Yeah, I see them in ads and they let you just tap it and play it.
You can spend money, real money.
While some are more obvious than others,
there are a lot of video games out there
that involve some form of gambling.
And now the federal government wants to do something about it.
It says those features aren't appropriate for kids
and wants stricter classifications for video games that contain them,
whether or not they involve any real money.
Just like films and TV shows,
video games are given a classification before we see them.
They help give us an idea for what's appropriate
for different age groups.
So what sort of games could be impacted?
For starters, anything containing these - loot boxes.
A loot box is something that contains prizes,
but there's a chance that you might get a good prize or a bad prize.
It feels really good when you get the awesome stuff,
but when you get like the really low rarity stuff,
you feel like you've lost, like, so much things.
Loot boxes have been a bit of a controversial topic
in recent years.
Sometimes they're earned through gameplay,
but a lot of the time they can be bought using real money.
$500 later.
And while some game developers, like Fortnite,
have already started to phase out randomised loot boxes,
there is still a whole heap of games that use them.
Oh, OK.
Loot boxes use a technique called intermittent rewarding,
which basically means letting you win at random intervals.
It's very common in gambling games
and can make you want to play something for longer
because you never quite know when you're going to get your next win.
(GAME BEEPS) Oh.
Oh, I won! (LAUGHS)
The games that I play in,
you have to play a lot to get those loot boxes,
to get some experience.
And if you play a lot, you get extra rewards.
Studies have found that gamers who buy loot boxes
are up to two times more likely to gamble in real life.
So the government wants any games that feature loot boxes
to carry an M or mature rating,
which means they're not appropriate for anyone under the age of 15.
The other games the government wants to put stricter classifications on
are these.
They're called social casinos.
They're free to play and you can't win real money from them.
The government wants them to carry an 18 plus rating,
which would make them illegal for anyone under age to play them.
I've seen them in ads.
Sometimes my mum thinks she can win when she downloaded those games.
They look and sound similar to pokie machines.
Some are even made by the same companies that make pokies.
And they say that only a really small percentage of kids
are actually playing them anyway.
But there are some studies that suggest that's not the case
and that between 12 and 25% of young people
are playing social casino games.
We know that young people often change their age
on social media platforms to gain access.
For a while now, there have been growing concerns
about how easy it is for young people to access games
that feature simulated gambling
because studies have shown they can lead to them doing the real thing
as they get older.
And the government says stricter classifications
could go a long way towards helping that.
Research undertaken by my own department
indicates that simulated gambling
within games certainly does have a link between
real world online and other harms.
Kids can get really addicted to these games
and then they'll just ask their parents to buy more things.
It can create a bad habit for when they grow up
and then when they grow up, they'll lose even more money
because they have the freedom to spend it.