>I think what triggered the problem with lootboxes is that the monetary value of the items is immediately obvious and you can trade those items without any fric

>I think what triggered the problem with lootboxes is that the monetary value of the items is immediately obvious and you can trade those items without any friction over the internet at any moment. For many games an item is just equivalent to some amount of money. It's not a good, it's casino tokens that you can exchange for real money at the counter. Selling cards, especially before the internet, was way more complicated and most 12yo at the time probably wouldn't bother unless they were extremely lucky and managed to acquire a very expensive card "charlie and the chocolate factory" style. Cards have pretty limited liquidity, unlike digital goods that can be traded quickly and safely across continents in an instant. If this were really what they wanted to target then they should have applied the law to loot boxes with tradable items. I don't play most of the games, but at least in Overwatch the random items are completely locked to your account. You get the ability to use whatever skins, voice lines, etc. you find in the box and there is absolutely no secondary market or anything else to do with them.