For most people, the difference between gaming and gambling feels obvious. Gambling involves risking money on an uncertain outcome in the hope of financial gain.
Gaming, traditionally, has meant paying for entertainment — buying a console, a title or a subscription — and playing for enjoyment, competition or to develop skill, not cash.
But the rise of in-game purchases has complicated that distinction.
Features such as loot boxes — paid-for digital items that deliver random rewards — have drawn increasing scrutiny. Players spend real money without knowing exactly what they will receive. Loot boxes rely on chance, anticipation and variable rewards, all features long associated with gambling. The question is whether that similarity is enough to justify regulation.
Under current UK law, overseen by the Gambling Commission, an activity is considered gambling if there is the opportunity to win money or “money’s worth”. Because most in-game rewards cannot legally be exchanged for cash, loot boxes do not currently meet that threshold. As a result, they sit outside formal gambling regulation.
Elsewhere in Europe, the legal picture is becoming more contested. In countries including the Netherlands and Belgium, regulators and courts have taken action against certain loot box models, and several major game publishers have faced lawsuits arguing that these mechanics amount to unlawful gambling under national law. The outcomes have been mixed, but the cases have intensified scrutiny and prompted some companies to alter or withdraw features in specific markets.
In England, concerns about excessive gaming have also led to the establishment of specialist services, including the NHS National Centre for Gaming Disorders, which supports young people experiencing significant harm linked to problematic gaming behaviour.
The industry maintains that games are entertainment products, not gambling platforms, and that parental controls and consumer transparency are the appropriate safeguards.
The reality may lie somewhere between the two positions. Gaming is not gambling in law in the UK. Yet certain gaming practices clearly borrow from gambling psychology. As gaming business models continue to evolve, regulators face a growing challenge: how to protect consumers without redefining gaming altogether. As these systems evolve, the potential impact on children and adolescents — whose impulse control and risk awareness are still developing — will remain at the centre of the regulatory debate.
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