ZeroLives.com serves cookies to personalize content, show advertisements and analyze traffic. Information about your use of this website may be shared with third parties.
More information
OK
person
Not logged in
Articles
home
Frontpage
Latest news
PC
Xbox
Playstation
Nintendo Switch
Virtual reality
Indie
star
Premium
inbox
Archive
Search
today
Calendar
Live
Contact
Others
Twitter
Facebook
No one likes ads. We know that. But ads help us pay the bills. sentiment_dissatisfied
Please whitelist us in your adblocker software so that we can continue to provide quality content.
Advertisement
You have already read articles for free
Do you enjoy our journalism? Read this article and everything else we've written without restrictions with premium.
star
Subscribe now
This free premium article is a gift from us.
Subscribe now
This website does not support Ad Blocker
Do you enjoy our journalism? Read this article and everything else we've written without advertisements with premium.

PUBG loot boxes disabled in the Netherlands and Belgium; considered gambling

Players in this region are no longer able to purchase loot box keys or use them

Raymond Bakker
by
Raymond Bakker
Sunday, February 3, 2019 | 16:51 GMT
2 min.

PUBG loot boxes disabled in the Netherlands and Belgium; considered gambling

Sunday, February 3, 2019 | 16:51 GMT
Raymond Bakker
by
Raymond Bakker


Paid PUBG loot boxes have been disabled for players in the Netherlands and Belgium this week. Reselling valuable loot box content is considered illegal under its gambling laws.

According to PUBG. Corp, a "recent legal interpretation" regarding loot boxes means the studio has disabled loot box key purchase and usage in the Netherlands and Belgium.

No one likes ads. We know that. But ads help us pay the bills. sentiment_dissatisfied
Please whitelist us in your adblocker software so that we can continue to provide quality content.
Advertisement

The Dutch Games of Chance authority, or Kansspelautoriteit, has investigated several popular games containing loot boxes in 2018 and considered many of these to be illegal. The titles investigated include PUBG, CSGO, FIFA 18, Dota 2, and Rocket League.

The authority started the investigation because it wanted to find out whether loot boxes in games encourage gambling addiction.

Are loot boxes in games gambling? The Dutch Games of Chance authority states that some of the loot boxes investigated are designed to make players feel like they almost won content.

When random loot box content is tradable there is almost always a certain monetary value associated with that content. This is why these countries consider paid loot boxes with random content gambling.

Last year, Valve also disabled CSGO loot boxes due to it being against the Dutch Betting and Gaming Act.

Continue reading?
Consider supporting our independent journalists by becoming a premium subscriber to get full access to all content and features.

Every contribution we receive goes directly into funding our journalism to ensure we can continue doing what we do best.
You have already read 3 free premium articles
Consider supporting our independent journalists by becoming a premium subscriber to get full access to all content and features.

Every contribution we receive goes directly into funding our journalism to ensure we can continue doing what we do best.
This was one of 3 premium articles we made available to you free of charge
You can still read premium articles for free. Consider supporting our independent journalists by becoming a subscriber.
You have read this entire article completely free of charge
Consider supporting our independent journalists by becoming a premium subscriber to get full access to all content and features.

Every contribution we receive goes directly into funding our journalism to ensure we can continue doing what we do best.
No one likes ads. We know that. But ads help us pay the bills. sentiment_dissatisfied
Please whitelist us in your adblocker software so that we can continue to provide quality content.
Advertisement
subject

Related video games news

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds
PUBG Corporation
Platforms
PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4
Release date
PC
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
assignment
Learn more
chat_bubble

Comments

What do you think?
Let us know how you reacted to this article

About the author

Raymond Bakker
Raymond Bakker
Editor and journalist at ZeroLives. He covers the latest video games news from indie to virtual reality and has been actively involved in the video games industry since the early 2000s.
bubble_chart

Read more about

An error has occurred

Do you want to receive notifications for breaking news?
Enable notifications
No spam. Just news.
Weekly newsletter
Stay updated with our weekly newsletter. The latest news in your e-mail inbox every Saturday.
done
Subscribe
close
No thanks!
Thank you for subscribing
close
Close