In the House of Lord the “Loot Boxes in Video Games” took part on Wednesday 13th December which can be obtained from here and the opening few words were from a Liberal Democrat member Don Foster who is the Lord Foster of Bath “To ask His Majesty’s Government what measures they are planning to take to mitigate the risks caused by loot boxes in video games. My Lords, in begging leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper, I declare an interest as chairman of Peers for Gambling Reform.” The person who responded for the Government was Stephen Parkinson who responded to that question.

Stephen Parkinson: We welcome new industry-led guidance to strengthen player protections in relation to loot boxes. We have agreed a 12-month implementation period, during which we expect the industry to work with players, parents, academics, consumer groups and government bodies to implement this guidance in full. We are working closely with academics to support independent scrutiny of these new measures, and we will provide further updates and keep under review our position on possible future legislative options.

Later on one of the people who also contributed was Steve Bassam from Brighton who is a person I have met on several times and he was a significant person

Steve Bassam: My Lords, whether it is the two-year gap between the Government’s call for evidence and their response, or the further year-long wait for the games industry to announce guidelines, efforts to tackle child access to loot boxes and other in-game features with gambling-like features have been far too slow, in our view. Like others, we hope that voluntary arrangements will work, but if they do not, can the Minister confirm whether the Government have a specific regulatory approach in mind? If so, how long might implementation take?

Stephen Parkinson: We think the industry-led guidance on loot boxes has the potential, if fully implemented, to improve protections and to meet the Government’s objectives. We expect the games industry to implement the guidance in full and we will monitor that carefully. If the industry is unable to meet our objectives, there are a range of options that the Government may consider, but we would like to see how they bed in first.