Betting by Kaveeshan Gnanarajah

 Betting by Kaveeshan Gnanarajah

Maybe this is just me, but I feel like gambling is everywhere nowadays. I first realized this when one of my favorite games at the time, Rocket League, removed its loot crates in 2019. Up until that moment, I never questioned how those crates worked or why the game even added them. When the developers admitted that it was too close to gambling, I still didn’t understand at the time. It was only around a year ago that I looked back on those loot crates and realized. This change made me recognize and pay more attention to how often chance-based rewards appear in everyday apps.

Loot boxes and similar chance-based rewards aren’t just in games like Rocket League. Almost 40 % of popular games and 60 % of popular smartphone games contain loot boxes that players can purchase for real money, and the loot box market generated about $15 billion USD in 2020 alone, showing how popular they’ve become. You can bet on your favorite sports team, on the coin toss for a football team, you can bet on Roblox, stocks, political events and even world events. Even more, examples include one pitch in a baseball game; it doesn’t even have to be a real sport, you can bet on esports, you can gamble on loot crates in other games on your phone, tablet, or even your Apple Watch. You no longer even have to go to a casino to become a gambling addict.

Research shows that people who purchase loot boxes are up to twice as likely to gamble and are more likely to develop problem gambling behavior compared with people who don’t buy them. With teens aged 12–16, nearly half (45.6 %) have done some sort of loot box, and higher involvement is linked to higher problem gambling severity. Studies consistently find that loot box purchasers are several times more likely to experience gambling problems than non-purchasers.

Even with my own mother, someone who is so against gambling and has never been to a casino in her life, was technically doing it on an app. She was playing her favorite game on her phone when, after she completed a level, the app gave her loot chests that she could open for a CHANCE at a better reward. There is not much we can actually do about this issue, but we must stay away from it.

Sources

Zendle, David, et al. “Links between Loot Box Spending and Problem Gambling.” Scientific Reports, vol. 12, 2022, Nature Publishing Group, doi:10.1038/s41598-022-20549-1.

Wardle, Heather, et al. “Loot Boxes, Gambling, and Problem Gambling among Adolescents.” Journal of Gambling Studies, vol. 36, no. 2, 2020, pp. 543–556, Springer, doi:10.1007/s10899-019-09906-0.

“Loot Boxes in Video Games Linked to Problem Gambling.” ScienceDaily, 2 Dec. 2022, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/12/221202112513.htm.

“Gambling Addiction Statistics.” Recovery.com, www.recovery.com/resources/gambling-addiction-statistics/.

Davies, Rob. “Landmark Study Shows 1.4m Britons Have a Gambling Problem.” The Guardian, 2 Oct. 2025, www.theguardian.com/society/2025/oct/02/landmark-study-shows-14m-britons-have-a-gambling-problem.