Children that play video games are being exposed to harmful gambling like mechanisms, due to ineffective regulations, experts warn.
Photo: Kristofer Andersson
Joseph Skillicorn and Kristofer Andersson
In recent years, with a rise in availability for players to purchase video games digitally, developers have seized the opportunity to monetise games by exploiting children through casino like psychological tactics and mechanisms.
Game developers use several interactive design features to entice players, one of which being the use of dark patterns.
Dark patterns are design strategies implemented into a game by a developer to gain more control over the player, and, as a result, influence player behaviour. Loot boxes are one of the most popular forms of a ‘dark pattern’. A type of mystery box to be opened by a player, they contain random items and prizes and are often opened with virtual currency the player has gained through their in-game performance. While these items can now be seen in some of the most popular titles, such as EA FC 25 and Counterstrike, experts are wary of their implementation.
“They’re not really there to make the game better, per se. They are only there to generate money for the company”, says Rune Mentzoni, professor and clinical psychologist from the University of Bergen.
Upon the opening of a loot box, players are greeted with bright colours, striking animations and charming audio, as the box bursts open revealing the randomized contents inside. While it may sound fairly innocuous, Mentzoni draws parallels to one of a casino’s most iconic attractions.
“The gambling product that most resembles loot boxes would be slot machines. It’s magic. Symbols flying everywhere, the lights and the sounds, and then you get the result”, he says.
“For slot machine players, it doesn’t really matter what the outcome is at the end, the important thing psycho physiologically, is this anticipation period when the wheels are spinning and you’re waiting for the outcome. So, you feel like you’re always winning and you’re always getting what you want, because the exciting face of it is the is the draw, not the outcome”, he concludes.
Yet, this anticipatory thrill is also a common feeling children experience when opening a loot boxes, such as in the EA Sports FC game franchise.
Formally known as FIFA, and of the world’s most popular video games, it rakes in millions of pounds annually from around the globe, mainly through its ‘Ultimate team’ feature, where players are encouraged to build a dream team by opening virtual player packs with virtual coins earned from gameplay, or points bought with real money. Real life footballers are rated on a scale between 29-99, the latter being the highest rating. Yet, while a gamer knows the minimum and maximum player rating they can receive when opening a given pack, the player contents within are randomised. But are they?
For research purposes, Mentzoni spent 30,000 NOK, around £2,100, opening packs in the hope of gaining an insight into just how randomised the items were, including algorithms and probabilities. While he was ultimately unable to do so, Thomas Iverson, chief consumer rights advisor at the Norwegian Consumer Council, isn’t convinced of the legitimacy.
“All that we can say is that it’s not completely random. We are also thinking that some influencers with a huge follower bases who are doing let’s plays, they get very good results from some loot boxes on a suspiciously regular basis, and they are extremely good at celebrating”.
In the world of social media, influencer gamers garner millions of viewers from all over the world. When asked if streamers were complicit, Iverson said “completely”, noting that many live streams from some of the biggest influencers are ‘rigged’, as the items they receive from loot boxes pertaining to the probabilities, “doesn’t add up”.
PEGI age rating system “absurd”
PEGI, the self-regulating age verification system, was founded in 2003 by Video Games Europe. It’s bright neon stamp in the corner of a game case will be familiar to any gamer, and while developers are not required by law to have the mark on the cover of a game, most distributing platforms demand it. Video Games Europe emphasise the importance of the industry’s commitment to protecting minors- but how effective is the system?
“It’s really not that effective. It’s just simple yes or no questions, and as soon as you answer yes, you have found the correct age level. It’s basically a way for the industry to stop governmental regulation”, says Ulf Wilhelmsson, an associate professor at the school of informatics, division of game development at the University of Skövde, Sweden.
Mentzoni adds, “FIFA has a PEGI rating of three years old, which to me, is just an example of how absurd this PEGI system is sometimes, because it doesn’t take into account the economical system of the game at all and doesn’t take into account that you’re constantly being bombarded with advertisement to buy products within the game”.
Despite repeated attempts to speak with Video Games Europe regarding the PEGI system, they are yet to provide a response.
Multiple risk factors
Mentzoni, of whom also leads the Gambling and Gaming research centre at the University of Bergen, notes that gamers from lower socio-economic backgrounds, higher impulsivity, suffering from poor mental health, anxiety, depression and being male, are all risk factors associated with increased sensitivity to dark patterns and loot boxes, and further down the line, problem gambling.
Additionally, Mentzoni also notes that students are at a high risk of being manipulated by these mechanisms in games, alike traditional gambling, due to increased leisure time and fewer financial responsibilities with no monitoring of how their money is being spent. However, it is children, due to their lack of cognitive development, that remain the highest risk.
“Children are more driven by their emotions, so they react more strongly to rewards than adults do, and have much poorer impulse control”, says Per Bore, researcher on gaming disorder at the University of Lund.
“The prefrontal cortex that controls our actions and thoughts is not developed”.
Nearly a third of young gamers in UK have paid to open loot boxes, amplifying the widespread use of a mechanism related to traditional gambling.
Industry withholding data
Despite major concerns from leading experts, current regulations appear to be failing to have the desired effects. In many cases, developers within the industry withhold information from researchers to prevent progress on further understanding the link between gaming and gambling, according to Leon Xiao, a leading expert on loot box regulation and now a professor at the University of Hong Kong.
“We do need good data to do good research, and the good data, or really the true data, is held by the industry, but they have refused repeatedly and for a long time now, to share that data. If the industry does not provide the data, it makes it hard to take their side, in the sense that if you don’t help to create good research, you can’t say that the research is not good enough. You could have helped, but you didn’t, right?”
Yet, why is the industry reluctant to share their information and data?
Iverson says, “They are withholding information because they are afraid of people looking too closely at their business practices”.
However, not everyone agrees. While Ulf Wilhelmsson, of whom is part of one of the largest and broadest game education hubs in the world at Skövde recognises the gaming industry’s responsibilities, he questions the efficiency of transparency.
“Why should you share that [data] if you can’t earn money from it? What will they do with the consumer data? That’s the big question, I think. How will they use it? What will they try to pursue with the data”?
However, gatekept research isn’t the only issue that Xiao sees. As the focus on loot box regulation gains more and more attention from mainstream media, some outlets are not digging deep enough to report findings in an accurate manner.
“One unfortunate thing in this context is there’s been a lot of misinformation that’s been spread through the media. In a lot of cases, and we’re looking at some of the biggest media sites, or the BBC included, just setting out with the regulatory position in other countries being corrected, and I think that misinforms the public and possibly creates confusion”, says Xiao.
If new regulations were to come in, developers may need to change their methods in their bid to continue reeling in huge profits. However, Xiao doesn’t think this would be a cause for concern for them.
“Even if a country decides to ban loot boxes entirely, I am not convinced that necessarily stifles innovation in some ways. One might even say that encourages innovation in that if one monetization method is removed, people will be more incentivized to come up with other monetisation mechanics”, he says.
Game developers continue to haul in huge profits, with the European games market projected to reach £62.9b in revenue in 2025, according to Statista market research from January 2025. Yet, children continue to be exploited.
“The industry as well has a responsibility, and their greed and their enticement of the children to spend more to keep the fashion wheel turning very fast— that’s also an ingrained problem”, says Iverson.
But should parents bear some responsibility too?
Theo Thoresson is a psychologist who works with children at Save The Save the Children Fund, with a focus on gaming and gambling, and believes it is important for parents to understand the games their children are playing.
“Parents also have a responsibility to educate themselves and to use parental control features to actually keep track of what their children are doing online, talk to their children, and in that I also think it includes actually taking an interest in the game itself”, he says.
“It’s so incredibly tricky to legislate around this now, because it’s quite simply, a scale, where it goes from quite harmless to very similar to online casino.”
“This regulation needs to take place at a higher level- I have no idea how long it will take”, he concludes.
Regarding regulations, we are currently in contact with the European Commission and thus hope to have a comment in the near future.
About the data
Ipsos carried out a survey in 2024 for the Gambling Commission in Great Britain, looking at how young people understand and use in-game items. It asked about their awareness and experience with things like paying for in-game items, loot boxes, and betting within games. The survey included 3,869 students from Years 7 to 12 (or S1 to S5 in Scotland), mostly aged 11 to 17. The results were adjusted to reflect the wider population of secondary school students across England, Scotland, and Wales.