A couple in Belgium has said they had filed a formal complaint against League of Legends, and owner company Riot Games, stipulating that the game and company have breached the country’s law. The complaint, originally shared in a Reddit post in r/gaming, was filed with the Belgian Gambling Commission, the gambling watchdog.

League of Legends accused of peddling gambling to minors by players

The issue was loot boxes, an in-game mechanic that awards prizes to players on a quasi-randomized basis and that is considered illegal in Belgium, one of a few countries in the world to have taken a stern action against the premise of loot boxes.

Belgium has already investigated games such as FIFA, Overwatch, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (Counter-Strike 2 was not released at the time) and determined that loot boxes were indeed associative with gambling behavior.

Similarly, the complaint filed by the couple was rooted in a similar concern. "We concluded thatLeague of Legends'Hextech Chests (only available for RP now)andgacha mechanicsmeet the legal definition of gambling," their statement read.

The post went on to describe the alleged violations committed by Riot Games and League of Legends in detail, including exposure to minors, no protection for minors, operating without a casino license and failure to implement player protection measures.

The couple also noted that Riot Games has adopted a "transparency measure," such as the display of drop chances. To clarify, before loot boxes became an issue in general, they were attacked for their complete randomness. Loot boxes in EA’s FIFA would not have any indication of what the chance of getting a reward would be.

Prioritizing profit over ethical game design

Developers and publishers thought that adding the chance of obtaining a certain prize would improve matters. Nevertheless, this premise was dismissed by the couple, arguing that the loot boxes still had a "fundamental gambling nature," and that "casino-like animations" accompanied the opening of each loot box.

"Do not be fooled by the practices of smokes and mirrors (they must've learned from LeBlanc) these publishers use to act 'legally in order'. In Belgium you even need a license to organise a lottery as fundraising. So they are in breach, period," the couple wrote further.

The couple said that fines started at €800,000 and carried a prison sentence of up to five years, and double that if minors were involved. To wrap up, the couple said that they were longtime League of Legends players and were disappointed to see Riot Games favor profit over ethical game design.

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