A legal move by state gambling provider WestLotto is causing a stir. It’s about lootboxes, where the lobby association game “sees no regulatory loopholes”.
The ongoing dispute over lootboxes is entering the next round. WestLotto, the state gambling provider in Germany, has submitted a draft law to regulate “gambling-like elements” in video games. The reason: The gambling monopoly lies with the state, so further providers need licences to be allowed on the market. Licences that EA SPORTS and Co. do not have.
Austria as a role model
What at first glance might seem like an attempt by an industry leader to protect its sales has already proved legally successful. In Austria, a court ruled in March this year on an identical basis to ban lootboxes. A ruling that was recently confirmed in the second instance.
In Germany, meanwhile, the USK caused a novelty by approving FC 24 as the first football simulation from EA SPORTS only from the age of 12. Explicit part of the reason: “pressure to act” in the course of “in-game purchases”.
But that is not enough for LottoWest’s press spokesman, Axel Weber. “Leading scientists from the field of addiction research are clear in their assessment: at the age of 12, the legislator still has to make special demands on its regulations for the protection of children and young people,” he tells “GamesWirtschaft”.
Clear expectations of “social responsibility “
For Weber, the lack of regulations for the younger target group is a sign of a lack of proportionality: “Basically, it is not understandable that gambling offers for adults have clear restrictions in gambling law and at the same time these restrictions do not apply to children and young people.” Accordingly, he demands the same rules for gambling and video games with loot boxes.
The press spokesman emphasises that WestLotto is “not fighting against lootboxes”, but outlines a clear expectation: “We demand that those responsible in the industry realise that not only money is earned with these product offers, but that they also have a special social responsibility. A responsibility that also includes “recognising risks and trying to minimise them”.
Lobby association sees “no regulatory loopholes “
If it were up to Felix Falk, managing director of the lobby association of the German games industry, “game”, the industry would already comply with these demands. For him, there are “no regulatory gaps on the subject of lootboxes”. Instead, it is much more the case that “in recent years, lootbox offers have often been adapted voluntarily and on the basis of community feedback”, he tells “GamesWirtschaft”. “This includes, for example, the indication of probabilities for certain contents or the showing of all items contained in the Lootbox even before the purchase.”
Falk is therefore “irritated” by WestLotto’s move, which in his opinion is acting in “a completely foreign subject area for this industry” – and not for the first time. According to the game managing director, the efforts of the gaming industry have been observed for years to push an “extraneous mixing of games and gambling” and to profit from it.
“But,” Falk concluded, “games have nothing in common with gambling offers and this also applies to the games industry as a whole. Just looking at the 500 or so companies in our association, in which not a single gambling company is represented, makes that clear. “
