A Dutch court ruled that Electronic Arts had to pay a fine of 10 million euros due to gambling mechanisms in “FIFA”.
For several years now, the “FIFA” series has included a feature that has caused a lot of discussion: loot boxes.
For real money, players can buy “packs” in the “Ultimate Team” mode and hope for rare player cards.
They are also back in “FIFA 21” *.
The allegation that the loot boxes in the “Ultimate Team” are a game of chance came up in the past quite often.
Now Electronic Arts (EA) has actually been fined millions of dollars.
"FIFA 21": EA has to pay gambling authority 10 million euros
A Dutch district court this week authorized the Dutch gaming authority Kansspelautoriteit (Ksa) to
fine
EA
10 million euros
for
violating the country's betting and gaming law
(via gamesindustry.biz).
"The Ksa believes it is vital to protect vulnerable groups such as minors from gambling," the agency said.
"For this reason, the Ksa advocates a
strict separation between video games and gambling
. Gamers are often young and therefore particularly prone to developing an addiction. As such, gambling
elements
have no place in games."
The fine was originally imposed back in October last year, but EA declined to pay the fine and also declined to ask the Ksa to make the matter known to the public.
Also read
: FIFA 21: eight points that should make the game better.
According to EA, loot boxes are not a game of chance
According to the verdict, EA argued that the loot boxes would not be considered a game of chance because “FIFA Ultimate Team” packs do not offer any valuables as the contents cannot be converted into cash directly.
"FIFA" is
basically a game of skill
and there is
no scientific evidence
that links opening "Ultimate Team" packs with gambling addiction.
The court was unimpressed by these arguments and found that there are opportunities to benefit from “Ultimate Team” cards worth almost 2,000 euros.
As for the lack of scientific evidence, the judges ruled that it was
not necessary
that every new game of chance be
proven to cause problems
.
The Dutch betting and gaming law is based on the assumption that gambling involves
a risk of gambling addiction
.
They also pointed to an increasing number of scientific studies and experts warning against loot boxes, as well as reports from affected individuals.
The court rejected further arguments from EA.
The publisher has six weeks to appeal the decision.
(Ök) tz.de is part of the Ippen-Digital network.
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