this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2024
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I’m all for personal responsibilities. In fact I believe all drugs should be legal. But if alcohol companies began heavily advertising drinking for kids or young people, making it look like fund and cool and make it easily accessible, I think regulation is needed. People have the right to be stupid and do with their money and body whatever they want, but companies should not be allowed to promoted this behaviour. They should simply offer it and nothing more.
If casinos need to be regulated and strictly scrutinized to prevent children from engaging with them, so should all games that resort to lootboxes. Researchers have made it clear that the psychological effects are identical, and that early engagement with lootboxes tends to lead to issues with gambling.
I would want regulations only if we were talking about opening crates or other forms of gambling. But this is as upfront and crystal clear as possible where you pay money and you get a skin unlike opening crates. We can all agree that the horse cosmetic is a ripoff but it's open and upfront about it's shittiness with no aspect of gambling. Unless I'm forgetting something, gambling microtransactions are the only case where I think regulation is needed.
Edit: The reason why I think gambling should be regulated more so than the other addictive substances (sugar, alcohol, the horse cosmetic) is because gambling doesn't give you a concrete product. Unlike the others, gambling is getting the chance to obtain your desired product while the others guarantee a product to use.