Loot boxes, skins and the blurry line into betting

A loot box is a paid lucky dip inside a video game. You spend real money, or in-game currency bought with real money, and get a random selection of items: a footballer for your squad, a new outfit for your character, a rare paint job for a weapon. You do not know what you will get until you open it. Sometimes it is worth it. Usually it is not, which is rather the point.

To many parents this looks like gambling. In Great Britain, the law mostly says it is not. But the items those boxes produce, especially cosmetic “skins”, can end up on websites where they are bet like chips in a casino. That second step is gambling, it is illegal when unlicensed, and children are doing it. Understanding where the line sits is the most useful thing you can know.

Why most loot boxes are not legally gambling

The Gambling Act 2005, which covers England, Scotland and Wales, defines gaming as playing a game of chance for a prize. A prize, in this context, means money or “money’s worth”. A loot box is clearly a game of chance. The question is whether what comes out of it has real-world value.

When the government responded to its call for evidence on loot boxes in July 2022, it concluded that most do not meet that definition, because their contents cannot be sold or otherwise exchanged for real money. It decided not to change the Gambling Act, saying that doing so would carry significant implementation challenges and risks of unintended consequences. That position still stands.

The government did not say loot boxes were harmless. An independent review of the research, carried out for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), found 15 peer-reviewed studies showing a stable and consistent link between spending on loot boxes and problem gambling. The researchers were careful to say this shows an association, not proof that one causes the other. People already prone to gambling problems may simply be drawn to loot boxes. Either way, the overlap is real.

The box is not gambling in law. What children do with its contents sometimes is.

Where skins cross the line

Skins are cosmetic items: a new look for a character, a gun, a knife or a car. On some gaming platforms they can be traded between players, and that is where a market grows up. Third-party websites, unconnected to the games themselves, let people stake skins on coin flips, roulette-style games, “case openings” or the results of esports matches, and in some cases cash winnings out.

A review of the evidence on skins gambling, published by DCMS in September 2025 and written by researchers at Nottingham Trent University, is clear on the law. In Great Britain, skins gambling, where in-game items can be staked and exchanged for real-world value, meets the legal definition of gambling. Running it without a Gambling Commission licence is a criminal offence.

The problem is enforcement, not the absence of rules. The review identified 54 skins gambling websites that could be reached from the UK. Between them they received around 6.9 million visits worldwide in February 2025, of which about 271,000 came from the UK. Most operate from outside Britain, can rebrand quickly and do little to check ages. None of the 20 sites the researchers examined in detail ran its own age check at the point of use, beyond relying on a platform’s age gate or simply asking users to declare their age.

The Gambling Commission has prosecuted this kind of activity before. In February 2017, two men who ran FutGalaxy.com, an unlicensed site where players gambled using virtual currency linked to the FIFA games, were convicted and ordered to pay a total of £265,000 in fines and costs. The court accepted that children had gambled on the site.

How many young people are involved

The Gambling Commission’s 2024 survey of 11 to 17 year olds in England, Scotland and Wales found that 27% had personally paid to open loot boxes, packs or chests. Boys were more than twice as likely as girls to have done so: 37% compared with 16%. Four per cent said they had gambled with in-game items on websites outside the games themselves, and 37% knew it was possible.

The DCMS skins review adds a worrying detail. In the studies it examined, people aged 11 to 14 were more than twice as likely to have gambled with skins as those aged 22 to 24. The authors suggest skins gambling may be introducing children to gambling earlier than previously thought, and that it is linked to higher scores on standard measures of problem gambling.

What the industry promised, and what happened

Instead of legislating, the government asked the games industry to act. In July 2023 the trade body Ukie published guidance, agreed with DCMS, with three main aims: stop under-18s buying loot boxes without a parent’s or guardian’s consent, give all players spending controls and clear information, and support better research. The guidance included disclosing the presence of loot boxes before a game is bought or downloaded, and publishing the odds of winning particular items. A 12-month implementation period followed.

Independent researchers have tested how well this worked. A study published in Royal Society Open Science in May 2025 examined the 100 highest-grossing iPhone games on the UK App Store before and after the guidance took effect. In July 2024, only 23.5% of the games containing loot boxes disclosed that fact on their store page, and none sought explicit parental consent before letting under-18s buy them. Fewer than one in ten disclosed the odds for every loot box in the game.

The government has commissioned its own independent evaluation and has said it will set out next steps once that is published. Until then, the protections are voluntary, and in practice much of the work falls to parents.

Practical steps for parents and players

• Set spending limits or require approval for purchases on every console, PC launcher and app store your child uses. Each platform has its own parental controls, and they do not talk to each other.
• Do not store a card on a child’s account. Gift cards with a fixed value put a ceiling on spending.
• Check a game’s store listing and age rating information for in-game purchases or random items before buying it.
• Ask whether your child trades skins, and whether they have heard of “case opening” or “skin betting” sites. Many children know these exist even if they have not used them.
• Treat any site that lets players stake skins for a chance to win more, or to cash out, as a gambling site. If it is not licensed by the Gambling Commission, it is operating illegally in Great Britain.
• If unauthorised spending has happened, contact the platform’s customer support promptly. Refund policies vary, but asking early gives you the best chance.
• Talk about how loot boxes are designed: random rewards, rare drops and small, frequent payments are there to keep people spending. Children who understand the mechanics find them easier to resist.

For adults, the same tools apply. If you find you are buying loot boxes to chase a particular item, spending more than you planned, or hiding how much you spend, those are the same warning signs that apply to any form of gambling.

Where to get help

Loot boxes sit in a grey area that the law has so far chosen not to resolve. Skins betting does not. Knowing the difference, and setting up controls before a problem starts, does more than any amount of worrying about it afterwards.

This article is for general information and is not medical, legal or financial advice. Laws differ between countries. Read our editorial standards.