Valve disables item trading for CS:GO, DOTA 2 in Netherlands to comply with loot box rules

[midian182]

Recap: Loot boxes might not be hitting the headlines as much as they were in the wake of Star Wars Battlefront 2’s release last year, but that doesn’t mean authorities have forgotten about them. In the Netherlands, players of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2 have discovered they can no longer trade game items via the Steam marketplace, a result of Valve’s attempts to comply with the country’s gaming authority rules on loot boxes.

The message from Valve that appears to players of both games in a Steam pop-up reads:

In May, we received two letters from the Dutch Kansspelautoriteit, stating that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2 contain ‘loot boxes’ that violate the Dutch Betting and Gaming Act. The Kansspelautoriteit accusation is different from how other countries think about loot boxes, so we hired Dutch legal counsel, looked at the recent Study into Loot Boxes published by the Kansspelautoriteit, and learned more about Dutch law. We still don’t understand or agree with the Kansspelautoriteit’s legal conclusion, and we’ve responded to explain more about CS: GO and Dota 2.

Valve added that the gaming authority threatened to prosecute the company if it didn’t implement a solution by June 20. As the Dutch study states that “loot boxes do not contravene the law if the in-game goods from the loot boxes are not transferable,” Valve decided to disable trading and Steam Marketplace transfers for CS:GO and Dota 2 items for Dutch customers.

Last April, the Dutch gaming authority looked into loot boxes in 10 titles and concluded that 4 of them violated its Betting and Gaming Act. It said that as these prizes could be traded outside of the games, they had market value. While it didn’t name them, the country’s media revealed that the guilty parties were FIFA 18, Dota 2, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Rocket League.

The authority gave developers eight weeks to fix their loot boxes. If nothing changes, it has the power to hand out fines or prohibit the sale of the games.

“The Netherlands Gaming Authority therefore calls on providers of this type of loot box to remove the addiction-sensitive elements (‘almost winning’ effects, visual effects, ability to keep opening loot boxes quickly one after the other and suchlike) from the games and to implement measures to exclude vulnerable groups or to demonstrate that the loot boxes on offer are harmless,” the group said.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/75182-vavle-disables-item-trading-cg-go-dota-2.html

 

[TopTop18]

The criteria that the Dutch kansspelautoriteit sets to determine if a loot box system is gambling is twofold:
1.) Contents of the loot box is random
2.) Contents of the loot box can be traded outside of the game, eg, the items have economic value
Personally I believe that the criteria of economic value is quite a good one to determine if it its gambling or not, even though it disables parts of games now. However, this discussion is from the PoV from a gambling authority, and doesn't really relate to the effects of lootboxes in gaming in general.

 

[Peter Farkas]

I welcome these changes, even if it sounds a bit too strict at first. Kids should never be allowed to gamble and get addicted to gambling. Even at the cost of blocking legit in-game trading sometimes. This is a new order that will settle in a few years and it is definitely the right direction.

EA, as the most evil corporation on the planet, showed their lack of ethics by introducing loot boxes (gambling) in games for kids just to earn more and to be able to pay more dividend to their shareholders. Shame on EA.
It is companies like EA that should stand up against gambling for kids the most, instead of inventing smarter ways with no ethics to make more Dollah....

 

[TopTop18]

I welcome these changes, even if it sounds a bit too strict at first. Kids should never be allowed to gamble and get addicted to gambling. Even at the cost of blocking legit in-game trading sometimes. This is a new order that will settle in a few years and it is definitely the right direction.

EA, as the most evil corporation on the planet, showed their lack of ethics by introducing loot boxes (gambling) in games for kids just to earn more and to be able to pay more dividend to their shareholders. Shame on EA.
It is companies like EA that should stand up against gambling for kids the most, instead of inventing smarter ways with no ethics to make more Dollah....

Only thing is that most EA games don't have a cash-out or trading mechanic, so doesn't fall under this legislation
The real battle for what we think is acceptable for lootboxes is still ongoing, this is only about what is considered gambling under current legislation, nothing specific to lootboxes or games.

 

[Danny101]

How does trading meet the gambling standard? As long as items can't be converted to cash, trading them shouldn't be a problem. Unless I'm missing something.

 

[Evernessince]

The criteria that the Dutch kansspelautoriteit sets to determine if a loot box system is gambling is twofold:
1.) Contents of the loot box is random
2.) Contents of the loot box can be traded outside of the game, eg, the items have economic value
Personally I believe that the criteria of economic value is quite a good one to determine if it its gambling or not, even though it disables parts of games now. However, this discussion is from the PoV from a gambling authority, and doesn't really relate to the effects of lootboxes in gaming in general.

That's kind of funny, giving all trading card games fit those criteria perfectly. The boost packs are random and they are made to be traded outside the game.a

I'm not a fan of banning lootboxes but I would support transparency laws that would require companies to give odds of winning.