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Belgium - Black Lion Keys


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> @"Solaris.2489" said:

> Belgium government is very intelligent, its a blessing in disguise. Never let companies cheat you.

 

DO you live in Belgium? LOL cause I tend to think you don't hahaha People are don't really trust their governement and are pretty angry at it . Populism rising but still that's not the point.

 

At start, I just wanted some fix about this story from Anet. Regulation is very important and people tend to minimize the risk from those things thinking they can handle it.

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Eh, our government is as (in) competent as any other country. Though I doubt this forum is the right place to discuss the finer details of my countries problems with governing.

 

I just wanted to clear up a misconception I see repeated a lot across the internet.

Black lion keys becoming unavailable in the Belgian region is not because of a new law. I think the last change to Belgian gambling law was in 2011, targeting online gambling and advertising of said service.

 

However what has changed is that after Star Wars battlefront the issue of lootboxes etc has come to the attention of the people responsible for monitoring that our gambling laws are respected. They looked into the situation and concluded that according to our current laws lootboxes are a form of gambling.

 

Believe it or not but the issue of minors does not really come into the discussion at this point. In essence, lootboxes provide a random reward with random value after purchase.

 

This is fine according to the law IF the provider of the service follows our regulations such as disclosing the odds, random and scheduled acces to the code behind the payout system etc.

 

And that's where the conflict arises.

 

No new law, just a situation where the people responsible are waking up to a world where gaming has become a billion dollar industry that is conducting business that does not follow regulations that have been created for very good reasons.

 

Inconvenient if you want to buy a key but in essence the law is trying to protect the consumer.

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> @"Sabas.8431" said:

> Eh, our government is as (in) competent as any other country. Though I doubt this forum is the right place to discuss the finer details of my countries problems with governing.

>

> I just wanted to clear up a misconception I see repeated a lot across the internet.

> Black lion keys becoming unavailable in the Belgian region is not because of a new law. I think the last change to Belgian gambling law was in 2011, targeting online gambling and advertising of said service.

>

> However what has changed is that after Star Wars battlefront the issue of lootboxes etc has come to the attention of the people responsible for monitoring that our gambling laws are respected. They looked into the situation and concluded that according to our current laws lootboxes are a form of gambling.

>

> Believe it or not but the issue of minors does not really come into the discussion at this point. In essence, lootboxes provide a random reward with random value after purchase.

>

> This is fine according to the law IF the provider of the service follows our regulations such as disclosing the odds, random and scheduled acces to the code behind the payout system etc.

>

> And that's where the conflict arises.

>

> No new law, just a situation where the people responsible are waking up to a world where gaming has become a billion dollar industry that is conducting business that does not follow regulations that have been created for very good reasons.

>

> Inconvenient if you want to buy a key but in essence the law is trying to protect the consumer.

 

The low got signed back then but got in application not that long ago. But yeah it was totally my point :)

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Comme on, just admit that this situation is silly.

 

Using a VPN to bypass geo restrictions to purchase the chance at maybe perhaps obtaining a skin. There are a couple of items that are unavailable to us in Belgium.

 

Gw2 is a fun game but using a VPN and running the risk of having to deal with customer support, yikes.

 

It also doesn't fill me with confidence that the last time this came up and I mentioned vpn and gemstore the post was swiftly removed.

 

Instead of using a VPN to bypass this situation an actual solution should be offered.

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> @"Sabas.8431" said:

> Comme on, just admit that this situation is silly.

The goal of the Belgian gambling commission might have been noble; the execution has repercussions that they don't seem to have considered. That's created results that aren't going to please everyone.

 

There are two actual solutions (plus the VPN, a third); I'm sorry that doesn't appeal to you.

* Black Lion Exclusives Chest

* Doing map completions for keys. (And stories.)

 

I'd certainly be pleased if ANet stopped offering so many BL-chest-exclusive skins, but I don't see it as a problem that they haven't. I'm willing to wait for the skins to be offered in some other (ahem) fashion. I won't spend gems on keys, so all the relevant skins I have are strictly from keys I've earned within the game or from purchasing the BLEC on the TP.

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