Vincent* didn’t know his 20-year-old son Matthew* was gambling until he took a phone call from him as he stood on a cliff’s edge after racking up thousands of dollars of debt.
Matthew was crying and revealed a gambling problem which had begun years earlier with online gaming, causing increasing debt. Matthew had opened up to another family member earlier that evening, who made him feel more ashamed, calling him an idiot.
Vincent kept his son on the phone as he drove to find him, telling him “the only thing that we can’t solve is you jumping off a cliff”.
“It turned out he hadn’t eaten for a couple of days and so we went down to local Chinese, and we were there for about three hours, just unpacking how he felt.
“I knew he played a lot of online games but I didn’t know that had turned into online gaming, so to speak.”
Two years on from that phone call, Matthew is still paying off the debt. Vincent has not probed his son on the details of his debt, as he still feels ashamed about it. Vincent understands it began when Matthew used to buy different “power packs” for characters in online games, which Matthew paid for using the specific budget his dad gave him on his PayPal account.
Despite only working part-time, Matthew managed to get a credit card and he bought more game packs, which he sold for a profit.
The thrill of taking risks, moving money around in transactions for a potential pay off, eventually led him to other forms of gambling.
As increasing numbers of Australians as young as 10 are becoming hooked on gambling, online gaming is emerging as a significant factor fuelling their addiction. Many then migrate to other more traditional forms of gambling.
From September, updated computer game classification guidelines will require games involving in-game purchases linked to chance, such as paid loot boxes, to receive a minimum classification of M (Mature – not recommended for children under 15 years of age). Games containing simulated gambling, such as social casino games, will be legally restricted to adults, with a mandatory minimum classification of R18+.
However, Alex Russell, an associate professor in the Experimental Gambling Research Laboratory at Central Queensland University, says unlike physical gambling settings such as casinos, where bouncers check IDs, “just because a game has a rating doesn’t mean that there’s any actual block to the kids playing it”.
Dr Nancy Greer, a research fellow at the Australian Gambling Research Centre, says the convergence of online gaming and gambling takes two main forms: video games with simulated gambling elements, such as social casino game apps that look like poker; and in-game purchases of virtual containers of randomised rewards, such as Matthew’s power packs – commonly known as “loot boxes”.
Both are becoming more common, Greer says.
Russell says there are different implementations of loot boxes from game to game but many meet the definition of gambling products.
Legally, a gambling product constitutes putting something of value at risk to win something of value (it can be money, or it can be in-game items), and there’s a degree of chance about whether you win or how much you win, Russell says.
While a raffle at a kids’ school meets the definition of gambling, features such as loot boxes in video games are of particular concern. This is because, with no cap on how many loot boxes can be bought, they promote a form of continuous play – a key reason why many of the most harmful gambling products are problematic.
Russell says most of the popular games have loot game features because it’s the business model that video games have moved to.
“It used to be that you would pay for a game – you’d buy the cartridge or disc and put that in your Xbox PlayStation – it was a one-off purchase, and then you could just play it as long as you want,” Russell says.
However, that model of upfront cost was a barrier to getting customers in the door so video game companies now often offer the game for free or at a much lower price, and make money from the customer’s ongoing, in-game purchases.
A 2020 Central Queensland University study, commissioned by the NSW Responsible Gambling Fund, analysed a representative sample of 12 to 17-year-olds in NSW and found nearly three out of every four (72.2%) had opened or bought a loot box.
Countries such as Belgium have taken the lead, legally recognising video game loot boxes as gambling.
In a 2018 Senate committee report on gaming micro-transactions, the Greens recommended a review of the definition of “gambling service” and also urged a consumer protection framework be developed, including reporting mechanisms for concerns, policies and processes for developers and publishers to respond to safety concerns. The government noted but did not accept these recommendations in its response.
Meanwhile, the government has been accused of walking back from reforms on a total ban on gambling advertisements online.
Dr Kei Sakata, the acting executive manager of the Australian Gambling Research Centre, says the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, which followed participants over 20 years, showed a causal link between playing simulated gambling games and being more likely to spend real money gambling when they turned 18.
Researchers call this phenomenon “migration”: people who play loot boxes are much more likely to experience gambling problems down the track.
Sakata says this occurs because online gaming, like the constant advertisements around sports betting, normalises gambling.
“They enter adulthood and don’t feel that real money gambling is particularly risky,” Sakata says.
Greer says the odds are better in simulated gambling video games – where people win nothing of monetary value – than actual pokies. It causes many who transition to real world gambling involving money to think they will have the same likelihood of success.
Vincent agrees the online gaming world creates a “grey area” which confuses kids’ ideas of money – sometimes making children feel currencies in the game are real when they are not. At other times, when games require real world money, the fact that it’s “just a game” may make losses feel less real, he says.
“I can’t imagine a single reason for not banning [gambling advertising] that affects the mental health of not just our young people but people in need, people in poverty, people who are down to their last 10 bucks for a week and hoping to turn it into 100 – I can’t see a situation where advertising gambling to those people is a good idea,” he says.
“I support a ban on it completely,” Vincent says.
* Names and personal details have been changed to protect identities
• In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
