Probability Item Regulation Law Fails to Pass National Assembly Again

In January of this year, Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party's presidential candidate, announced a pledge to reform unreasonable regulations in the gaming industry and protect user rights at the party headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul. Photo by Yoon Dong-ju doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] The amendment to the Game Industry Act, which mandates the disclosure of information on 'probability-based items,' has once again failed to pass the National Assembly.

On the 20th, the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee held a subcommittee meeting on cultural and artistic bills to discuss the amendment to the Game Industry Act, but due to differences in opinion, the amendment was not approved.

On this day, the Culture Committee reviewed five merged bills regulating probability-based items, proposed by Democratic Party lawmakers Lee Sang-heon, Yoo Jeong-ju, Yoo Dong-su, Jeon Yong-gi, and People Power Party lawmaker Ha Tae-kyung. The commonality among these bills was that they defined probability-based items in law and included mandatory disclosure of probability information and obligations for game companies to display such information. Initially, there was a consensus among both ruling and opposition party lawmakers in the subcommittee to pass the bills.

However, Kim Yoon-duk, the Democratic Party's secretary of the Culture Committee, strongly opposed the bills, returning the discussion to square one. Kim stated, "Self-regulation is working well, so imposing mandatory regulations by law requires great caution," and added, "There is also an issue of reverse discrimination against overseas game companies, so a clear resolution is necessary."

Furthermore, Kim requested that measures be prepared to address disadvantages to domestic game companies caused by legal regulations and expressed a desire to receive additional materials after the meeting for further discussion. Ultimately, the disclosure of probability-based item information was agreed to be re-discussed as a top priority in the next subcommittee meeting.

Since the first proposal by lawmaker Lee Sang-heon in December 2020, the probability-based item regulation bill, which was expected to pass the subcommittee after about two years, has once again failed to pass.

On the same day, the Korea Game Society issued a statement before the subcommittee review, arguing that "self-regulation has not been effective" and that "the exploitative method of players with abysmally low probabilities even lower than a lottery must now be addressed," urging the passage of the Game Industry Act amendment.

On the other hand, the industry has voiced strong opposition to the regulation of probability-based items. They argue that since game companies are already voluntarily disclosing item probabilities, strengthening related regulations could lead to reverse discrimination against overseas game companies. The Korea Game Policy Self-Regulation Organization also issued a statement opposing the amendment for the same reasons, stating that since self-regulation is in place, legalization would be ineffective.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.