Will Hong Kong’s claw machine rules curb gaming habits and playing dangers?

After years of debate over whether or not claw and pinball machines encourage high-stakes playing, Hong Kong has lastly proposed stricter oversight to curb gaming, significantly amongst youngsters.

Cases of dependancy linked to those machines are rising within the metropolis, however drawing a transparent distinction between gaming and playing stays troublesome.

As Hong Kong prepares to amend related legal guidelines, the South China Morning Post examines how different jurisdictions regulate the development and asks an professional from an dependancy counselling centre whether or not their approaches might work domestically.

1. Why and the way Hong Kong is stepping up regulation

Claw machine retailers have proliferated throughout Hong Kong, significantly after a 2022 courtroom ruling that operators weren’t required to acquire a public leisure licence

These companies have advanced to supply high-value prizes. Some pinball machine retailers have additionally been accused of cashing out rewards by “gift redemption” or “private buy-backs”, attracting clients to spend giant sums of cash or prolonged intervals of time.

The addictive nature of such machines, usually marketed as amusement, has prompted the federal government to suggest bringing them – together with different prize-based amusement video games – beneath a licensing regime, the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau stated on Monday.

Currently, licence holders should cap spending at HK$5 (64 US cents) per play and restrict prize values to HK$300 or under. Proposed regulatory measures additionally embrace requiring operators to show warning notices about dependancy dangers.