Video games are unlocking child gambling. This has to be reined in | Alex Hern

The system of 'loot box' gaming is perfectly pitched to profit from players and drive addiction, with all its associated costs

In a tale of gambling addiction posted to Reddit shortly before Christmas, the numbers were as shocking as they were unsurprising. First the anonymous addict frittered away $200 (149), in November 2016. Then $700 more, later that month. Then $300, $400, $1,500 " eventually, by December 2017, a credit card debt of $16,000, too large to be kept a secret any longer. It's a painful narrative, one that's not softened through repeated telling.

What might be more surprising is the particular type of gambling under discussion. This man hadn't lost his money betting on football, or feeding notes into a fixed-odds betting terminal. He had been playing the mobile video game Final Fantasy: Brave Exodus (FFBE), a free-to-play game for android and iOS based on the Final Fantasy series.