I understand that with loot boxes in some video games, these items like skins, weapons, tools, among others, can be traded for real money. However, there are others that are equally addictive without any monetary benefit. On the other hand, with casinos, in general, you can win money 100% of the time. Therefore, these cases of addiction are not strictly related to money, but the loss of money would be more of a consequence. So, to what degree is money a stimulating factor in addictions?
Is the loss of money just collateral damage?
Basically, this loot box or some other types of gacha are a new way of gambling, because there is a value that is exchanged for an item in the game. And I don't see any difference between casino gambling addiction and lootbox or gacha. I have a friend who is willing to spend a lot of money to get gacha items in the game, and this seems like an addiction because I think it's excessive when spending a lot of money just for in-game, I don't really know if he will exchange it for real money, but this is also risky because as far as I know almost all games do not allow their users to exchange anything in the game for real money, and if caught then it can make him lose everything.
And I found that the gacha game has been widely criticized for being addictive :
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Criticalhit - Gacha Addiction-
Wikipedia - Gacha Game-
Dinus - The Analysis of Gacha Game Addiction on the Players'