Hawaii Pursuing Legal Action Against Loot Boxes Practices in Games
Chris Lee an American politician and a Democratic member of the Hawaii House of Representatives has released a press statement along with resident, gamers and other representatives where they state that the loot boxes in gaming is gambling and will release a legislation to prohibit game publishers from doing it.
In the statement, several speakers raised concern about the issue and some of them pointed towards EA’s Star Wars Battlefront 2 stating it as a dangerous and ethical practice. chris lee said that this system of loot boxes are Predatory Practices.
This Game is a star wars themed online casino designed to lure kids into spending money it’s a trap.
this is something we need to address to ensure that particularly kids who are underage who are not psychologically and emotionally mature enough to be able to gamble which is why gambling is prohibihted under 21 and are protected from being trapped into these cycles which have compelled many folks to spend thousand of dollars in gaming.
You can check out the highlight video from the press statement from Youtuber Chris Lee who has compiled all the important responses.
So what will they do what about them? Chris Lee state that they will be pursuing a legislation which will ban this practices an all games
“We’re looking at legislation this coming year, which could prohibit access – or prohibit the sale of games to people underage in order to protect families, as well as prohibiting different kinds of mechanisms in those games. We’ve been talking with several other states as well; legislators there who are looking at the same thing.
“I think it’s important these issues are addressed before this becomes the new norm for every game.”
Now with Hawaii classifying loot boxes as gambling and fighting against loot boxes mostly likely rest of the state in the US will start making laws which will make prohibit game the involvement of loot boxes in the game.
Belgian Government in Europe has already labeled loot boxes as gambling and have said that they will try to ban this practice in the whole of Europe and possibly pursue it globally.
UK government is also investigating loot boxes and most probably will also classify it gambling. this will have a wide effect on the gaming industry and may also affect big online games like, League of Legends, OverWatch, Dota 2 and CS: GO.