Lootboxes and gambling are two things which ties should be obvious to anyone who isn’t being disingenuous. It shouldn’t need research for people to see the link between the two. But it’s still good that there are people looking into that link. And one new research has claims that the link between the two have been robustly verified.
The research in question was conducted by researchers from the University of Plymouth and the University of Wolverhampton. The gist of it is that 5% of lootbox buyers spend about GBP70 (~RM401) a month buying the stuff. And these contribute to about half the industry revenue. And that one third of these top 5% of spenders are considered problem gamblers.
Most surprisingly though, the research points out that there’s no evidence that higher lootbox spending leads to higher earnings for publishers. That, and the fact that the ones who buy the stuff are at-risk individuals rather than the wealthy gamers.
This research adds one more to the long list of evidence that the mechanic is indeed gambling, or leads to the behaviour. We can naturally expect proponents of lootboxes to disagree with this research, as they often do.
For those who are interested, you can read the research itself, linked below. It’s worth noting though that the research was commissioned by the Gamble Aware charity, which may skew results in its favour.
(Source: Gamble Aware)
