Children with Roblox accounts were able to play at casinos using in-game currency to place bets. At least eight sites allowed minors to participate in gambling games such as slots and blackjack, a Sky News investigation has revealed.
Bets were placed using Robux, an in-game currency that could be purchased for real money (400 Robux cost $4.99). If users won, they could receive a reward in the form of cryptocurrency, which could later be converted into real money.
Roblox is one of the most popular games in the world, especially among children, with over 80 million daily users. Popular casino sites have exploited this popularity, attracting millions of visitors every month. In some cases, underage players have lost hundreds of thousands of pounds.
One user, whose name has not been revealed but is referred to as Robert, started gambling on Roblox at the age of 14 and lost over 15 million Robux (£150,000). He later admitted that he had no idea what he was doing was illegal and had no idea about gambling.
Sky News' investigation highlights three of the biggest illegal casinos - BloxFlip, Bloxmoon and RBLXWild. All of these sites were shut down after the publication reported them to the UK Gambling Commission, which immediately launched its own investigation.
According to the investigation, at one of these casinos, Bloxmoon, Roblox players lost a total of $11.4 million over two years. This data also includes bets placed since July 2024 on RBLXWild, which Bloxmoon acquired around this time.
Between April and October 2024, a total of $22.3 million was wagered. Casino owners earned $2.2 million and paid out only $20.1 million in winnings. On average, the casino earned about $10,000 per day. Other casinos could have earned even more, with the most popular site, BloxFlip, attracting 2.7 million users per month.
Many of the Roblox users who lost thousands of pounds on various gambling games were underage. According to the publication, casino owners knew this very well. On the relevant Discord servers, where casino owners or managers were present, players had no problem revealing that they were underage and continued to throw thousands of pounds into the games.
Now, the parents of five children who used these casinos have filed a lawsuit against Roblox. The lawsuit was initiated in August 2023 in the US, but it was not until September 2024 that the court granted permission to proceed with the case, ruling that Roblox must respond to the parents' allegations of negligence.
The lawsuit states that the company was aware of the illegal casinos since at least April 2022, when it contacted hosting providers to block the illegal sites. However, Roblox only initiated legal proceedings against the websites in October 2024. The company denies any wrongdoing and says it “uses multiple methods to detect and remove bot accounts” associated with the gambling sites.