Claire Murdoch, head of mental health for the UK's National Health Service (NHS), reignited the controversy with a report that loot boxes drive young people to "underwater" gambling.

"Frankly, no company should be teaching children to become addicted by teaching them to gamble with the contents of these loot boxes," she said.

"No company should market to children a loot box game that includes this element of chance.

Loot boxes are not currently regulated by the Gambling Commission in England. The report calls this a "loophole" because "despite this, third-party websites selling game accounts and rare items are commonplace and can easily be found on the Internet, for example on eBay.

Murdock called on game publishers to ban games where loot boxes encourage children to gamble, to introduce spending limits, to inform players of the probability of receiving each item before purchasing a loot box, and to " assist parents by raising awareness about the risks of in-game spending."

As for what those risks are, the report says, "We investigated a number of cases of children spending money without telling their parents, including a 16-year-old paying £2,000 for a basketball game and a 15-year-old losing £1,000 for a shooting game. found."

See our feature on the addictive psychology and seductive art of the loot box.

Thanks, RPS.