Washington State Hops On The Loot Box Regulation Bandwagon

“When it rains, it pours” could apply to the weather in Seattle this time of year or to the efforts of one legislative body after another to introduce legislation regarding loot boxes in video games. The latest to pile on is Washington state senator Kevin Ranker, though it’s about as tentative as can be.

As reported by PCGamesN, Ranker has introduced a bill, not to regulate loot boxes, but to ask his state’s gambling commission to “conduct a study to determine whether state law could consider loot boxes gambling.” If it passes, the commission would have until Dec. 1 of this year to present its findings. You can read the very brief bill here.

So yeah, it’s going to be a while before anything comes of this. One interesting wrinkle is that it’s Washington state, which, as you know, contains Seattle, which, as you also know, contains a lot of game developers — a lot more than Hawaii — so any anti-loot box legislation passed there could have a major effect on the gaming industry, especially if it seeks to regulate their “manufacture” instead of their “distribution.”