under 8 years of age. There are also similar obligations in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. In Australia, video games containing loot boxes that can be purchased for real money are not recommended for children under 15 years of age. and video games that simulate games such as poker or slot machines are prohibited for children under 18. At European level, fifteen gambling regulators have issued a joint statement highlighting the difficulty of distinguishing between gambling and specific video game mechanics. In Italy this topic has never been a subject of political discussion.
– Read also: The big contradiction of gambling in Italy
Mark Johnson, a game designer and researcher at the University of Sydney, told the ad A B C that agencies producing video games are very good at circumventing regulations: “depending on the country, sometimes you just have to change the name: you no longer call it a loot box, you call it something else, and you sell it.” In 2023 alone, the video game industry is expected to have a turnover of around 223 billion dollars worldwide: of this amount, around 125 billion was earned thanks to microtransactions and items purchased in games.
