Australian Study finds Loot Boxes could lead to gambling addictions
Who would have thought that by actively purchasing Loot Boxes in games it could trigger a gambling addiction? This news comes via a new study done by the Australian Environment and Communications Reference Committee. They ended up surveying over 7,400 gamers. Yesterday those results were presented during a public hearing in Canberra . The Australian Senate was conducting a full-scale inquiry into micro-transactions and chance-based items. In games like Overwatch and PUBG, these Loot Boxes or crates contain skins for your character and other cool things.
Ultimately the ECRC's recommendations are that games that contain loot boxes be restricted to players of legal gambling age (18-years-old, in Australia). They also would require those games would warn players about the presence of Loot Boxes. You would also start to see parental advisories.
Yes, Loot Boxes can be addicting to buy but to link it to gambling is a serious serious thing. However, this can be seen as a form of gambling since you have no control over what items you receive it's all up to chance. The study also indicated that of course, those with a gambling addiction tend to spend more on Loot Boxes and other virtual micro-transactions.
Findings:
"These results support the position of academics who claim that loot boxes are psychologically akin to gambling," reads the submission.Spending large amounts of money on loot boxes was associated with problematic levels of spending on other forms of gambling. This is what one would expect if loot boxes psychologically constituted a form of gambling. It is not what one would expect if loot boxes were, instead, psychologically comparable to baseball cards."
The ultimate thing to keep in mind here is to really know your limits. Set a budget for how much you want to spend on Loot Boxes per month. If things start to get out of hand, or you find yourself in real financial trouble because of spending too much on these games its time to seek help.
