Belgium officially bans loot boxes

Over six months after the loot box controversy began, the Belgium Gambling Commission had declared that loot boxes are indeed gambling, and ruled that three games were in direct violation of their gambling laws on April 26th 2018.

Summary
Though loot boxes were around long before Star Wars Battlefront II, it wasn't until the game received immense backlash for its chance based progression system via pay-to-win micro-transactions and paid loot boxes, with EA's attempts to damage control only fanning the flames.undefined Since then, many countries around the world have been investigating these predatory practises to determine whether or not they are considered gambling. Although Chris Lee's bills for loot box regulation failed to pass, The Netherlands made headway by declaring 4 out of 10 games with a certain type of loot box to be illegal under their gambling laws, more specifically the ones in which the items can be sold for real money.undefined

Belgium's Official Ruling
On April 26th, Belgium's Minister of Justice, Koen Geens, officially ruled that FIFA 18, CS:GO, and Overwatch had loot boxes which violated the country's gambling laws, and warned EA, Valve, and Activision Blizzard to remove them from these games within 8 weeks, or risk facing hefty fines, sales bans, or even prison time.undefined This essentially means that the Belgian government views predatory loot boxes as gambling, and therefore declared them illegal in the country. This ruling makes Belgium the first country in the world to outright ban loot boxes, while The Netherlands only banned some forms of loot boxes.

Reaction
Despite the ruling, EA still tries to defend loot boxes by disagreeing with Geen's statement that FIFA 18's Ultimate Team Card packs (the game's loot boxes) are considered gambling. Fortunately, no one bought this statement, saying that EA's opinion on the matter is irrelevant. For that matter, many have pointed out how EA even makes some of their loot boxes look very similar to Slot Machines in real casinos (like in Need For Speed: Payback) and all their previous failed attempts to justify loot boxes.

While government intervention was something that gamers ideally wanted to avoid seeing happen, many believe that the gaming industry had bought it upon themselves due to a refusal to self regulate. Many also saw this as good news because it means that greedy companies can no longer exploit the addictive tendencies in people, and even children as easily as they have been throughout 2017. It also means that governments are starting to crack down on predatory practises like this.

Potential Impact
With loot boxes banned in Belgium, the hope is that the rest of Europe will follow suit and apply similar enforcement, gradually spreading to the other continents. The inclusion of Overwatch in the ruling is of particular note because cosmetic loot boxes have been defended by some people due to not being important for progression, so the fact that they are also being banned means that even cosmetic loot boxes aren't safe.

Because of gamers' general hatred of paid loot boxes, their official banning in both The Netherlands and Belgium can be seen as a victory for gamers because although it is only a small step, it does mean that exploitative monetization is slowly but surely being stamped out, and it shows that the major game publishers who abuse the practise are not immune to gambling laws. In addition, the stigmatisation of loot boxes has caused developers and some publishers to step away from including them in their future games.

As of recently, Valve was forced to remove loot boxes from CS:GO by restricting customers in Belgium and The Netherlands from opening them, effectively eliminating the element of RNG. Meanwhile, the French and Australian governments continue their investigations into loot boxes, with the latter hoping to issue their report by September 17th 2018.

Activision Blizzard was also forced to remove the inclusion of loot boxes in Overwatch as well. Despite initially planning to fight the Belgian government to allow continued implementation of loot boxes, EA soon caved and removed the ability to buy FIFA coins in the country, making the Ultimate Team mode more akin to simulated gambling, though it isn't that much better.

Since Then...
Since the ruling, other nations have begun scrutinising loot boxes more than ever. The most prominent is the UK, in which government officials have been doing extensive investigations and research into video games with loot boxes in them, and even looked into updating their gambling laws in encompass virtual gambling and the psychological effects they have on young minds and vulnerable adults. A report released by the UK government in September 2019 stipulated that loot boxes  do  in fact have some psychological connections to gambling, while also calling out the games industry for their uncooperative responses, unwillingness to impose the appropriate age ratings to games with loot boxes in them, and of course their outright denial that loot boxes have any ties to gambling without showing any kind of counter-evidence to prove their case, and not just Belgium who spoke up against loot boxes, but also it's neighbor country from the north, the Netherlands joined the fight.

In October 2020, The Netherlands' gambling commission, the KSA, announced that they will be issuing a 10 million euro fine after declaring that the publisher's loot boxes do in fact violate the country's gambling laws. They intend to fine EA for the maximum 5 million euro fine, plus another 5 million in 500,000 euro installments as long as the publisher refuses to make the necessary changes to FIFA that comply with gambling laws in the country. EA continues to make flimsy excuses for their practises, all of which the KSA have shot down in their ruling, stating that public safety is more important that the company's reputation. If Holland succeeds, hopefully other, larger nations around the world will take notice and follow suit.

At the very least, the greedier game publishers will be required to obtain a gambling license if they want to keep loot boxes in their games (which will also require their games to carry the proper ratings), but seeing as EA outright removed the ability to buy loot boxes in Belgium (directly or otherwise), they will be more likely to see loot boxes as a financial liability instead of being subjected to the law, plus this has a high chance of causing loot boxes to disappear from gaming entirely, only if it gets to that point.

As of 2018, the Netherlands was the 20th largest video game market, with revenue of $646 million.

In June 2022, consumer groups from 18 European countries, including the Netherlands, supported a report about how gamers are exploited through loot boxes.