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If you haven’t been following the recent news on loot box regulations and legislation, several countries have begun cracking down on the feature, or are planning to. One country, Belgium, has taken a particularly tough stance on the practice, so much so that local gaming companies are speaking out.
The Flemish Gaming Association (FLEGA) has said (via GamesIndustry.biz) that the games industry is being “dragged through the mud” after the new legislation on loot boxes. Previously, Belgium essentially ruled that loot boxes in any form could be considered a form of gambling, under national law. Companies that fail to comply could face fines, or even prison sentences.
FLEGA spokesman David Verbruggen said of the new regulation, “I just don’t think it’s fair… The public perception now is that a lot of politicians and people think that every video game is some form of gambling, and that is not really what is happening.”
After the new regulations were passed, it remained unclear how widely the rules would be implemented. We’ve seen many big publishers, even Nintendo, halting sales of loot boxes in the region, or pulling games from sale entirely from their country. United States legislators are also clamoring to heavily regulate loot boxes.
“Framing is maybe too harsh a word, but it feels that way; it feels like we’re being framed,” Verbruggen added. “Then we’re asking ourselves, ‘Why?’ What does the commission want to achieve? Do they want more money for their operations? Do they want to fund the state treasure chest? It’s also about taxation. It’s about gambling licenses. It’s about money. You will have to pay the gambling commission to be able to continue to do paid loot boxes. I’m not talking about a moral dilemma here.”
The Belgian Game Commission (BGC) reportedly didn’t consult with FLEGA or developers prior to issuing the new rules.
“We found it really disturbing that they closed the door in front of us,” Verbruggen said. “When the report came out, we talked to the BGC and we said, as an industry we have to be responsible and have to maybe do more to help parents with these issues and protect minors, and we proposed a lot of things. They just said ‘no, we’re going ahead with prosecution anyway’.”
BGC director Peter Naessens followed up by claiming stakeholders were consulted, and that the report was presented to commission members who “unanimously” supported the measure. He also noted that instead of going ahead with immediate and standard prosecution, minister of justice Koen Geens has requested the commission negotiate with companies to remove loot boxes first.
“We did those negotiations on the demand of the minister of justice as well,” Naessens said. “Normally we should have drafted immediately a police report once we knew it concerned a contravention of the Gaming Act.”
To be clear, Belgian legislation defines gambling as an activity that meets four criteria: it has to be a game, it has to involve real-world money, there has to be a loss or a gain, and an element of chance.
Verbruggen noted that with the new regulations, even ordinary school raffles could be deemed illegal, and made the claim that loot boxes are a consumer protection issue, and not something that should fall under gambling law.
“I think that, as an industry, we should be responsible,” he continued. “We have to of course look and be careful, and not do unfair consumer practices. But we also have to stand up a bit more for ourselves. We’re an industry, we’re doing good things too, we’re making mistakes just like any other industry. But why do we always have to be the scapegoat.”
How do you feel about loot boxes, and regulation to end them? Sound off in the comments below!
