Belgian Minister of Justice Koen Geens, hopes to ban the sale of games with 'additional' purchases, if it is not clear what exactly these purchases involve.

Gamers can purchase so-called 'loot boxes' with real money in some games. These are random upgrades in these virtual boxes. Players do not know what they get in advance, that is deemed and ruled gambling. "Gambling and gaming mixing, especially at a young age, is dangerous for the mental health of the child," says Geens. He hopes to restrict the sale of these extras in games. "But that takes time, we have to go to Europe," he adds. "We are definitely going to try to ban it."

The Dutch and Belgian gambling authorities have previously started investigations into games with loot boxes, to determine whether they are gambling games. The Belgian authority was quite sure about this recently: they call "the mixing of money and addiction" a form of gambling, even if that happens in games.

Moving a few km upwards to the Netherlands - The Dutch authority emphasizes that game rewards must have economic value before it is labeled as gambling. If the games in the Netherlands are rules to 'gable', this can lead to a (temporary) ban on sales. At the moment there is no law in the Netherlands for online games with gambling elements in it, but laws are determined in the Dutch Senate. 
 

What ignited all this is, of course, Star Wars Battlefront II and the pay to win schemes as well as the loot boxes you can purchase, without knowing what is inside them. Currently, Publisher Electronic Arts removed the possibility to spend real money from the new game Star Wars Battlefront II.

Belgian Minister of Justice Koen Geens wants to ban the sale of games with loot boxes.