From Motherboard
You can gamble in the Netherlands, but it’s an activity that strictly regulated by an independent government agency called De Kansspelautoriteit. In English, its The Gaming Authority, and since 2012 it's regulated games of chance in the Netherlands. The Authority just published a study it did of 10 video games that reward players with loot boxes, packages players can sometimes buy with real money that contain random in-game rewards, and found that 4 of the 10 games it studied violated the Dutch Gaming Act.Read more: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/43b8bb/dutch-study-finds-some-video-game-loot-boxes-broke-the-lawIt determined that loot boxes are, in general, addictive and that four of the games allowed players to trade items they’d won outside of the game, which means they’ve got a market value.
“Offering this type of game of chance to Dutch players without a license is prohibited,” an English translation of the Gaming Authority’s press release said. “Moreover, the analyses that are currently available indicate that all of the loot boxes that were studied could be addictive.”
Personally I hate loot boxes in games and find that it feels like training for playing slot machines. The slot machine gambling feel and games targeted to kids gives me the creeps and I say this as an adult gambler. The other side of the coin is that I get to enjoy many games completely for free these days. I just made a personal vow to never pay them anything for stupid loot boxes or skins.
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