According to Korean games media reports, Kim Bingji, a representative of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, proposed a fundamental legal ban on the “full-scratching card-sharp” profit model, which has long been criticized for stimulating gamblers and for inducing excessive consumption, particularly of underage players.
The core elements of this bill, which was submitted in the form of a partial amendment to the Korean Act on the Revitalization of the Game Industry, are the prohibition of probabilistic manipulation of probabilities and the total prohibition of the “complete gacha” model. The model makes it difficult for users to predict the cost of obtaining the final prize. In addition, the model, with its structural problem of abandoning all the funds previously invested would be a sunk cost, has been criticized for stimulating speculation among users and inducing excessive consumption.
In explaining the purpose of the bill’s proposal, Congressman Kim Bing Ki said: “The game has the character of a post-sale seller who can still change the content of a commodity at will, and it is difficult to adequately protect consumers only through existing e-commerce laws” and “the national interests will be safeguarded through nuanced consumer protection measures that take into account the inherent characteristics of the market.”
The bill, which had been proposed by Liu Dong-soo during his previous term of office, was automatically repealed by the end of his term. At that time, the Commissioner-General of the Korean National Congress Commission for Cultural Sports and Sports had stated that “the fundamental prohibition of complete gacha would require a legislative policy to consider that the method was as harmful as gambling games” and that it required a fact-finding or empirical study.
The Ministry of Cultural Sports and Tourism, the competent authority, has also stated that “the adoption of a law prohibiting the business model of the gaming company itself requires careful consideration” and is expected to have in-depth discussions during the review of future bills.
The Fair Trading Commission has repeatedly detected and sanctioned probabilistic manipulation by Korean games companies since last year, which has been prohibited by law in Japan, where the model was first created. In addition to prohibiting “complete gacha”, the amendment includes a number of user protection measures. The main elements are as follows:
• Obligations to provide accurate information: Game companies must provide accurate information to users about the content of paid games. • Refinement of the guarantee of refund: to specify the basis on which the user may receive the full refund if it is necessary to refund or recover the content of the payment due to the negligence of the game company. • Delegation of investigative powers to the Government: if there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the probability information published by the game company is not in conformity with the actual situation, to the Minister of Culture and Sports for Tourism for direct investigation. • Strengthening the protection of secondary content and when the service is terminated: providing that users must be informed of protection programmes such as the exchange of secondary content through the currency of the game, etc., and institutionalizing compensation in case of termination of service.
The introduction of the bill reflects the country ‘ s continued interest in the regulation of the game industry, particularly in the context of the Act on the Revival of the Game Industry, where the Government has previously strengthened its review of the mechanism of drawing cards (e.g., boxing). If adopted, the proposal could have far-reaching implications for the Korean game market and for domestic and foreign developers relying on the “full-turn” model, but its legislative process still has to face the challenges of industry resistance and data support.