Loot boxes and micro-transactions are annoying, but should they be considered illegal gambling? In the state of Washington, a new bill is targeting loot boxes in an attempt to answer that question.

While many gamers find the loot box system in Star Wars Battlefront II frustrating, some politicians suspect that systems like this might be a form of gambling. On January 11, Order 66 Bill 6266 was introduced by Washington Senators Kevin Ranker, Reuven Carlyle, and Karen Keiser.

Bill 6266 is a request for the Washington State Gambling Commission to conduct a study on loot boxes to determine, “whether games and apps containing these mechanisms are considered gambling under Washington law,” and if children should be allowed to play these games. No video games are mentioned by name, but it is clear that games with loot boxes like Star Wars Battlefront II are being targeted.

On January 31, the bill was presented by Sen. Ranker at the Senate Labor and Commerce hearing. At the hearing, Sen. Ranker claimed to have spoken with members of the video game industry, including people at PopCap and EA, who had told him that these micro-transactions were essentially gambling.

Later that day, the committee agreed to advanced Bill 6266, “to rules with a due pass recommendation,” increasing the chance of the bill being passed. If the bill is passed, the Gambling Commission would have until December 1, 2018 to provide the results of their study. If not passed, the bill will expire on December 1, 2019.

Even if the bill is advanced, loot boxes are not in any immediate danger. It takes awhile for legislation to pass even at state levels, but this does once again raise the question about how fair and legal loot boxes really are.

A full video of the hearing can be found above. The discussion of Bill 6266 starts at the beginning, but is interrupted at 5:42 and continues at 9:40 and ends at 24:11. The bill advancing can be seen at 10:58.