Belgium’s Gaming Commission has ruled that the practice of offering blind boxes in games is gambling, and it wants to escalate the matter to the EU.
Last week, Belgium’s gambling authority, the Gaming Commission, said it would investigate whether loot boxes in games like Overwatch, Star Wars: Battlefront 2 etc. can be considered gambling.
The regulatory body decided to look into it because of the associated element of chance that come with opening loot boxes. Now, the commission has said that “the mixing of money and addiction is gambling,” according to the Google translated version.
VTM News (via PCGamer) reports that Belgium’s Minister of Justice Koen Geens added that “mixing gambling and gaming, especially at a young age, is dangerous for the mental health of the child.”
Geens wants similar purchases to be removed from games, specifically because you don’t know what you’re getting in advance. He wants to take the matter to the EU to try and get loot boxes banned from Europe, but said that it will take time.