“THERE WAS A point where I’d spend my whole pay cheque trying to win back the money I’d lost, only to lose more and end up in a deeper hole,” says ‘Chris’, a 21-year-old student at Technological University Dublin whose real name has been changed.

His experience with addiction mirrors the struggles of many young adults in Ireland who are grappling with compulsive gambling.

But Chris’ descent into addiction didn’t begin in a bookmaker, a casino, or even on an online betting app: instead, it started in the virtual worlds of video games like EA Sports FC (formerly known as the Fifa franchise), Overwatch, and Fortnite.

All of these games have one feature in common: loot boxes, which are digital items that offer random rewards to players, such as new characters, special abilities, or cosmetic upgrades.

These boxes — which are often designed as treasure chests, card packs, or prize wheels within games — can be bought using in-game currency or real money.

For example, in EA Sports FC, gamers can open packs where they hope to unlock a favourite player that will enhance their team. 

The catch for gamers is that they don’t know what each box will contain until they open it.

That feeling, which some teenagers think is just a fun aspect of opening a loot box, is actually something that triggers the same sensations experienced by a gambler in the bookies.

Andy (who prefers not to give his second name), a group addiction facilitator and a former compulsive gambler, sees a clear connection between loot boxes and betting.

“An online video game that contains a loot box is an immediate gateway to online gambling,” he explains.

“The sensation we receive from getting a prize in a loot box is the same we receive from a winning bet.”

Lack of safeguards

Electronic Arts, which published Fifa and now publishes EA Sports FC, has previously played down these concerns.

In 2019, the company told the UK parliament that loot boxes were an example of “surprise mechanics” similar to Kinder Surprise eggs, chocolate treats aimed at children that contain a toy inside a small plastic capsule.

But those close to the gaming industry have warned that there are risks associated with loot boxes and have urged players to avoid them.

“I don’t think there are nearly enough safeguards,” says Graham Day, editor of online gaming magazine GamEir.

He recommends that gamers should play games that utilise fewer loot box features, such as role-playing games (RPGs), which are typically in single-player formats and offline.

In particular, Day advises young players to choose games with fewer microtransactions -virtual purchases that are made within apps as part of the game-playing experience – to avoid falling into potentially addictive spending habits.

Loot boxes can appear as treasure chests or as other valuable items in games Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

In Ireland, protecting children from the gambling industry was a key priority of the much-vaunted Gambling Regulation Act of 2024.

The act introduced several new laws to regulate advertising and sponsorship in order to prevent children from being encouraged to gamble.

But despite this, the act does not cover loot boxes.

The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI) concluded that video game microtransactions fall outside the law, and has cited difficulties in legally defining loot boxes as gambling.

“There has been some attention on issues arising in the context of video gaming, but no definitive outcomes,” a GRAI spokesperson said.

For now, loot boxes remain in a legal grey area. Although loot boxes themselves are not currently regulated, the authority stated that the matter will be kept under review.

‘The feel of gambling’

Reflecting on his experience, Chris describes how loot boxes in video games influenced his own perception of spending.

“They push on the sort of feel of gambling onto younger generations, just by offering in-game transactions to better [a player's] standing in the game” he says.

He also spoke about the psychological impact of loot boxes, particularly how the rush from successful in-game purchases can mirror the thrill of gambling.

“When you’re younger, you get a sense of enjoyment out of it when you get a good player in Fifa [via a loot box], or if you make an in-game purchase, and it goes well,” he explains.

“If it doesn’t go well, you’re sort of like, ‘Ah, waste of money’. It has the same feeling as gambling.”

The connection between loot boxes and gambling is not just coincidental.

According to Zaid Khalid — a journalist who specialises in reporting the psychological effects of tech and gaming — the design of loot boxes deliberately mirrors mechanisms seen in conventional gambling.

He says that loot boxes capitalise on the uncertainty of rewards, which is also key to driving engagement with gambling.

“Unlike fixed rewards that offer predictable positive outcomes, variable rewards are uncertain or random,” he explains.

“Gambling exemplifies variable reward uncertainty. You might win big, or you might lose everything. This variability triggers strong engagement.”

According to Khalid, such unpredictable outcomes exploit several psychological mechanisms in the human brain.

When loot boxes offer random rewards, they flood the brain with dopamine, which drives a person’s desire to keep playing.

The uncertainty of the reward also creates a feeling akin to the “cliffhanger effect”, where a sense of unresolved anticipation compels players to continue.

On top of this, players can also experience something called the “near miss” phenomenon when they aren’t successful; if they come close to winning, they may be encouraged to make further attempts because they believe it’ll happen for them next time, making it harder to resist.

To Chris, those feelings are all too familiar.

“When it went well, it felt like a reward,” he says of loot boxes. “But when it didn’t go well, it was frustrating, and I just wanted to try again.”

Long-term effects

These random rewards, near-misses, and an escalating desire for more are all a gateway to the same psychological triggers that drive gambling addiction.

And because they’re not regulated, they can impact younger audiences who may not fully recognise their long-term effects.

A study published by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) in 2023 found that 1 in 30 adults in Ireland suffers from problem gambling.

More alarmingly, those exposed to gambling-like activities in childhood are almost twice as likely to develop gambling addictions later in life.

The same study revealed that children whose parents had positive attitudes toward gambling faced an increased risk of developing problem behaviours.

The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland has emphasised the importance of limiting early exposure to gambling, with a spokesperson citing “a strong evidential connection between childhood experiences of gambling and problem gambling in adulthood”.

Other countries are already taking action: Belgium has banned loot boxes (though experts caution that this has not been enforced in practice), while a class-action lawsuit against game developer EA Games is currently progressing through British Columbia’s Supreme Court in Canada.

The UK government has also expressed concerns, with a 2022 report recommending that “purchases of loot boxes should be unavailable to all children and young people unless enabled by a parent or guardian”. However, no legal changes followed.

That is not to say that some Irish politicians haven’t noticed: last October, Senator Lynn Ruane warned about the issue here.

“Children are at risk of being exposed to gambling through video and computer games…offering rewards entirely by chance,” she said.

Whether the new Dáil takes notice remains to be seen.