Physical card pack and especially video game loot box spending are both positively correlated with problem gambling but not linked to negative mental health: An international survey.

Abstract

Objective: Card packs are physical products providing random content that companies rely on to monetize trading or collectible card games. Loot boxes are equivalent digital products inside video games that can similarly be bought to obtain randomized rewards. Both products are psychologically similar to gambling because the player can "win" by obtaining rare and valuable rewards or alternatively "lose" by obtaining nonvaluable rewards. Loot box spending has been repeatedly and reliably linked to problem gambling. However, the link between card pack spending and gambling has been little studied.

Method: We recruited card game players living in English-speaking Western countries (N = 1,961) to assess the links between card pack and loot box spending on one hand and problem gambling and mental health outcomes on the other.

Results: Spending money on physical card packs (r = 0.15), loot boxes (r = 0.31), and virtual card packs (a specific type of loot boxes found in a specific genre of card-based video games; r = 0.22) were all linked to problem gambling but at markedly different strengths. Spending money on all these gambling-like products were not associated with negative mental health. Spending money on certain subcategories of loot boxes differs from overall spending.

Conclusions: The current legal definitions of "gambling" in many countries should be modernized using scientific evidence: Presently, the law (if properly enforced) would regulate products that are less strongly correlated with problem gambling and therefore arguably less potentially harmful (e.g., physical card packs), but fails to regulate arguably more harmful products that are more strongly correlated with problem gambling (e.g., loot boxes). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).