Belgium Called Paid Loot Boxes Gambling in 2018. Here Is What Actually Happened Next

Loot boxes in video games and gambling have more in common than some people may realize. In both cases, someone can pay to take part, the result is based on chance and the reward can be much better or worse depending on what they get. The rewards can vary from one opening to the next, and that unpredictable pattern is part of what keeps people coming back.

For gamers, this could be a rare skin in Counter-Strike or a top player in a FIFA Ultimate Team pack. For someone playing a traditional game of chance, the reward is obviously different. But the basic mechanics of paying for a random outcome are similar, which is why Belgium decided to take a much closer look at loot boxes back in 2018.

Why Belgium Called Paid Loot Boxes Gambling in 2018

In April 2018, the Belgian Gaming Commission released a report looking into loot boxes in four major games. Those games were Overwatch, Star Wars Battlefront II, FIFA 18 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

The Commission looked at these systems under Belgium’s Gaming and Betting Act of May 7, 1999. To qualify as a game of chance, the regulator considered whether there was a game, a wager, an element of chance and the possibility of winning or losing something. Paid loot boxes checked those boxes in several of the games it examined.

There is an important distinction here though. The Commission specifically concluded that paid loot boxes in Overwatch, FIFA 18 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive met the definition of a game of chance. Star Wars Battlefront II had also used a qualifying system before its release, but EA had removed the paid part of that system before the game officially launched. Because of this, the Commission did not reach the same conclusion about the version players could buy at the time.

The ruling was not saying that every random reward in a video game was illegal. Loot boxes earned through gameplay without spending real money were outside the paid-wager finding. It was the ability to spend actual money, including through purchased in-game currency, for a random reward that made the difference.

What Happened to Loot Boxes in Belgium After 2018?

The Commission was applying an existing gambling law, not creating a new law specifically for video games. By 2019, publishers could not legally keep selling paid loot boxes in Belgium without gambling authorisation. There was a catch though. The country did not have a normal gambling licence category that video game companies could simply apply for to keep selling loot boxes. Instead, several major publishers started removing the ability for Belgian players to purchase them.

Blizzard announced in August 2018 that players in Belgium would no longer be able to buy loot boxes in Overwatch with real money. Then in January 2019, EA announced it would stop selling FIFA Points in Belgium, which meant players could no longer purchase points to open Ultimate Team packs. They could still earn content by playing.

Nintendo went even further in 2019. The company announced that Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and Fire Emblem Heroes would no longer be available in Belgium because of uncertainty around their in-game business models.

For a while, it seemed like Belgium had made its decision and that was the end of the conversation. But there was still one major issue. Not every company followed the same path.

Belgium’s Loot Box Rules Were Not Always Enforced

While some of the biggest names in gaming changed their games, research published in 2023 showed that paid loot boxes were still widely available in Belgium. The study found that 82% of the 100 highest-grossing iPhone games examined in Belgium in 2022 still offered loot boxes that could be purchased directly or indirectly with real money.

That is a pretty significant number considering the attention the original decision received. It also shows the difference between announcing that something falls under gambling law and actually making sure every game follows that interpretation.

To be clear, this does not mean the 2018 decision was overturned. It means the rules were not being applied consistently in practice. Some companies removed paid loot boxes, others continued offering them and players could still find ways around certain restrictions.

What Changed With the December 2024 Report?

The Belgian Gaming Commission returned to the subject in a report published in December 2024. The report looked at discussions from a January 2024 workshop involving regulators, researchers, consumer groups and representatives from the video game industry.

One of the biggest takeaways was that a broad ban on paid random items had proven difficult to enforce. The discussions also looked at whether stronger consumer protections, clearer information and cooperation with the industry could provide a better approach.

In Belgium, a licensed online casino like https://madisoncasino.be operates within that regulated sector, where games are subject to technical standards and checks rather than simply being left to the operator.

That being said, the report did not suddenly make paid loot boxes legal again or replace the existing gambling law. It reopened the conversation about how these systems should be handled going forward. And that is an important difference when looking back at what Belgium actually accomplished.

How This Compares to Licensed Gambling in Belgium

This also brings up an interesting comparison with the gambling industry itself. Licensed gambling operators work within a regulated system, and independent game testing is one way that the casino industry checks how its games function. These tests can look at whether a game follows its stated rules, whether its random number generator produces unpredictable results and whether its expected return to player matches the way the game is designed. That is very different from simply offering random rewards in a video game without the same kind of gambling oversight.

Of course, that does not mean someone is guaranteed to win. A stated return is a long-term statistical expectation, not a promise about any one player’s results. The important part is that there are rules and testing requirements in place for the system itself.

And that is really where the debate over loot boxes stands. Belgium made a major decision in 2018 and some of the biggest gaming companies responded by changing their games. But the years that followed showed that enforcing the decision across an entire industry was much harder than simply announcing it.