00:00Blind boxes and surprise items are everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE these days.
00:06From collectable keychains to mystery parcels, the popularity of randomised items has spread
00:11rapidly in the past few years.
00:13The concept of these items of chance isn't something new.
00:16We've got stuff like trading card packs and gachapon machines around Singapore for decades
00:20now.
00:21I get the appeal.
00:22You definitely get a small rush of excitement when you open one of these, but do people
00:26stop at one, or do they keep trying for more till they get the one they were gunning for,
00:31or perhaps one that's worth more than the rest?
00:34And when that happens and people buy more and more, does it become a form of gambling?
00:44These keychains, toys and cards may seem harmless if you just get one or two, but if one gets
00:49hooked onto the thrill of the element of surprise, could it lead to a gambling addiction?
00:55At what point does it become a problem?
00:59We interviewed some people for their opinions, let's take a look.
01:02I think a lot of people buy blind boxes before, I've seen Nia a lot.
01:07And they sell so many different types, Labubu and everything, and then there are like sunny
01:11angels as well.
01:12Pokemon cards is the only one I buy.
01:14Usually like those figures or even like back charms.
01:18Me personally when I buy, I've been thinking about it for months, cause like usually I'll do
01:21some research on the cards they are dropping, maybe it's like a specific Pokemon that I
01:25like and I really want that card.
01:27The amount that I buy could be impulsive, maybe I decided that I was gonna buy one booster
01:31box, but after reaching the card shop I might buy more.
01:34Certain people I know, they really obsessively want like a certain one, and if they don't
01:38get it then they will start buying multiple, trying to pull the one that they really want.
01:44I do have one specific one that I really want, but if I get the other ones, it's fine.
01:48I wouldn't say impulsive purchases, because I've seen people who just buy like one or two,
01:53but some people like if they buy one, they like to have all the collection.
01:57So maybe that is an impulsive behaviour.
02:00Not knowing is part of the fun of all blind boxes, that's why I don't really mind not
02:03getting the one I want.
02:04I kind of just buy them because I have the urge to unbox.
02:07The reason people buy it is because it's like exciting to open it and see, so I still
02:10think the closed ones have the appeal.
02:12I think it depends on the mentality.
02:14For most people, I think it's just about embracing your inner child, right?
02:17So I think that's why adults, when they have a bit of money, it's a form of escapism.
02:20I think they know what they're doing when they buy it, and I think they know the consequences
02:26if they don't get what they want.
02:27So I think they mentally prep themselves like, hey, okay, I'm just gonna like whatever
02:32that comes out.
02:33I've seen people spend thousands of dollars on it, like damn.
02:38I do know people that will spend copious or excessive amounts of money doing so.
02:43And I think it's obviously not very smart, budget-wise.
02:48Yeah, I have addicted, but like I have stopped, so...
02:53Former.
02:54It's not a form of gambling, I would say.
02:56Because gambling is like hoping to get something more in return, but with just thought, it's
03:01just something for emotional support.
03:03So I don't think it's a form of gambling.
03:05Absolutely.
03:06It is why we buy it, to fulfill our gambling urge, you know?
03:10For me, I don't think it's gambling because I'm not buying to sell, I'm buying it for myself.
03:15So there's no expected value to come out of it, so I don't see it as gambling, no.
03:19I think like some people get adrenaline rush when they open, and then they try to chase
03:23that feeling, so they keep buying, and I think that might lead to addiction.
03:27Ultimately, it comes down to the individual.
03:29If you have poor self-restraint, then anything like even kinder joy can become an obsession,
03:34or like gambling, if you will.
03:36So it seems as though there isn't a clear answer as to whether people think these blind
03:41boxes can be considered gambling or not.
03:43But all of them seem to agree that you can get hooked onto the rush, and even possibly
03:48get addicted to buying them.
03:50Gambling, as we typically know it in the form of casinos or betting, is regulated by different
03:55laws in Singapore.
03:56So, could those regulations apply to blind boxes in the future as well?
04:00I'd like to find out more.
04:02Hi Alexander, thanks so much for taking the time to speak to us today.
04:05Yeah, not at all, Edward.
04:06It's a pleasure to be here.
04:07Okay, we've got this stuff here.
04:09What's the appeal of blind boxes, do you think?
04:12Let's start by talking a little bit about what do we mean by blind boxes, right?
04:15You can see there's lots of different things here.
04:18What do these things all have in common?
04:20It's you don't know what's inside, and I think that's the appeal.
04:23You know roughly what's inside, but you don't know exactly what's inside, and therein
04:27lies the fun.
04:28It's that little like dopamine hit.
04:30It's that little bit of the unexpected, right?
04:32We like things that are new.
04:34We like things that are novel.
04:35We quite enjoy not being 100% in control in many situations.
04:41They're leveraging off this element of chance, of randomness.
04:45Isn't that akin to gambling?
04:48Let's take a step back from the legal definition for a moment, right?
04:51And think about what is gambling and what's wrong with gambling.
04:54Is there a difference between gambling and randomness and chance?
04:58I think probably there is.
04:59Like there are many things that are chancey that are not necessarily gambling.
05:04What really conceptually makes gambling gambling is that you stake something on the outcome of chance, right?
05:09So if I flip a coin, I say, hey Edward, heads or tails?
05:12Is that gambling?
05:13Not really.
05:14But if I now say, okay, Edward, heads or tails?
05:16And if it's whatever you choose, then you get 10 bucks.
05:20Is that gambling?
05:21That's now gambling, right?
05:23Because something hinges on the outcome of that.
05:25It sounds to me like that promise of profit, that promise of a reward, a material reward.
05:33So when we think about these things, the loot boxes and stuff, my instinctive reaction is,
05:38I don't think it sounds a lot like gambling because nothing really turns on the outcome, right?
05:42You're not really betting anything on the outcome, but really the principle that we need to be looking at is
05:47what is the harm that is being caused, right?
05:49When we think about laws and how we apply laws, lawyers, we have this thing called a purposive approach.
05:54We have to think about the purpose behind the laws when we interpret them, right?
05:57So what's the purpose behind anti-gambling laws?
06:00It's not to stop you gambling per se, right?
06:02It's to stop the harms that come out of gambling.
06:04And what are the harms that come out of gambling?
06:06It's that addictive effect, which creates negative impacts for yourself,
06:11and for your family and for society.
06:14So I have personal experience with this because I, in 1997, I started playing a collectible card game.
06:20I was spending, I kid you not, almost all my allowance on it.
06:26I'm thinking back to that and I'm thinking,
06:28there was a lot of harm being done to me back then.
06:31That's a sort of microcosm of the problem of gambling, right?
06:34We can't regulate everything.
06:36To go down to the level of, okay, we're going to regulate this because kids might lose their allowance on it,
06:40that's going to be, that's going to be pretty harsh.
06:42It's going to be pretty difficult to enforce.
06:44It's kind of a spectrum.
06:45You don't want to go too far up, in which case anything with any element of chance,
06:49oh, I got to regulate that for your own good, right?
06:51But at the same time, there are clear lines.
06:53What are the lines that the government has put in place to protect people against behaviour
06:59that's obviously going to be bad for themselves and for society and their families?
07:03Generally, in terms of the law, you want to protect people from bad things that are done by other people.
07:09When it comes to gambling, we're getting further and further down the line, right?
07:11Because we're saying, well, now you're not necessarily harming other people,
07:14but you could be harming yourself and there could be knock-on effects to your family, right?
07:18Policymakers have a limited amount of time.
07:20It takes quite a lot of resources to go to parliament and get a law passed to do this.
07:24And the boundaries of that law and that policy have to be certain enough.
07:28So, you know, unless there is good evidence that this is a real harm,
07:33that it's having real negative effects on society,
07:38I don't think regulators generally will go to the trouble of regulating it.
07:43But even coming back to the core of this, right?
07:45Should we even have that policy?
07:47At a certain level, these things aren't that harmful, right?
07:50It's not that harmful for there to be a bit of randomness in your life.
07:54In fact, gambling, gambling, there's nothing wrong with it when it's done within some parameters, right?
07:58When it's not done to excess.
08:00The blind box phenomenon itself is not new.
08:02Potmart, of course, this kind of labubu thing is new.
08:05But blind box phenomenon is not new.
08:07Is labubu something to be worried about?
08:09The fact that people are spending thousands of dollars on labubu?
08:12Well, look, if in, you know, five, ten years, people are going bankrupt from buying labubus,
08:17okay, maybe we should do something about it.
08:18But chances are by next year or the year after, it'll be something else.
08:21So maybe it's not about labubu or Potmart specifically.
08:24It's a question of is this something that fuels addictive behavior in like a persistent and dangerous way?
08:31Or is it something that's just a fad and it's going to blow over?
08:34And for gambling, the existing law is primarily the Gambling Control Act, right?
08:38And the Gambling Control Act has a pretty wide definition of gambling.
08:41The only way that you know for sure whether these things satisfy the definition of gambling is if a judge says
08:46these things satisfy the definition of gambling, right?
08:48And we don't currently have a case, as far as I'm aware, that says that so definitively.
08:52Thank you so much, Alexander.
08:54Not a problem.
08:55I really appreciated you going through this with me and working it out.
08:59It's a pleasure.
09:01So, blind boxes.
09:04Harmless fun?
09:05Or something that could lead to more serious behavioral issues?
09:10Let us know what you think.
09:11And if you buy blind boxes too.
09:15Learn how to MIT b op.
09:28стенắt.tencb.com
09:34For more details, this was asked to check.
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