The Mediating Role of Problematic Use of Loot-Boxes between Internet Gaming Disorder and Online Gambling Disorder (Preprint)

UNSTRUCTURED The video game industry has introduced a new form of monetization through microtransactions. A controversial example has been the so called `loot-boxes´ (LBs) as virtual objects, which are randomized and bought with legal money. In recent years, LBs have come to connect two nosologically distinct clinical problems, namely Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) and Online Gambling Disorder (OGD). Thus, the objective of the present study was to explore the mediating role of Problematic Use of Loot-Boxes (PU-LB) between IGD and OGD. This cross-sectional and analytical study used incidental sampling from 24 Spanish schools. The final sample consisted of 542 participants (96.5% male) (range 11-30 years) who played video games, bought LBs and gambled online in the last 12 months. The results indicated that IGD had no significant direct effect on OGD (p > .05). However, the indirect effect of IGD on OGD through PU-LB was significant (p < .001). Therefore, PU-LB fully mediated the relationship between IGD and OGD. Furthermore, these results were found both in the subsamples of minors (<18 years) and young adults (≥18 years). These results may have implications for the video game industry and for decision making by policy makers.