State of Hawaii says its investigating EA over Star Wars Battlefront II loot boxes, says its ‘a Star Wars-themed online casino’

State lawmakers in Hawaii have announced that they are looking into EA for ‘predatory behavior’ after the loot boxes situation in Star Wars Battlefront II. The loot boxes have drawn an insane amount of criticism for being pay to win with having to unlock Heroes, cards, and more directly from the loot boxes.

Reps. Chris Lee and Sean Quinlan of Hawaii held a news conference where they talked about how loot boxes are gambling because of how they lure children in to an addiction.

“Now it’s moved into the main event,” Quinlan said. “Star Wars Battlefront 2 is a triple-A title that’s being released by the world’s largest gaming studio and it has the most popular intellectual properly attached to it, and it’s marketed directly at children.”

Rep. Lee called it “a Star Wars-themed online casino designed to lure kids into spending money. It’s a trap.”

Alongside this, Belgium Minster of Justice announced (via PC Gamer) that they are considering loot boxes as gambling and want them banned from video games in Europe entirely. However, they did caution that the process of changing legislation will take a while, so for now, games will continue to have these systems.

“The mixing of money and addiction is gambling,” the Gaming Commission said. “Mixing gambling and gaming, especially at a young age, is dangerous for the mental health of the child.” 

You can watch the Hawaii representative’s press conference below: