Document is current

Article History

Received: 15 June 2026

Accepted: 11 September 2026

First Online: 17 September 2026

Declarations

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent: No animal or human subjects by the authors were used in this study.

Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest. JT has received, in the last three years: (1) Open access publication funding from Gambling Research Exchange Ontario (GREO), (2) Conference travel and accommodation funding from the Academic Forum for the Study of Gambling (AFSG), (3) A minor exploratory research grant from the ASFG, 4) Seed Grant funding from the International Centre for Responsible Gambling (ICRG), (5) Studentship funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), (6) Rapid evidence review (RER) funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), (7) Policy Fellowship funding from UKRI, (8) Gambling Harms Research and Innovation Partnership funding from UKRI. JS has no disclosures. AR has received funding in the last three years from the Tasmanian Department of Treasury and Finance, the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission, NSW Liquor and Gaming, Queensland Department of Justice, NSW Office of Responsible Gambling, Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety, Northern Territory Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade and the New Zealand Ministry of Health. He declares no conflicts in relation to this work.SW has no disclosures. L.Y.X. is supported by a Presidential Assistant Professors Scheme Start-Up Research Grant (9382009) awarded by the City University of Hong Kong [香港城市大學] (March 2025). L.Y.X. has provided paid consultancy and research services for (i) Public Group International Ltd (t/a PUBLIC) (Companies House number: 10608507), commissioned by the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to conduct independent research on understanding player experiences of loot box protections (October 2024 – May 2025); (ii) the Council of Europe International Cooperation Group on Drugs and Addiction (the Pompidou Group) on a project concerning the risks of online gambling and gaming to young people co-funded by the European Union via the Technical Support Instrument and implemented by the Council of Europe, in cooperation with the European Commission (December 2024 – May 2025); and (iii) the Institute of Public Health on a report concerning the advertising of harmful products to children funded by the Irish Department of Health and intended for its Online Health Taskforce (July 2025). L.Y.X. was supported by a PhD Fellowship funded by the IT University of Copenhagen [IT-Universitetet i København] (December 2021 – November 2024). L.Y.X. was employed by LiveMe, then a subsidiary of Cheetah Mobile (NYSE: CMCM), as an in-house counsel intern from July to August 2019 in Beijing, China. L.Y.X. was not involved with the monetisation of video games by Cheetah Mobile or its subsidiaries. L.Y.X. undertook a brief period of voluntary work experience at Wiggin LLP (Solicitors Regulation Authority number: 420659) in London, England, in August 2022. L.Y.X. has contributed to research projects enabled by data access provided by the video game industry, specifically Unity Technologies (NYSE:U) (October 2022 – August 2023). L.Y.X. has been invited to provide advice to the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and its successor (the Department for Culture, Media and Sport; DCMS) on the technical working group for loot boxes and the Video Games Research Framework. L.Y.X. was the (co-)recipient of three Academic Forum for the Study of Gambling (AFSG) postgraduate research support grants (March 2022, January 2023, and July 2024) and a minor exploratory research grant (May 2024) derived from ‘regulatory settlements applied for socially responsible purposes’ received by the UK Gambling Commission and administered by Gambling Research Exchange Ontario (GREO) and its successor (Greo Evidence Insights; Greo). L.Y.X. accepted funding to publish open-access academic papers from GREO and the AFSG that was received by the UK Gambling Commission as above (October, November, and December 2022, November 2023, and May 2024). L.Y.X. was the recipient of an Elite Research Travel Grant 2024 [EliteForsk-rejsestipendium 2024] awarded by the Agency for Higher Education and Science of the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science [Uddannelses-og Forskningsstyrelsen under Uddannelses-og Forskningsministeriet] (February 2024). L.Y.X. has accepted conference travel and attendance grants from the Socio-Legal Studies Association (February 2022 and February 2023); the Current Advances in Gambling Research Conference Organising Committee with support from GREO (February 2022); the International Relations Office of The Jagiellonian University (Uniwersytet Jagielloński), the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA; Narodowa Agencja Wymiany Akademickiej), and the Republic of Poland (Rzeczpospolita Polska) with co-financing from the European Social Fund of the European Commission of the European Union under the Knowledge Education Development Operational Programme (May 2022); the Society for the Study of Addiction (November 2022, March 2023, and November 2024); the organisers of the 13th Nordic SNSUS (Stiftelsen Nordiska Sällskapet för Upplysning om Spelberoende; the Nordic Society Foundation for Information about Problem Gambling) Conference, which received gambling industry sponsorship (January 2023); the MiSK Foundation (Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Foundation) (November 2023); the UK Gambling Commission (March 2024); the Video Game and Art Research Center, Peking University (April 2026); and the Alberta Gambling Research Institute (May 2026). L.Y.X. has received honoraria from the Center for Ludomani for contributing parent guides about mobile games for Tjekspillet.dk, which was funded by the Danish Ministry of Health’s gambling addiction pool (Sundhedsministeriets Ludomanipulje) (March and December 2023), the Fundació Pública Tecnocampus Mataró-Maresme (TecnoCampus Mataró-Maresme Foundation) for a guest lecture (November 2023), the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) of Greater Toronto Youth Gambling Awareness Program for a presentation, which was funded by the Government of Ontario, Canada (March 2024), Lunds universitet (Lund University) for the right to translate parent guides about mobile games into Swedish for Kollaspelet.se, which was funded by Mediamyndigheten (the Swedish Agency for the Media) and Barnahus Stockholm (December 2024); Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art for a guest lecture (December 2024); and DiGRA Korea and the Game-n-Science Institute [게임과학연구원] under the Game Culture Foundation [게임문화재단] under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of South Korea [문화체육관광부] for participating in an academic research survey (January 2025). L.Y.X. received royalties by virtue of the copyright subsisting in some of his publications from the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) (Companies House number: 01310636) (March 2023, 2024, & 2025). A full gifts and hospitality register-equivalent for L.Y.X. is available at: https://www.leonxiao.com/about/gifts-and-hospitality-register. The up-to-date version of L.Y.X.’s conflict-of-interest statement is available at: https://www.leonxiao.com/about/conflict-of-interest. EW-D has no disclosures. CH has no disclosures.PN was a member of the Advisory Board for Safer Gambling from 2021 to 2025, which was an advisory group of the Gambling Commission in Great Britain. In the last three years, PN has been a named researcher on projects funded by the Academic Forum for the Study of Gambling, Alberta Gambling Research Institute, Arts and Humanities Research Council, BA/Leverhulme, Canadian Institute for Health Research, Clean Up Gambling, Gambling Research Australia, and the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation. PN has received honoraria for reviewing from the Academic Forum for the Study of Gambling and the Belgium Ministry of Justice, travel and accommodation funding from the Alberta Gambling Research Institute and the Economic and Social Research Institute, and open access fee funding from the Academic Forum for the Study of Gambling and Greo Evidence Insights.

Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interests.