> A workaround would be for EA to simply officially sell the game's "coins"
Preventing this kind of workaround is already part of many gambling laws. They usually define the payment/stake/wager as a very generic term like "anything of value". For example, in NV (as a stereotypical representation of a locale allows gambling), the law defines[1]:
>> “Representative of value” means any instrumentality used by a patron in a game whether or not the instrumentality may be redeemed for cash.
>> “Wager” means a sum of money or representative of value that is risked on an occurrence for which the outcome is uncertain.
Any type of in-game "coin" still represents value to the people playing the game, so trading them for lootboxes with uncertain contents is still a "wager".
The gaming industry could solve a lot of this mess if they simply *sold people the game (or game pieces) directly as a defined product. Of course, that wouldn't exploit the human weakness to operant conditioning[2]... ~sigh~
[1] https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-463.html#NRS463Sec01862
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWtvrPTbQ_c