Video game loot boxes should be regulated as gambling and children barred from purchasing them, a House of Commons committee has advised.
The recommendation comes as part of the digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS) committee’s report on immersive and addictive technologies, published on Thursday after months of parliamentary hearings with technology and gaming companies.
Loot boxes, in-game rewards that offer a randomised selection of items to players who buy or earn them, should not be regulated if they are exclusively earned for in-game success, the committee says. But if they are purchased for real money, then, at the very least, the game should be marked as containing gambling and age-rated content accordingly, and the government should consider regulating the practice as a game of chance under the Gambling Act 2005, the report concludes.