What are the odds? Lower compliance with Western loot box probability disclosure industry self-regulation than Chinese legal regulation

Background and aims: Paid loot boxes are video game monetisation methods that provide randomised rewards of varying value. Loot boxes are prevalent internationally: approximately 60% of the highest-grossing mobile games in ‘Western’ countries (specifically, Australia and the UK) contain loot boxes (Zendle et al., 2020a).1 Loot boxes represent an important revenue stream for the industry: the sale of loot boxes in one single game can generate more than US$528,000 per day from just one country alone (Zendle et al., 2020b). Global loot box spending was estimated to have been US$15 billion in 2020, and is estimated to rise and exceed US$20 billion by 2025 (Juniper Research et al., 2021). The loot box purchasing process hides and randomises what rewards the player will actually receive (and, by implication, the rewards’ value) until after both the purchase decision and payment have already been made. Most of the time, the player will receive a reward that is perceived to be worth less than the price of the loot box, but, rarely, the player will receive a valuable reward. Players often purchase multiple loot boxes to