World

House Of Lord Warns: Loot Boxes Is Gambling

Published

5 years ago

July 9, 2020

It is official now: loot boxes are considered as a form of gambling. Following a period of concern and extensive discussion by various groups, The House Of Lords Gambling Committee from the United Kingdom officially declared loot boxes in videos games as a form of gambling, and they have issued stern warnings about the continuing implementation of it in games.

Loot boxes, despite not being a casino game, can be related to it. In a betting perspective, loot boxes can be related to gambling in the way that it gives the player or buyer the chance to win an item but without any guarantee. That is how most casino games work, after all.

“It’s gambling”

In a report that was recently released, BBC reported that the House of Lords have declared loot boxes as a form of gambling, as it meets all the factors that are present in all gambling games. To learn more you can read more online casino reviews to get the better idea about the best bookmaker.

“If a product looks like gambling and feels like gambling, it should be regulated as gambling,” the report said. “There is academic research which proves that there is a connection, though not necessarily a causal link, between loot box spending and problem gambling.”

In line with that, the house of Lords is also now seeking to have loot boxes in videos games be regulated in the same way that gambling is being regulated. Otherwise, the game developers and owners will be forced to remove loot boxes from their games–or risk getting in trouble with the law.

What are the requirements for gambling?

To better understand how the House of Lords arrived at their decision of declaring loot boxes as a form of gambling, it is a good idea to better understand what makes an activity a form of gambling first.

By definition, an activity can be considered a form of gambling or betting when it meets three requirements: there is a consideration, there is a risk, and there is a prize.

Consideration refers to any amount wagered by the playing party. Most of the times, it comes in the form of monetary currency. However, wagering is not limited to money itself. It could be other forms of resources such as property, gold, or any other things that can be wagered in a game, as long as the betting party allows it. In loot boxes, players often purchase the loot box with real money in order to get the in-game item.

Risk, on the other hand, refers to the chance involved after placing your bet or wagering your resources. In gambling, there is no assurance that your bet would win. You have the chance to win it, or you could also blow it and lose. In the same way, there is never a guarantee that a player will get any promised major price for a single draw.

Finally, the prize. In gambling, the prize could be a fixed amount you can get if you win such jackpots from a slot machine. The prize could also be the resources of the opposing player which will be awarded to you should you win.

Loot boxes are not gambling–in 2017

In a 2017 report, the UK Gambling Commission declared that loot boxes in video games can’t be considered a form of gambling, through its elements are similar to gambling. According to the regulating body, there is a fine line that separate gambling from something that is not gambling.

One of the reasons why they made the declaration back then was that according to them they found loot boxes to be purely an in-game risk purchase, and items won from it cannot be brought with or traded with real-world money.

World

TRG Chairman Khaishgi and CEO Aslam implicated in $150 million fraud

Published

2 weeks ago

June 23, 2025

Jenny Jackson

In a scathing 52-page decision, the Sindh High Court has found that TRG Pakistan’s management was acting fraudulently and that Bermuda-based Greentree Holdings historic and prospective purchase of TRG shares were illegal, fraudulent and oppressive.

The Sindh High Court has further directed TRGP to immediately hold board elections that have been overdue and illegally withheld by the existing board since January 14, 2025.

In the landmark ruling, the Sindh High Court has blocked the attempted takeover of TRG Pakistan Limited by Greentree Holdings, declaring that the shares acquired by Greentree, nearly 30% of TRG’s stock, were unlawfully financed using TRG’s funds in violation of Section 86(2) of the Companies Act 2017.

“Having concluded that the affairs of TRGP are being conducted in an unlawful and fraudulent manner and in a manner oppressive to members such as the Petitioner (Zia Chishti), the case falls for corrective orders under sub-section (2) of section 286 of the Companies Act,” Justice Adnan Iqbal Chaudhry concluded.

The case was brought by TRGP former CEO and founder Pakistani-American technology entrepreneur Zia Chishti against TRG Pakistan, its associate TRG International and TRG International’s wholly-owned shell company Greentree Limited. In addition, the case named AKD Securities for managing Greentree’s illegal tender offer as well as various regulators requiring that they act to perform their regulatory duties.

The case centred around the dispute that shell company Greentree Limited was fraudulently using TRG Pakistan’s own funds to purchase TRG Pakistan’s shares in order to give control to Zia Chishti’s former partners Mohammed Khaishgi, Hasnain Aslam and Pinebridge Investments.

According to the case facts, the Chairman of TRG Pakistan Mohammed Khaishgi and the CEO of TRG Pakistan Hasnain Aslam masterminded the $150 million fraud. They did so together with Hong Kong based fund manager Pinebridge who has two nominees on TRG Pakistan’s board, Mr. John Leone and Mr. Patrick McGinnis.

According to the court papers, Khaishgi, Aslam, Leone, and McGinnis set up a shell company called Greentree which they secretly controlled and from which they started buying up shares of TRG Pakistan. The fraud was that Greentree was using TRG Pakistan’s funds itself. The idea was to give Khaishgi, Aslam, Leone, and McGinnis control over TRG Pakistan even though they owned less than 1% of the company, lawyers of the petitioner told the court.

This was all part of a broader battle for control over TRG Pakistan that is raging between Khaishgi, Aslam, Leone, and McGinnis on one side and TRG Pakistan founder Zia Chishti on the other side. Zia Chishti has been trying to retake control of TRG Pakistan after he was forced to resign in 2021 based on sexual misconduct allegations made by a former employee of his. This year those allegations were shown to be without basis in litigation that Chishti launched in the United Kingdom against The Telegraph newspaper which had printed the allegations. The Telegraph was forced to apologize for 13 separate articles it published about Chishti and paid him damages and legal costs.

After Chishti resigned in 2021, Khaishgi, Aslam, Leone, and McGinnis moved to take total control over TRG Pakistan and its various subsidiaries including TRG International and to block out Chishti. The Sindh High Court’s ruling today has reversed that effort, ruling the scheme fraudulent, illegal, and oppressive.

It now appears that Zia Chishti will take control of TRG Pakistan in short order when elections are called. He and his family are now the largest shareholders with over 30% interest. He is closely followed by companies related to Jahangir Siddiqui & Company which have over a 20% interest. The result appears to be a complete vindication for Zia Chishti and damning for his rivals Aslam, Khaishgi, Leone, and McGinnis who have been ruled to have been conducting a fraud.

TRG Pakistan’s share price declined by over 8% on the news on heavy volume. Market experts say that this was because the tender offer at Rs 75 was gone and that now shares would trade closer to their natural value. Presently the shares are trading at Rs 59 per share.

According to the court ruling, since 2021, shell company Greentree had purchased approximately 30% of TRG shares using $80 million of TRG’s own money, which means that that the directors of TRG Pakistan allowed company assets to be funneled through offshore affiliates TRG International and Greentree for acquiring TRG’s shares – a move deemed both fraudulent and oppressive to minority shareholders. The Sindh High Court also found illegal Greentree’s further attempt to purchase another 35% of TRG shares using another $70 million of TRG’s money in a tender offer.

The ruling is a major victory for the tech entrepreneur Zia Chishti against his former partners and the legal ruling paves the way for him to take control of TRG in a few weeks.