@Falko#1083 because it adds cost to entry for most markets (which makes creating new competing businesses harder), doesn't always do anything, is slow to react to changes in industries, and turns the government into a weapon larger corporations can use to stifle competition. Also the government is usually generally poor at doing much of anything and often regulations have a bad habit of having unintended collateral damage. In this example, for instance, why is it illegal? If a kid is playing these games and the parents let them, then its the parents fault for letting the kid gamble. If its an adult who is playing it, you have just declared that adults are apparently incapable of making wise decisions on their own not to buy these things and not to get addicted to gambling, which is basically saying "you are still just a kid, and the government is your parent".

In this instance... why is gambling not universally legal?

In general: i do not trust companies to not do shitty stuff if no one tells them not to do it.

ethics, some countries consider it a form of addiction, and legalising it would be letting them basically become crackheads

Well... yeah... its addicting... thats the point and that is the exact same thing that gets used to sell lootboxes

Bit i dont think its ethics... it just that people that have gambled away all their money do not pay taxes 😁

nah thats a reverse fact,

due to progressive taxes, low income people pay less tax money,

If they gamble all their money away, the big gambling emporiums with their larger taxes, would be paying way more

@I AM ERROR gambling legality is closely related to prostitution's legality. Its manly just for "moral" reasons.

also upper class people with a "not in my back yard" mentality

Normally I'm against giving the government more powr to control or regulate anything, but given the addictive nature of lootboxes and crates, I'm fine with this one concession.

Then again, I'm also against drugs being illegal, so I hate this 'middle ground' stuff we have going on where some substances are legal, but others are not.

It's like, either ban all drugs, or make them all legal.

Either ban gambling or don't.

keep in mind i am not in favor of more rules

im in favor of recognizing lootboxes as they are

gambling

and applying the rules of gambling to lootboxes too

aka no minors

Yeah, I get that argument, but then with that same logic you have to do the same thing to card packs, like in Magic the Gathering.

The argument *for* lootboxes up until this point has been "but you always get *something* for what you pay for, so it's not *really* gambling guys.
Even though it feeds off of the same risk-taking part of the brain *as* gambling... but it's totally **NOT** the same thing, guys!

hmmm

maybe kids should not be allowed to buy random card packs too

though i have to admit, it seems ok for card packs

i bought plenty of pokemon card packs myself

well not plenty, but enough

In an online game like Hearthstone, I would argue not, because of how easy and convenient they've made it to buy them. It's much easier to get 'hooked' onto opening card packs in an online game than in a brick-and-mortar store.

im just wondering if i can justify the difference between card packs and lootboxes..

even if they are digital card packs...

if i recall correctly the overall value of a card pack from pokemon is always the same, if you count cathegories

like

1 shiny, couple of energies and a couple of basic pokemon

oh and tech cards

Still really similar to lootboxes, only lootboxes typically have a variety of items, not just cards, but then that's really hair-splitting at that point.

its also possible im just biased in favour of collectable cards cause i didnt feel like it effected me so much

never had any experience with lootboxes as a kid

Before I knew what I was doing, I let myself spend $500 on Hearthstone...

Years ago.

And I don't even play that game anymore today.

500 is like my gaming budget for over a year lel

including components fyi

I don't have a particular budget, but yeah I definitely don't spent that much on a single game unless I've been playing it for years.