Children hooked on ‘skin gambling’
Concerns are raised that games lure children into betting using similar psychology to casinos
Robert Mendick CHIEF REPORTER
Helena Horton
HUNDREDS of thousands of children in Britain are gambling on computer games, but parents aren’t aware of it.
Today’s research by the Gambling Commission suggests up to half a million children are gambling via the medium of computer games as part of a global market now worth an estimated £5 billion to £7.5 billion a year.
Most parents will never have heard of the term “skin gambling” but antigambling charities and family campaigners are warning of the very real dangers posed by a virtual world.
According to the Gambling Commission, there are essentially three ways in which children can be lured into betting through video games.
Much of what goes on is legal but deeply disturbing; some of it is downright unlawful but unregulated and hard to catch. There has been just one conviction in the UK for illegal betting on a computer game event, known in the industry as esports.
Step one to luring in children: the loot box.
Children playing everyday popular computer games reach levels where they are effectively encouraged to bet on the contents of a box. These are known as loot boxes, prize crates or else some variant. The contents are hidden and randomised so that the players have no idea what’s in there.
Loot boxes were made popular in games such as Overwatch, a so-called shooter game, launched in 2016 and in Star Wars Battlefront II, based on the movie franchise.
The contents of the loot box will alter the appearance of the character or the weapon they are using if a war game.
In Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO), weapons are transformed by purchasing “skins” in a “random item package”. The game is supposed to be adult-only but in practice, it is impossible to prevent children playing.
In Rocket League, which is for threeyear-olds and above, children can buy keys to loot boxes for a football game in which cars have replaced footballers.
In Star Wars: Battlefront II for 16-year-olds and above, players can buy skins to alter their appearance in the game, using virtual currency only.
Concerns have been expressed about loot boxes effectively being a gateway to gambling. Some experts have argued that loot boxes are using similar psychology to casinos, luring gamers in with the possibility of the big win in a game of chance.
The Belgian gaming authorities are investigating whether loot boxes constitute gambling, given that real money can be used to purchase the boxes.
The Gambling Commission in the UK has examined the issue and raised its own concern. While the loot boxes remain within the game, the selling of them remains lawful. It’s what happens next that alarms the UK authorities. Step two: skin gambling.
A huge industry has sprung up, outside the games themselves, in which players are encouraged to gamble their skins bought in loot boxes for better skins. In the case of the hugely popular CS: GO that means the chance of purchasing a fancier gun or knife. Incredibly, the skins have acquired real value.
On one website last night, a bayonet was available to buy for £1,200 on a socalled loot-market. On another, special gold wheels for Rocket League, where cars play football, were also selling for £1,200. Other items are worth just a couple of pounds.
Suddenly, these virtual items have – or can have – huge value. One way for gamers to acquire high value skins is to gamble for them.
The Gambling Commission describes this as the “exploitation of the player community by predatory third parties”.
The skins on CS: GO can be gambled for better skins in straight forward gambling games like a lottery, casino game or even the flip of a coin. Players can lose entire inventories built up over time on these casino-style games.
If players lose their skins on third party websites, they can go back to the main game itself and purchase new loot boxes with real money or else using virtual currency built up over time.
But the third party websites, not connected to the games manufacturers, are effectively operating unlicensed gambling sites with no bar on children taking part.
Step three: real betting on virtual sports.
Casino-style games are one way of luring in child gamblers. A lot of the same websites encourage children to bet on the outcomes of virtual games such as Fifa, a popular online football game. The esports games are big business. Live events, in which gamers play each other, attract huge audiences in arenas and online.
Not surprisingly unregulated websites have sprung up taking bets on the outcomes of esports games.
Gamers can buy virtual tokens on illegal gaming websites for betting on matches and the Gambling Commission has identified such gambling as a “priority” in its crackdown.