Children duped by 'loot boxes'
Money Box
BBC
4.2 • 825 Ratings
🗓️ 4 July 2020
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Just days after a damning House of Lords report, Money Box can reveal that loot boxes in some games aimed at children have win rates of as little as 0.01%. Experts are worried this could get children hooked on gambling.
The courts have ordered changes in the way income is calculated which will mean more money for thousands of people on Universal Credit.
And we hear from one listener who got his money back for a cancelled holiday through his debit card but now the company is trying to take it back.
Presenter: Paul Lewis Reporter: Daniel Whitworth Researcher: Lizzy McNeill Producer: Alex Lewis Editor: Emma Rippon
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In Northern Ireland, from the late 70s to the early 90s, the IRA killed over 40 alleged informers. |
| 0:08.0 | But the man who often found, tortured and sometimes killed these people on behalf of the IRA |
| 0:12.0 | was himself an informer, a secret British army agent with the codename Stakeknife. |
| 0:18.0 | Who gets to play God? And why me? Why my family? When lies are still being told to this day, |
| 0:24.0 | who do you believe? I wouldn't even know where to start and I'm with the IRA. |
| 0:28.5 | Steakknife. Listen first on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts. |
| 0:37.5 | Hello, this is the Moneybox podcast with me, Paul Lewis. |
| 0:41.4 | The courts have ordered changes in the way income is calculated for people on universal credit, |
| 0:46.2 | which should mean more help for thousands of people. |
| 0:49.0 | We hear from one listener who got his refund for a cancelled holiday through his debit card, |
| 0:53.0 | but now the company's trying to take it back, and the young people who thought they knew what they were doing this summer. |
| 1:00.4 | But first, there are calls this week for tough new controls on the way some video games tempt children into gambling. |
| 1:07.9 | The House of Lords Committee on Gambling says the way that loot boxes are sold in |
| 1:12.2 | video games, quote, looks like gambling, feels like gambling and should be regulated as gambling. |
| 1:18.9 | A loot box is something you find while playing a video game and for a small fee you can open it to |
| 1:23.7 | find a character or weapon or treasure. You pay every time you open a loopbox, but you don't |
| 1:29.1 | know what's inside. It could be the jackpot prize, you're the one you want, or it could be nothing. |
| 1:35.2 | Moneybox has learned that in some games, the chances of getting the jackpot are one in 10,000. |
| 1:41.4 | Dan Whitworth's been investigating. Well, Paul, let me play you some clips from James, |
| 1:45.8 | who's from the Vale of Glamorgan, talking about his seven-year-old son, Daniel. Now, at the start |
| 1:50.8 | of lockdown, like many people, James was juggling from home with homeschooling for Daniel. So, James |
| 1:56.8 | downloaded a free-to-play game on his tablet called Looney Tunes World of Mayhem. |
... |
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