Gaming companies risk "setting kids up for addiction" by including gambling tasks in their video games, the director of mental health for the NHS said. The firms should either ban virtual 'loot boxes' from their products or stop selling them to children, Claire Murdoch said.

In order to progress in games, children can spend money on extra items and in-game content that are stored in loot boxes. But they do not always know what items they will be given until they part with their money, meaning users are encouraged to keep spending and playing.

There have been numerous cases of children spending money without their parents' knowledge – one teenager spent £2,000 on a basketball game, while a 15-year-old lost £1,000 in a shooting game. Gaming companies should introduce "fair and realistic" spending limits and make it clear to users what chance they have of obtaining the items they want, Murdoch said.

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