Is Loot Box Haram? Also, Is It Permissible to Play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO) and Warzone?
Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel
Question
Are loot boxes haram? What if we get them for nothing? Also, are CSGO and Warzone haram? I don’t know what you mean when you say shooter games shouldn’t be too violent.
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate
I pray you are well.
Loot boxes have long been controversial in video games. They offer players a chance at a randomized reward when opened. To further complicate matters, boxes can often be bought for real money, and the rewards can sometimes be traded. This is gambling in Islamic terms, and one should avoid playing it; even the government has cited a report on it. Please take a look at the links below.
Global Offensive (CS: GO) and Warzones content feature violence when players are in combat with each other; it is pretty realistic, and the game’s animation is quite natural and includes blood. Some might say it has less than others, but one type of game addiction will lead to another similar kind of game addiction, with intense graphics, violence, and blood.
There are many alternative online games for our children to provide a halal form of entertainment.
Related:
Loot boxes and gambling | Children’s Commissioner for England
Games industry has ‘financial interest in fostering addiction’ with loot boxes
Loot boxes: Lords call for ‘immediate’ gambling regulation
Are Video Games Containing Violence and Indecency Impermissible?
Video Games Archives
I pray this helps with your question.
Wassalam,
[Mawlana] Ilyas Patel
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Mawlana Ilyas Patel is a traditionally-trained scholar who has studied in the UK, India, Pakistan, Syria, Jordan, and Turkey. He started his early education in the UK. He went on to complete the hifz of the Quran in India, then enrolled in an Islamic seminary in the UK, where he studied the secular and ‘Aalimiyya sciences. He then traveled to Karachi, Pakistan. He has been an Imam in Rep of Ireland for several years. He has taught hifz of the Quran, Tajwid, Fiqh, and many other Islamic sciences to children and adults onsite and online extensively in the UK and Ireland. He taught at a local Islamic seminary for 12 years in the UK, where he was a librarian and a teacher of Islamic sciences. He currently resides in the UK with his wife. His interest is a love of books and gardening.
