The combined might of Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Magic: The Gathering have met their biggest challenger – the Singapore government. Singapore is looking at regulating the sale of blind boxes to minimise the risk of gambling, and this will also include trading cards, used in tabletop gaming.
The nature of randomised product contents, along with the speculative nature of premium cards found in sealed packs make them similar to blind boxes. And since the contents are not known before hand and can resemble gambling, especially for the younger audience demographics, Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs is preparing to regulate them.
The news of trading cards being grouped together with the more commonly available blind boxes comes two weeks after Singapore authorities indicated that it was drafting new regulations to manage the sale of blind boxes.
At that time, feedback from the community argued for tighter regulation to also cover similar products such as trading cards, and other similar items that use lottery-like mechanics to entice users to buy items that provide items that have a potential premium price tag attached to it.
Blind boxes such as the ones offering random Labubu dolls can be priced from S$40 each but consumers are encouraged to buy a complete pack of six boxes to increase their chances of getting a prized item within the set. Similarly, fans of trading cards tend to buy a box filled with card packs instead of buying a single card pack, to secure a higher chance of obtaining a rare card within the box.
Hsals needs more space in his house, and more money in his bank account to pay for all the toys, collectibles and other geek related items that companies are churning out. Free-time? Girlfriend? Who’s got time for those?
Si Jia
