U.S. State Representative talks first steps for creating laws against predatory in-game microtransactions

At the height of the Star Wars: Battlefront 2 loot box controversy, Hawaiian state representatives Chris Lee and Sean Quinlan vowed that they would take action against gambling-like in-game monetization in order to protect children.

In an earlier statement, State Representative Lee labeled Battlefront 2 an ‘online casino’ that was ‘designed to lure kids into spending money.’ Lee detailed that he, as well as ‘other states and legislators,’ would be looking into legislation to prohibit the sale of microtransaction pushing games to underage individuals.

A new video published on Lee’s YouTube has detailed the steps that he and Quinlan are taking towards crafting a bill that will prohibit the sale of games with gambling mechanisms in them to anyone under 21 years of age.

The representatives make it clear in the video that if the in-game monetizations are selling an item it’s OK, but what isn’t OK is when users are purchasing a chance at a specific item. In addition to this, the representatives are looking to ensure that predatory practices like reducing the chances of someone getting an item after spending plenty of money on loot boxes are also prohibited.

Ultimately, Lee isn’t looking to have every state adopt his proposed laws, but hopes that enough states adopt the law or simply bring enough attention to the issue that the gaming industry revises their practices altogether and not exploit those with gambling addictions, as well as push the gaming industry to “actually create better games.”