An analyst at the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation’s Compliance Division has joined the rapidly enlarging debate over whether loot boxes featured in video games constitute gambling or not.

Discussions on the matter emerged with the recent release of the Star Wars Battlefront II video game. The game allows for players to purchase loot boxes or loot crates, as these are also known in the gaming community, in hopes to find items that could boost their performance.

However, a number of gambling regulators, including the Belgian Gaming Commission and the Netherlands Gaming Authority, blasted publisher EA for adding the loot boxes feature as it constituted gambling. Regulatory bodies from all around Europe and later on from other parts of the world argued that making it possible for players to buy loot boxes actually trivialized gambling and made it an activity that could be easily accessed by minors and other vulnerable people.

News outlets reported on Wednesday that the issue has actually spread across the globe and that the US state of Hawaii has also joined the debate over the gambling nature of loot boxes. State lawmakers told media that they would take actions to address the situation and that the new Star Wars game resembled an online casino that lured minors into spending money for loot boxes, the contents of which could be very useful but could also be of little help to their performance in the game.

A reddit user has contacted the Victorian gambling regulator, asking for the latter’s opinion on the matter. An expert from the regulatory body’s Compliance Division has replied that to him, loot boxes actually represented a form of gambling under Victoria’s gambling laws.

Jarrod Wolfe, an analyst at the state’s Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation, went on to say that they are currently contacting both interstate and international regulators in order to discuss what policy changes should be adopted in order for the matter to be addressed in a proper manner. The Commission is also planning to inform the State and the Federal Legislatures about their findings.

Mr. Wolfe explained that loot boxes or the “pay to win” aspects of games are currently his top priority, while skins and virtual currencies are considered a bit more secondary at present. The analyst shared the general view presented by a number of international regulators that loot boxes could be seen as features that normalize gambling, which he believes is “morally reprehensible” and “legally questionable” particularly given the fact that video games are played by minors.

As for a solution, Mr. Wolfe wrote that the regulation of loot boxes in video games could be a difficult task, and that the right approach to the issue could be cooperation between various competent agencies which could put pressure on game publishers.

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