MJ Trading Cards has been investigated by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) for potentially contravening the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (IGA).
The company streams card box breaks online, which is a service that offers fans an opportunity to buy sports-themed card packs before they are opened.
Once all of the card packs in a particular batch have been bought by viewers, the streamer will then randomly assign them and open them on camera.
Rather than getting the entire pack, participants will be assigned random teams, and participants can only win players from their particular team.
The process makes it easier for fans to access the cards, as they do not need to physically source the packs themselves, while offering a social element to the experience as the other viewers get to watch alongside the paying participants to see which cards they get.
What did the ACMA find?
According to the report, an employee from the ACMA participated in an MJ Trading Card stream and did not receive any card, despite claims that all participants are guaranteed a prize.
The ACMA wrote to the company on 8 August 2025 with preliminary findings that MJ Trading Cards contravenes the Gambling Act, but the legal team argued that this was false because “all participants would receive a prize.”
The company claimed that if a participant does not receive any cards from a pack, because no one from their team was part of the draw, then MJ Cards sends them a miscellaneous pack of cards to make up for this; ACMA says this was likely introduced after the investigation was launched.
A major part of the investigation was determining whether the process counted as a ‘game.’
The ACMA mused that “there is some difficulty” applying established gambling definitions to novel services such as this, as they “were not available when the legislation was enacted.”
Players could buy the cards themselves and open them at home, so this service was not the only way for them to access the prizes.
There was a consideration that this was similar to buying mystery boxes or Kinder Eggs, both of which contain unknown rewards, but the ACMA weighed this up against the monetary value of some trading cards, and concluded that “a Kinder Surprise is not purchased with the expectation of ‘winning big.’”
The Authority finally concluded that the process of buying a card pack through the stream counts as a “sale” rather than a “game,” as all participants are now guaranteed to receive a card.
However, it remains uncertain what the outcome would have been if MJ Trading Cards had not introduced the new business model that ensured every customer received a card, regardless of whether their chosen team was part of the pack opening.
Recent legislation in Europe has determined that any games featuring loot box mechanics will receive a minimum PEGI 16 rating.
The box breaks from MJ Trading Cards cost between AU$29 (US$21) to AU$299
