GTA's casino isn't the worst of gambling in games – but it puts it in perspective
This week, the UK’s Gambling Commission confirmed to a parliamentary enquiry that loot boxes, FIFA player packs and the like do not constitute gambling under UK law, since there is no way to cash out your winnings from these blind reward packs. The player, skin or card you might win from a blind pack doesn’t have monetary value – – so rolling the dice on ‘packing’ it isn’t gambling, even if you paid real money for the privilege.
Also this week, Rockstar opened a casino in Grand Theft Auto Online after a six-year wait. There are no semantics to be unpicked here: it is a straight-up depiction of gambling, and since GTA Online’s in-game currency is for sale more-or-less directly in the form of Shark Cards, you can buy in with real money. But once again, you can’t cash out – . So, at least as far as UK law would have it, it isn’t gambling.
It was hardly a shock move from Rockstar, which already allowed players to wager on games of poker in Red Dead Online. It was, you might argue, unhelpful timing for an industry that is under renewed scrutiny from Parliament – and other bodies worldwide – for the playing and spending habits it encourages, particularly in children. But Rockstar is no stranger to such controversy and often courts it. It suits the developer’s bad-boy image – not to mention the glossy gangster fiction of GTA. And anyway, the law is on its side.
GTA Online The Diamond Casino & Resort – PS4, Xbox One, PC Watch on YouTube
This isn’t the case everywhere. Lawmakers and regulators in Belgium, the Netherlands and elsewhere have ruled loot boxes to be a form of gambling. In Belgium, for example, this has led EA to remove the virtual currency from sale which allows players to buy FIFA Ultimate Team player packs. In such countries, players are reporting that Rockstar has circumvented legal challenge by deactivating the casino games, as they already did for poker in Red Dead Online. If the route to anything resembling gambling is locked off, then it can legitimately keep selling Shark Cards – for which, unlike FIFA Coins, there are many other uses.