Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Why loot boxes could be regulated as gambling

Nature Human Behaviour volume 4, pages 986–988 (2020)Cite this article

Subjects

An Author Correction to this article was published on 11 August 2020

This article has been updated

Do purchasable randomised reward mechanisms in video games (loot boxes) constitute gambling? Opinions often rest on whether virtual items obtained from loot boxes have real-world value. Using market data from real transactions, we show that virtual items have real-world monetary value and therefore could be regulated under existing gambling legislation.

Loot boxes—digital containers of randomised virtual items (Box 1) included in some video games, often purchased for real-world money—bear striking similarities to conventional forms of gambling1. An examination of psychological features of loot boxes in personal computer (PC) and console games released in 2016–2017 revealed that almost 50% of reviewed loot box systems were psychologically akin to conventional gambling activities1. Perhaps because of this, problem gamblers spend more on these mechanisms than non-problem gamblers2,3. Thus, policymakers are debating whether loot boxes require regulation as bona fide gambling. Some countries have already enacted legislation4.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: The relationship between gamers’ spending on video games and virtual items contained within video games.

Data availability

The Steam Market data are available at https://osf.io/8xmrt/ and the survey data are available at https://osf.io/2jgph/.

Change history

References

  1. Drummond, A. & Sauer, J. D. Nat. Hum. Behav. 2, 530–532 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Zendle, D. & Cairns, P. PLoS One 14, e0213194 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Li, W., Mills, D. & Nower, L. Addict. Behav. 97, 27–34 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. McCaffrey, M. Bus. Horiz. 62, 483–495 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. IGEA. Gaming micro-transactions for chance-based items. Submission to the Senate Environment and Communications References Committee https://igea.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Interactive-Games-and-Entertainment-Association-IGEA-Gaming-micro-transactions-for-chance-based-items.pdf (2018).

  6. King, D. & Delfabbro, P. Addiction 114, 1324–1325 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. UK Gambling Commission. Loot boxes within video games. Gambling Commission https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/news-action-and-statistics/news/2017/Loot-boxes-within-video-games.aspx (2017).

  8. Rutherford, D. Routledge Dictionary of Economics (Routledge, 2013).

  9. Chen, N., Elmachtoub, A. N., Hamilton, M. and Lei, X. Preprint at SSRN https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3430125 (2019).

  10. Rose, I. N. Gaming Res. Rev. J. 11, 1–14 https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/grrj/vol11/iss1/5/ (2007).

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Marsden Fund Council from Government funding, managed by Royal Society Te Apārangi New Zealand; MAU1804 awarded to A.D. and J.D.S. The funders had no role in study design, data analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript. We thank C. Ferguson for comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand

    Aaron Drummond, Lauren C. Hall & Malcolm R. Loudon

  2. International Media Psychology Laboratory, Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand

    Aaron Drummond, James D. Sauer & Lauren C. Hall

  3. Department of Psychology, School of Medicine, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

    James D. Sauer

  4. Department of Computer Science, University of York, York, UK

    David Zendle

Authors
  1. Aaron Drummond
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. James D. Sauer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Lauren C. Hall
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. David Zendle
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Malcolm R. Loudon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aaron Drummond.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Methods, Supplementary References.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Drummond, A., Sauer, J.D., Hall, L.C. et al. Why loot boxes could be regulated as gambling. Nat Hum Behav 4, 986–988 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0900-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0900-3

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing