Lootboxes vs Trading Card Games

[FleshToDust]

Lootboxes have been under scrutiny and legal battles lately as it's being considered gambling. You pay a price and get a random item. Most items are nearly worthless and only a few items in the lootbox are valuable or good items.

Trading Card Games have the same model. You'd buy a booster pack and there will be different rarities. Most of the cards will be worthless and there will only be a few cards that will be good that you'll be trying to get. You buy pack after pack after pack trying to get them.

Do you see the similarity between these two things and would you consider it gambling? What would your definition of gambling be? Do you think tcg's can breed gambling habits? Share your thoughts below.

 

[Poryg]

I wouldn't call gambling either of these two. Because it's not really gambling, you're not waging money hoping to win money, but enhancing your collector's edition. And in all honesty, if someone calls loot boxes gambling, we can also imply they call gambling any sort of a random purchase, including random Steam keys and things like that.

Nevertheless, despite being built on similar principles, I don't think we can compare buying a trading card booster pack with buying a loot box... Namely in the sense that booster packs are physical things (okay, not so much nowadays, but you know where I'm going ).

 

[Jules98]

They are similiar, but there is a big difference: Trading cards are tangible and can be traded, resold, etc.. The content of lootboxes are not, so you are stuck with what you got.

 

[TheoAllen]

I'm not sure if it's relevant with the context. But what I consider gambling is when u buy something out of your real money to get an uncertain outcome, plus you can't do something about it. Something like mobile games' gacha, if you're using money to roll.

 

[FleshToDust]

The lawyers EA is currently battling against do seem to argue that the random chance as well as cash value(even if by 3rd party websites) constitute as gambling. This makes me wonder about the trading card game scene and as mentioned steam keys. Selling CS Go items is also a thing. This could also effect the mobile gaming scene. Hmm... Could be a big shift coming.

 

[Kes]

As I understand it, the case for Loot Boxes being gambling is the same as Lottery tickets being gambling, or what is known as Tombola in the UK (which is basically a game where you buy a raffle ticket which you pull out of a bag, and if it ends in a five or zero you win a prize.) or an ordinary raffle. What unites these is the principle that you are handing over money for a chance to win something. How that relates to trading card games, I don't know.

@Poryg Getting money is not a necessary part of a gamble. You could be gambling for objects, as is the case for many local raffles where the prizes will not be money. 'Objects' can include things like winning a free meal at a local restaurant, they aren't just a box of chocolates or a car.

 

[Milennin]

Gambling, to me, is something you do by putting in money and risk not getting anything back in return, but at the (slight) chance of winning a (big) prize.
Both CCGs and loot boxes always give something to those who open them, so personally, I don't consider them gambling, or at the very least a lesser form of it.