Are our kids becoming fair game for companies skirting the greyer areas of gambling law?

A PS5 for just $20? How about a dream holiday in Japan for a similar amount? These are just some of the prizes on offer in a Sydney shopping mall’s vending machine, sitting innocently alongside the juice bars and clothes shops of the everyday family retail experience.

Lucky Box’s large screen and bright yellow frontage is designed to attract attention, but some say it is drawing in kids and tempting them to part with that 20 for the chance to win big. And if that is the case, is that not gambling?

The UK-based Guardian newspaper recently ran a story highlighting the ‘murky’ world of prize-box gambling in Australia.

After all, it doesn’t take a genius to assume the odds of actually winning Sony’s latest console are pretty slim and that you are much more likely to, in the experience of the Guardian Australia, spit out a “fake crystal called a ‘rainbow catcher’.”

But with the machine as easily accessible to minors just walking around this public space, do we just accept that kids know and understand the chances of that PlayStation, or UFC tickets are slim, in the same way as the majority of adults probably would?

It’s hard to accept that that could be the case. The small print on the Lucky Box machine says there are no guarantees of what prizes there are, or that the prizes advertised are always contained in the boxes the machine throws out, and that is problematic, as there is no regulation required, because the machines do not sit in licensed premises.

While Lucky Box is a physical attraction, kids have been subjected to Loot Boxes in video games for years with countries such as the Netherlands seeking to control their proliferation to children for nigh on a decade.

Children (my own included) regularly ask to spend real money on player “packs” in games such as EA FC (formerly FIFA) in the hope of landing a prized player such as a Ronaldo or Messi for their team. For every Messi, however, there is a plethora of the mediocre (insert any Manchester United player here). I have watched my 13-year-old spend £25 of birthday money on packs, click through them in under two minutes, get absolutely nobody worth having, and dispense with all the players that mean nothing to him, trading them out for a small amount of in-game currency, and, more concerningly, not be disappointed at the result, just put it down to ‘that’s how it works’.

The thrill is in the chance, and you get more of that chance by paying money, and then more money. That, says the Dutch, and increasingly more observers, is gambling and that should not be accessible to children.

Regulation and law are never quite that simple. Electronic Arts (makers of EA FC) defended its packs back in 2019, shortly before a ban in Belgium came into place, and when the game was still known as FIFA). A vice president of games told the BBC, “We do think the way that we have implemented these kinds of mechanics – and Fifa of course is our big one, our Fifa Ultimate Team and our packs – is actually quite ethical and quite fun, quite enjoyable to people.”

The Dutch followed suit with Belgium’s ban on Loot Boxes, but the ruling was eventually overturned in 2022, with judges deciding that the packs constituted only a small percentage of an overall game of skill, infuriating people such as Finn Myrstad, director of digital policy at the Norwegian Consumer Council, who said in a BBC interview: “The sale and presentation of loot boxes often involve exploiting consumers through predatory mechanisms, fostering addiction, targeting vulnerable consumer groups and more.”

While gambling laws in countries across the globe have scrabbled to try to keep up with more traditional forms of online gambling and the ease at which many people now have the chance to participate, it seems more of a struggle to know exactly what to do in these grey areas that are accessible to youngsters.

None of us wants our children to be taken advantage of by loopholes such as “it’s not our responsibility, it’s not in a licensed place”; equally, we don’t want our rights as adults restricted by archaic legislation in these changing times. We just want a solution that keeps everybody safe and in a good place.

Open access vending machines and loot boxes are easier to ignore as adults, we already have enough on our plates. Would you ever head up to a machine selling drinks and hope you got a coke rather than a bottle of muddy water? No. But it’s tough to argue that bright lights, colorful displays, and a proliferation of cartoon characters are purely aimed at those over the age of 18.

At a time when gambling has perhaps never been under more scrutiny, maybe we need to look more closely at the tactics that could be perceived by many as unscrupulous and aimed at kids and get those taken seriously.

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