Slovakia’s ÚRHH to Study Gambling Risks in Video Games

Slovakia’s Gambling Regulatory Authority (ÚRHH) has partnered with the Faculty of Mass Media Communication at the University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava (FMK UCM) to study gambling-like mechanics in video games, including loot boxes and skin betting, and how they expose young players to gambling risk.

The research falls under ÚRHH’s “Safer Digital Future” mandate, announced on 24 August 2026. The mandate is meant to produce a strategy for protecting young people from gambling-related risks and disorders as gaming and gambling mechanics increasingly overlap.

What the study covers

The joint research will examine four areas: loot boxes, skin betting, randomized reward systems, and the wider convergence between video gaming and gambling. ÚRHH and FMK UCM will look at how these mechanics reach two age groups: Generation Z, defined here as ages 14 to 29, and Generation Alpha, ages 1 to 13.

Skin betting lets players wager virtual in-game items, usually cosmetic weapon or character skins with real secondary-market value, on the outcome of matches or on chance-based draws run by third-party sites. Loot boxes sell players a randomized chance at in-game items for real money, without revealing the odds or the contents in advance. Regulators across Europe have debated for years whether either mechanic meets the legal definition of gambling.

ÚRHH normally licenses and supervises Slovakia’s land-based and online gambling operators. Video games and loot boxes sit outside that remit today, since they are sold as entertainment products rather than licensed gambling. The research project is a step toward working out whether that boundary still holds once a game’s reward mechanics start to resemble a slot machine or a scratch card.

Why ÚRHH is targeting younger players

ÚRHH Director General Libuša Baranová framed the initiative around how younger players move between gaming and gambling environments.

“They perceive the digital and real world as one interconnected whole. Therefore, if we want to effectively protect the young generation from the risks of the digital age, we must be one step ahead.”

FMK UCM Acting Dean Juliána Mináriková said the partnership pairs the university’s research on the gaming industry with the regulator’s prevention work.

“We see cooperation with the Gambling Regulatory Authority as an opportunity to connect our knowledge of the gaming industry with practical prevention tools…”

The two age groups differ in how they encounter these mechanics. Generation Alpha players are largely too young to hold payment accounts themselves, so their exposure to loot boxes typically runs through a parent’s card or a shared household device. Generation Z players are old enough to spend independently, including on third-party skin-betting sites that operate outside any single game publisher’s control. ÚRHH and FMK UCM did not specify how the research will treat that difference, but it is one of the questions the study will need to answer.

A patchy regulatory record elsewhere

Slovakia is not the first country to look at loot boxes through a gambling lens. Belgium’s Gaming Commission declared loot boxes illegal under national gambling law in 2018, one of the few regulators to act on the mechanic directly. Academic reviews published since have found publishers largely kept selling loot boxes to Belgian players regardless, with enforcement limited by the difficulty of policing digital storefronts outside Belgium’s jurisdiction. The Netherlands’ gambling authority pursued a similar case against a loot-box mechanic in a football game before losing on appeal.

ÚRHH’s approach differs from both: rather than move directly to a ruling on legal status, the authority is commissioning academic research first, to build an evidence base on how the mechanics actually reach Slovak minors before deciding whether existing gambling law needs to extend into gaming.

What happens next

ÚRHH gave no timeline for when the research will conclude or when findings will translate into policy. The authority said the results will feed into the wider “Safer Digital Future” strategy, which covers young players’ exposure to gambling-related risks and disorders beyond licensed gambling products. Whether that strategy leads to new rules for game publishers operating in Slovakia, or stays limited to prevention and education, will depend on what the FMK UCM research finds.

Source: Slovakia’s Gambling Regulatory Authority (ÚRHH)