The ethics of FIFA Ultimate Team have been questioned for some time now.

EA Sports' prized game mode is without doubt the franchise's main money-maker these days.

Introduced back in 2009, the mode allows players to assemble the best team possible, acquiring players through packs - which can be bought with coins or 'FIFA Points'.

Of course, gamers are far from guaranteed to see their investment of real-life money pay dividends due to the system of randomised rewarding on all FIFA games.

Essentially, the whole process is gambling and now, The House of Lords Gambling Committee say these 'micro transactions' or 'loot boxes' need to be regulated under gambling laws and to bring them under the Gambling Act 2005.

"If a product looks like gambling and feels like gambling, it should be regulated as gambling," a statement accompanying the Committee's report said, per BBC.

And they also say change should come instantly, with the report adding: "The government must act immediately to bring loot boxes within the remit of gambling legislation and regulation."

Lord Grade, chairman of the committee, spoke on BBC Breakfast about how other countries have already classified 'loot boxes' as gambling because "they can see the dangers" which is teaching "kids to gamble".

He added that the Gambling Act was way behind, but the "overwhelming majority" of the report's recommendations "could be enacted today" as they do not require legislation.

FIFA 2 Ultimate Team

The conclusion from the report is that any in-game item paid for with real-money, such as FIFA packs, must be defined as games-of-chance - or gambling.

This isn't the first time FIFA's Ultimate Team strategy has been called into question.

Back in February, we reported HERE about how two Parisian lawyers both fired lawsuits against EA Sports as they believed Ultimate Team should be defined as gambling.

And way back as far as November, we reported HERE on how FIFA 20 players protested outside EA's headquarters in Bucharest over the injustice of micro transactions on the game.