Things are about to get real ugly in the world of loot boxes. Back in April, the Dutch Gambling Authority revealed it had conducted an investigation, which ran from November 2017 until then. The government organization determined that loot box practices in many games violated the country’s Betting and Gaming Act. That same month, many video game companies were warned that they had until June 20 (tomorrow) to make adjustments, or face fines. Now, that time is up.
Starting tomorrow, the Dutch Gambling Authority is going to revisit the games in question (which have not been specifically named). If no loot box adjustments have been made (or if the adjustments aren’t deemed good enough), fines can be issued of up to €830,000 (roughly just under $1 million USD), or 10% of the company’s worldwide revenue if that number is higher.
As stated in the release from the Dutch government, this enforcement process takes time, and for the time being, no disclosures are being made. If, however, a fine ends up being issued, the fine will be made public information. So if a game company is selling its games in that territory, and hasn’t made the appropriate changes, we will certainly be hearing about it in the future.
[Source: Reddit]
