As we have been able to read in Eurogamer, is European Forum for Gambling Regulators (bet or bets) 2018which includes signatories from the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Spain and the United States (through the Washington State Gambling Commission) is an anti-bot boxing and third-party betting site.
They will certainly end up with “third-party unlicensed sites that offer illegal azar games linked to the most popular video games.” An example that can be given is betting sites where you get Skins for CS: GO or similar.
In addition, he also stated that gaming providers must “guarantee that the features of the games, such as button boxes, do not constitute betting or gambling under national law.” This suggests that more countries will now investigate whether loot boxes or button boxes can be classified as azar games.
This fight is promoted for the protection of consumers and the safety of children on the network. Neil McArthur, executive director of the United Kingdom’s Azar Games Commission, says regulators “want fathers to be aware of the risks and talk to their children about how to stay safe.”
“Unlicensed sites that offer skin betting can show up at any time, and kids can play with money for computer game products,” McArthur said. “We urge video game companies working with their gaming regulators to take action now to address these concerns and ensure that consumers, and especially children, are protected.”
Although no solid action has been taken, international efforts mark an important change in the debate on the regulation of bottle cages.. The measure comes after the ban on button boxes in several European countries, including Belgium and the Netherlands, indicating that it will increase the pressure on editors to continue to include these systems in their games.
My opinion
At the moment, nothing is clear, although these movements towards “bottle-cajitas” are quite hopeful. In addition, we now see that there are countries that are interested in this topic that were previously completely disillusioned. What we need to keep clear is that if the button fields disappear in the future, another system that is similar or worse, with what editors can monetize, will get into.
Another view I have is that these initiatives are not against P2Wsimply sold by consumers and specifically by kids who make money on Skins on third-party sites and within the same games so they can create additions. It is clear that this is a very serious problem, but it does not affect anything in the validity of the titles in if and that parents will be the ones to regulate these purchases inside and outside the games.
On the other hand, I hope these rules affect full-time P2W, which suffers players from MMORPGs and returns paid subscriptions or a similar system that does not affect justice.