For many football fans, that is part of it: the game on TV this weekend, and a round of Ultimate Team in EA Sports FC afterwards. But the packages that are opened there may soon end up under the Gambling Act. On October 12, 2026, the government sent out for consultation a report recommending regulating so-called loot boxes – and the consequence could in practice be a ban in Norway.
What exactly does the government want?
The report has been prepared by the Norwegian Gaming and Foundation Authority in collaboration with the Norwegian Media Authority, the Norwegian Film Institute and the Norwegian Consumer Authority. It recommends that the Gaming Act be expanded to include mechanisms such as loot boxes: digital surprise packages that players buy with real money, directly or via virtual currency, without knowing what they are getting.
Minister of Culture and Equality Lubna Jaffery (Labor) justifies the proposal by saying that “certain mechanisms in computer games are dangerously similar to gambling”, and that, according to the government’s press release, there is a connection between the purchase of such mechanisms and the occurrence of gambling problems.
The point is that the law should treat what looks like gambling, as gambling. When you play at an online casino like Shotz Norway, it is clear from the start that you are betting money on a random outcome, and slot machines state a theoretical payback percentage. A package in a football game also has a random outcome, but it is sold as part of a regular entertainment product. It is precisely this gray area that the report will clear up.
Three alternatives – in practice a ban
According to a review of the 71-page report, the Authority outlines three alternatives. The first two will include paid random rewards even when the winnings have no monetary value – which may include content such as player cards in football games. Since such mechanisms cannot be licensed under the Norwegian gambling system, the proposal will in practice mean a ban. It will be prohibited to offer or market such mechanisms without permission, and the Norwegian Gaming and Foundation Authority will be able to stop them, including through DNS blocking.
Skin betting is already in the spotlight
The Authority has already taken action against one related practice. Through three decisions on DNS blocking, 238 gambling websites have been blocked, and 30 of them offered so-called skin betting, where players bet virtual items via login to the gaming platform Steam. The Lootboks proposal can thus be seen as the next step in a broader clean-up of the borderland between computer games and gambling.
At the same time, the report is honest about the uncertainty: according to the review, research cannot establish that loot boxes cause gambling problems. The government nevertheless believes that the correlation is strong enough to act.
Belgium has already shown what can happen
Norway won’t be the first country to crack down on packs in soccer games. In 2018, the Belgian Gaming Authority ruled that paid loot boxes, including packs in FIFA Ultimate Team, were gambling. After government pressure, EA stopped selling FIFA Points in Belgium in January 2019. Belgian players could still earn packs through the game itself, but no longer buy them for real money.
EA has always denied that loot boxes are gambling, but still chose to adapt to the rules. A Norwegian ban could thus lead to something similar here: Ultimate Team will not disappear, but the ability to buy packs with real money may disappear.
Norway is not alone
The debate is also taking place in the rest of the Nordic region. Denmark has pushed for an EU-level ban on loot boxes with addictive designs. If that happens, the gaming companies will have to deal with common European rules instead of a patchwork of national bans. How the publishers of the big football games will adapt remains to be seen. The consultation deadline is 12 January 2027, and only after that will we know how far the government will go.
Play with control
Whether it’s packages in a football game or real money games: set a fixed budget, use deposit limits where they exist and take breaks. If you find that your gambling is getting out of hand, you can get free and anonymous help from the Helpline for Gambling Addicts.
