Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions (a) he and (b) his officials have had with (i) the Gambling Commission and (ii) the video game industry on classifying loot boxes as gambling.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport launched a call for evidence in September 2020 to examine issues and concerns relating to loot boxes and we have received more than 30,000 responses. As part of the call for evidence, officials held a series of roundtable discussions with video game companies, third sector organisations, researchers, and other government departments; this included regulatory authorities such as the Gambling Commission. The roundtables were organised to discuss a range of public concerns raised about loot boxes, including potential links to gambling-like behaviour.

The call for evidence closed in November 2020 and we are continuing to analyse the evidence gathered. We will announce next steps when all the evidence has been fully considered.