O sistema de Loot Boxes e os jogos de azar

• Autor(a) principal: Teixeira, Rúbio Araújo
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/152847
• topic: Loot boxes; Jogos de azar; Monetização; Legislação brasileira; Microtransações; Gambling; Monetization; Brazilian legislation; Microtransactions; Direito

Increasingly, the virtual universe and its resources are inserted in the daily lives of individuals and social relationships, being a phenomenon to which the Law, as well as other fields of knowledge, directs its attention. Tracing the legal limits of the expansion of digital resources is a search that reaches the academy and the courts, aiming to guarantee the protection of individuals in different dimensions of their lives. It is in this context that loot boxes – also called “reward boxes” – are inserted, a mechanism created for the monetization of virtual games, in which players can buy keys that open such boxes, however, without knowing which item is stored in your insides. The randomness of this system and the strong adherence of the juvenile public, added to the high amounts spent by players in search of rare items, aroused the concern of several governments that started to see loot boxes as a potential form of gambling. On the other hand, defenders of the system claim that this association is erroneous, since the player-buyer does not lose, as there is always some reward inside the boxes. In this sense, this dissertation aimed to present an overview of the debate, starting from the conceptualization of games, their categories and social function, giving special emphasis to virtual games and their monetization as a practice of the games industry. The loot box system, its origin and impacts were presented so that it is possible to understand, further on, the scope of the legal-social discussion about it in different countries. Finally, as a case study, the case of Brazil is presented, analyzing the legislation in force in the territory and a lawsuit that calls for the prohibition of loot boxes. It was concluded that modifications to certain aspects of the loot box system, such as the way they are presented and the categories of rewards, can avoid the need for further regulation and a complete ban in countries where gambling is prohibited. In addition, it was concluded that Brazil lacks legislation aimed at the phenomenon and updates to the existing legal provisions for decision-making.