Roblox Accused of Concocting Illegal Gambling Ring for Minors - Bloomberg Law
Roblox Accused of Concocting Illegal Gambling Ring for Minors - Bloomberg Law
Popular online gaming platform Roblox acts as an illegal gambling ring that preys on children, according to a purported class action brought by parents.
The complaint outlined the process by which minors can use the Roblox platform to gamble. After purchasing Robux through the platform, they can navigate to one of the gaming website defendants’ “virtual casinos” outside the Roblox ecosystem and link their Robux wallet to the gambling website, meaning Roblox can still keep track of electronic transfers, the lawsuit said.
While Roblox could halt this “illegal gambling ring,” Colvin and Sass argued that it’s “significantly enriched” by the scheme. They allege that Roblox charges a 30% fee on the websites’ conversion of Robux back into dollars, raking in “millions in annual cash fees.”
Just millions? I guess the billions come from creating a proprietary software development engine that is uniquely tied to their own market, which invests into encouraging children into the ecosystem that traps anyone with success in a market which ultimately takes 93% of earnings for roblox.
Exploitative. Unethical. Feeding in the technological ignorance of the masses and political leaders.
38Second Life has the same kind of system.
Edit: This wasn’t a defense of the system, merely adding another name to the list.
12Permanently Deleted
8Second Life doesn't take anywhere near that much money from the pie though.
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I'm not a Marxist but Roblox's use of Robux is literally exactly how Marx said currency is used by capitalists to exploit workers and consumers.
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This is the only video game I refuse to let me kids go near.
24It's not a game, it's a child exploitation engine.
18Can you please go into the specifics of why you don't let your kids play Roblox?
I had been avoiding it until a well intentioned relative got my son a Roblox gift card.
It was immediately made clear that I was against the game which created an awkward situation for my relative.
I decided to soften my stance, and use it as a teaching moment.
I explained how the game works and how my son was to use his Robux.
He was to play the game(s) for a certain length of time and then make an informed decision about where to spend his money at.
Of course he spent it on some stupid powerup on a game that he ended up stopping playing some days later.
We used it as a teaching moment for both of my kids and what a waste of money the game is.
I also explained to them how P2W games are predatory in nature, and that I would never personally allow them to pay a single cent into Roblox or any other game.
My son is constantly proud of how he is F2P and always beating all of the P2W noobs.11I used to play it with my nibling. I had no idea it was so awful.
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outside the Roblox ecosystem
I have no love for Roblox, but if it's a completely different website, isn't this kinda...not their fault?
It sounds like those IRS scams that want you to pay with iTunes gift cards -- no one claims that Apple is running the scam.
The article claims they were aware and didn't stop it, and that's why they are at fault. Maybe they could've revoked the API keys for those gambling sites? But is that even how it's set up? (I don't actually know how Robux work.)
13The difference is you can't cash out Apple gift cards, and this is precisely why games generally don't allow it either: when you allow cash-token-cash conversions, then you turn the token into a cash-equivalent, becoming responsible for any misuse just the same as if you offered a banking account.
But Roblox got greedy, and not only do they allow cash-token-cash conversions (at a crazy rate of $100 USD = 10,000 R$ = $35 USD), but they also allow third parties to interact with it, with fully centralized knowledge and control.
22Oh interesting.
But you can sell apple gift cards on eBay, yeah? Sure you won't get the full value, but you get most of it. And as you said, in this case Roblox is taking a cut for the conversion anyway.
So it seems like they could've washed their hands of this by making Robux transferable/ebayable: the "casinos" would still exist, they would still benefit from the popularity of the casinos, and the Robux are still "worth something". But they got too greedy and dug too deep by trying to become the "eBay" in the situation and take a cut off both ends, and now they might be forced to make Robux effectively worthless.
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They could've done something to prevent kids from gambling, but I guess it's hard to take action when ignoring the problem actually get them more money.
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Fuck I hate Roblox with a passion. I wish I could convince my daughter to dump it. I've even offered to setup a private Minecraft server for her and all her friends.
7You shouldn't have to convince your daughter of anything, unless she's an adult.
You're the parent and you know so much better than the child what is and isn't good for them. It's good to give them decision-making freedom, but sometimes you have to step in to stop them from engaging in unhealthy or dangerous behavior.
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Just wait until Roblox gets popped for Money Laundering. That'll wake them up.
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