Denmark’s gaming regulator Spillemyndigheden is urging cracking down on gambling elements in children’s online games.
Spillemyndigheden made the recommendation in a research project report done in cooperation with the Danish Center for Social Science Research (VIVE) as part of initiatives ordered by the government several years ago to fight gambling addiction.
The report shies away from actual policy recommendations while urging more investigation of gambling elements in children’s games while urging parents to become more involved in what kids do online.
The report said: “Parents have difficulty understanding children’s gaming—including the social dimensions of gaming—because the parents did not grow up with it themselves.”
The report heighted the use of loot box microtransactions and skin betting as being akin to online gambling. These are also elements that children find especially exciting, it said.
It called for monitoring such forms of gaming more closely and also monitoring the part played by influencers on YouTube and other social media in promoting skin betting.
In related news, most of Denmark’s political parties support the Ministry of Taxation requirement of mandatory player ID cards for those who using betting kiosks.
The ministry asserts that the cards will protect young people and gambling addicts while fighting money-laundering and match fixing.
Minister of Taxation Morten Bødskov said, “With the playing card, we do away with the opportunity to play anonymously in, among other things, football matches.”
He added, “We are thus putting a stick in the wheel of the criminals who use this type of game as a means of laundering money. With the playing card, players must register, no matter how small amounts they play for, and data about their games are analyzed and reported to the authorities if it seems suspicious.”
The cards will also determine the age of players and whether they have self-excluded from playing or are exceeding a self-set spending cap.
Lottery products will be exempt from the requirement, but the requirement will end the ability to play anonymously.
Bødskov added, “Many Danes—especially young men—have problems with gambling, and this often has major consequences for themselves, their future and their families. That is why we have agreed with a broad majority of the parliamentary parties to launch a playing card. It is a targeted bet, as this is where the problems with gambling addiction are greatest.”
