Loot boxes are in the crosshairs of many governments including that of Spain In 2018 different regulators of gambling regulations from 15 European countries and the state of Washington USA have signed a joint declaration with one objective to begin to delimit ambiguity between gambling and other forms of digital entertainment
A problem that has not stopped and has caused a new sanction and in this case to Electronic Arts Blizzard already had to remove the loot boxes from its Overwatch and Heroes of the Storm game in Belgium
The creators of FIFA tried to rename these loot boxes to perpetuate this service to avoid these allegations of gambling
However it has not served them much in the Netherlands as the countrys gaming authority KSA has filed an administrative order subject to a penalty of up to 5 million euros to the video game studio
This measure comes after the district court in The Hague has agreed on Thursday to the KSA which had previously denounced that FIFA video games contained illegal loot boxes as the Dutch authority reported in a statement
Loot boxes are present in FIFA via the cards in its FIFA Ultimate Team mode which contain footballers who can improve the performance of player teams and are determined by chance
The fact that footballers sometimes have a high value and that they can sometimes be traded is a violation of the Gaming Act as the Netherlands betting authority has assured
Under Dutch law games of chance that allow you to win prizes or premium items including the FIFA loot boxes can only take place if they have been provided with a specific license
KSA has claimed to have asked video game companies to recall all loot boxes in the Netherlands after the publication of a study in 2018 that pointed out that loot boxes could cause addiction including Electronic Arts which did not respond to this petition
