{"id":87868,"date":"2018-09-11T14:29:23","date_gmt":"2018-09-11T21:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=87868"},"modified":"2018-09-11T15:04:42","modified_gmt":"2018-09-11T22:04:42","slug":"electronic-arts-faces-criminal-investigation-in-belgium-fifa-18-loot-boxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/electronic-arts-faces-criminal-investigation-in-belgium-fifa-18-loot-boxes\/","title":{"rendered":"Electronic Arts Faces Criminal Investigation in Belgium for Failing to Remove Loot Boxes from FIFA Video Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

Video game publisher Electronic Arts (EA) is could face prosecution in Belgium for its apparent refusal to scrap loot box microtransactions from its FIFA 18 title, despite the country\u2019s gaming commission having declared them to be illegal \u201cwagers\u201d in their current form.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"FIFA
The Belgian Gaming Commission concluded in May that the paid loot boxes in FIFA 18 were a violation of its gambling laws, but publisher EA appears to have ignored a list of compliance recommendations. (Image: Electronic Arts)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the fans of the series count down the days until the release of the hotly anticipated sequel, FIFA 19, Dutch newspaper Metro<\/em> reported Monday that the Belgian prosecutor\u2019s office is considering criminal action against EA for its intransigence on loot boxes.<\/p>\n

In FIFA 18, players can purchase loot boxes using in-game (FUT Coins) or real-world currency to give themselves a randomized chance to win soccer players or items that will help them progress through the game — namely, to build the best team possible.<\/p>\n

In a report published in May, the Belgian regulator said the paid loot box system in FIFA 18 \u201cconstitutes a game of chance in the sense of the Gaming and Betting Act.\u201d<\/p>\n

Failure to Comply <\/strong><\/h2>\n

The commission\u2019s report recommended that games publishers should introduce age verification processes to protect children and spending limits. It demanded the odds of winning should be clearly displayed and that players should have access to details about RGN mechanics. It also recommended clear labels should be displayed prior to purchase that the game contains gambling.<\/p>\n

Publishers failing to comply should face criminal prosecution, the gaming commission said, although it didn\u2019t provide a specific deadline for the games to be modified.<\/p>\n

\n

Some publishers mentioned in the report, such as Valve and 2k Games, have already complied with the recommendations, but EA is apparently digging in its heels. The company has repeatedly stated it does not believe its game mechanics constitute gambling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

EA pulled its paid loot boxes from Stars Wars: Battlefront II<\/em> earlier this year, but this was due to negative player reaction, rather any regulatory pressure.<\/p>\n

Loot Boxes Not Gambling, Says CEO<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Meanwhile, the company has persistently denied that the microtransactions within its games constitute any form of gambling whatsoever. EA CEO Andrew Wilson explained why during an earnings call in May.<\/p>\n

Firstly, players always receive a specified number of items in each box. And secondly, we don\u2019t provide or authorize any way to cash out or sell items in virtual currency for real-world money. And there\u2019s no way we can make value assign to FUT items in game currency,” he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cAnd while we forbid the transfer of items of in-the-game currency outside, we also actively seek to eliminate that where it\u2019s going on in an illegal environment, and we work with regulators in various jurisdictions to achieve that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

While politicians across the world are increasingly raising questions about whether loot boxes constitute gambling, opinions of regulators are mixed. As well as Belgium, Holland<\/a>, China and Japan have regulated loot boxes under their respective gambling laws, while investigations by regulators in many more countries are currently ongoing.<\/p>\n

Several, including the UK and France, have concluded loot boxes are not gambling, while expressing concerns about their potentially addictive properties and impact on children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Video game publisher Electronic Arts (EA) is could face prosecution in Belgium for its apparent refusal to scrap loot box microtransactions from its FIFA 18 title, despite the country\u2019s gaming commission having declared them to be illegal \u201cwagers\u201d in their current form. As the fans of the series count down the days until the release […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":87870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,3313,3312,60,13592],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nElectronic Arts Faces Criminal Investigation in Belgium FIFA 18 Loot Boxes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"FIFA 18 publisher EA could be in hot water in Belgium for refusing to remove paid loot box mechanisms from the wildly popular soccer video game.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/electronic-arts-faces-criminal-investigation-in-belgium-fifa-18-loot-boxes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Electronic Arts Faces Criminal Investigation in Belgium FIFA 18 Loot Boxes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"FIFA 18 publisher EA could be in hot water in Belgium for refusing to remove paid loot box mechanisms from the wildly popular soccer video game.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/electronic-arts-faces-criminal-investigation-in-belgium-fifa-18-loot-boxes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-09-11T21:29:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-09-11T22:04:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/fifa-18.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/electronic-arts-faces-criminal-investigation-in-belgium-fifa-18-loot-boxes\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/electronic-arts-faces-criminal-investigation-in-belgium-fifa-18-loot-boxes\/\",\"name\":\"Electronic Arts Faces Criminal Investigation in Belgium FIFA 18 Loot Boxes\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/electronic-arts-faces-criminal-investigation-in-belgium-fifa-18-loot-boxes\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/electronic-arts-faces-criminal-investigation-in-belgium-fifa-18-loot-boxes\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/fifa-18.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-09-11T21:29:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-09-11T22:04:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"FIFA 18 publisher EA could be in hot water in Belgium for refusing to remove paid loot box mechanisms from the wildly popular soccer video game.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/electronic-arts-faces-criminal-investigation-in-belgium-fifa-18-loot-boxes\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/electronic-arts-faces-criminal-investigation-in-belgium-fifa-18-loot-boxes\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/electronic-arts-faces-criminal-investigation-in-belgium-fifa-18-loot-boxes\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/fifa-18.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/fifa-18.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"The Belgian Gaming Commission concluded in May that the paid loot boxes in FIFA 18 were a violation of its gambling laws, but publisher EA appears to have ignored a list of compliance recommendations. (Image: Electronic Arts)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/electronic-arts-faces-criminal-investigation-in-belgium-fifa-18-loot-boxes\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Legal\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/legal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Electronic Arts Faces Criminal Investigation in Belgium for Failing to Remove Loot Boxes from FIFA Video Games\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Electronic Arts Faces Criminal Investigation in Belgium FIFA 18 Loot Boxes","description":"FIFA 18 publisher EA could be in hot water in Belgium for refusing to remove paid loot box mechanisms from the wildly popular soccer video game.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/electronic-arts-faces-criminal-investigation-in-belgium-fifa-18-loot-boxes\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Electronic Arts Faces Criminal Investigation in Belgium FIFA 18 Loot Boxes","og_description":"FIFA 18 publisher EA could be in hot water in Belgium for refusing to remove paid loot box mechanisms from the wildly popular soccer video game.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/electronic-arts-faces-criminal-investigation-in-belgium-fifa-18-loot-boxes\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2018-09-11T21:29:23+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-09-11T22:04:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/fifa-18.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/electronic-arts-faces-criminal-investigation-in-belgium-fifa-18-loot-boxes\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/electronic-arts-faces-criminal-investigation-in-belgium-fifa-18-loot-boxes\/","name":"Electronic Arts Faces Criminal Investigation in Belgium FIFA 18 Loot Boxes","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/electronic-arts-faces-criminal-investigation-in-belgium-fifa-18-loot-boxes\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/electronic-arts-faces-criminal-investigation-in-belgium-fifa-18-loot-boxes\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/fifa-18.jpg","datePublished":"2018-09-11T21:29:23+00:00","dateModified":"2018-09-11T22:04:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"FIFA 18 publisher EA could be in hot water in Belgium for refusing to remove paid loot box mechanisms from the wildly popular soccer video game.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/electronic-arts-faces-criminal-investigation-in-belgium-fifa-18-loot-boxes\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/electronic-arts-faces-criminal-investigation-in-belgium-fifa-18-loot-boxes\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/electronic-arts-faces-criminal-investigation-in-belgium-fifa-18-loot-boxes\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/fifa-18.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/fifa-18.jpg","width":1280,"height":720,"caption":"The Belgian Gaming Commission concluded in May that the paid loot boxes in FIFA 18 were a violation of its gambling laws, but publisher EA appears to have ignored a list of compliance recommendations. (Image: Electronic Arts)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/electronic-arts-faces-criminal-investigation-in-belgium-fifa-18-loot-boxes\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Legal","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/legal\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Electronic Arts Faces Criminal Investigation in Belgium for Failing to Remove Loot Boxes from FIFA Video Games"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87868"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}