Unpacking non-transparency: Most physical trading card game and collectible sports card packs failed to disclose probabilities for winning rare prizes.

Abstract

Background and aims: Physical card packs are gambling-like products offering consumers random prizes. Most contain cards of little value worth less than the purchase price of the pack itself, but a few contain rare and highly valuable cards. Previous research has found a weak positive association between physical card pack spending and problem gambling, suggesting that vulnerable consumers may experience financial harm and that these physical gambling-like products may pose addiction-like risks. Unlike traditional gambling, card packs are not an adult-only product and are widely purchased by children too. Worldwide, there is currently no dedicated card pack regulation. Notwithstanding, basic consumer law applies, requiring companies to disclose and not hide important information about the product: specifically, the odds of obtaining different prizes.

Methods: We sampled 50 card packs in Hong Kong representing popular products consumers buy to assess whether they disclosed winning probabilities.

Results: The vast majority (80.0%) failed to provide any probability disclosure information or relevant hyperlinks on their physical packaging. The other 20.0% that provided probability disclosures failed to give sufficient details and were, occasionally, difficult to find and misleading. No pack (0.0%) allowed the consumer to know their odds of getting every individual card.

Discussion and conclusions: In the absence of gambling law and dedicated regulations, consumer law should be better enforced against gambling-like products (including physical Pokémon card packs, Labubu blind boxes, and video game loot boxes) to mandate transparency and enable consumers to make more informed purchasing decisions. The potential harms posed by novel gambling-like products should be further studied and properly regulated.