GambleAware targets loot boxes in new research project
Charity to investigate relationship between gambling and online gaming
Safer gambling charity GambleAware has commissioned a new research project to shine a spotlight on the relationship between gambling and online gaming, with a particular focus on loot boxes.
The project will scrutinise the relationship between a player’s mental health wellbeing and the purchase of loot boxes during gaming.
The research will also explore the psychological profiles of those who buy loot boxes, their motivations for purchasing, and any potential harms they may experience.
The project will be led by Dr Joanne Lloyd of the University of Wolverhampton and Dr Helen Lloyd and Dr James Close of the University of Plymouth.
GambleAware interim director of research Alison Clare said the connection between gambling and gaming is something the charity is “keen to understand better”.
“This project should help us understand more about the similarities and differences between gambling-related harms and any harms emerging from chance-based elements in games,” said Clare.
The project is due to complete in June 2021.
The relationship between loot boxes and gambling has featured prominently across the industry over the last 12-18 months, both in the UK and in Europe.
In September 2018, the UK Gambling Commission signed a cooperation agreement aimed at examining the blurred line between gambling and gaming, along with 17 other international gaming regulators.
In July 2019, UK digital minister Margot James told a parliamentary inquiry into so-called addictive technologies that there was “not enough evidence available” to suggest that loot boxes in video games are a form of gambling.
During the recent UK general election, the Conservatives pledged to review the UK Gambling Act with a special focus on tackling credit card-based gambling and loot boxes.
The UKGC this week confirmed it would ban credit card use for online gambling from 14 April.