Most kids today are no strangers to online gaming platforms. For many kids, gaming is a hobby, a social activity, and a form of stress relief. For parents, however, making sure kids stay safe while gaming online can be stressful. From predators to cyberbullying, there seems to be danger lurking around every online corner. Another one of the many ways adults and gaming companies can take advantage of kids online is via digital currencies within gaming platforms. 

A digital currency is the way someone pays for goods within the world of an online game, and often currency is bought with real money or earned within the game. They’re often essential to gameplay, and having a large amount of digital currency can enhance the gaming experience. Here, we’ll look at how companies entice kids to spend money via digital currencies and more specifically, how kids who play Roblox have been encouraged to not only spend money on the game’s digital currency but to use it to gamble offsite. 

Digital Currencies in Gaming 

Digital currencies (also called virtual currencies) are money that is exchanged within gaming worlds. Each game or gaming platform has its own currency; popular digital currencies include Robux in Roblox, V-bucks in Fortnite, and Minecoins in Minecraft. Often, players can purchase digital currency with real money, and they can also earn digital currency through gameplay. 

Each game has different rules, exchange rates, and uses in place, but they all work pretty similarly. For example, one game may use a digital currency called a coin. Players can purchase coins with real money. One US dollar might buy a player 200 coins, and the gaming platform may occasionally have sales where one US dollar can buy 300 coins, for example

Players might also earn coins for completing tasks or levels within the game, winning competitions, or even watching ads. Typically, players don’t need to use real money to purchase coins in order to play the game, but having more coins can make playing the game easier or more enjoyable. Players might use coins to purchase things like power-ups, clothing items, or game extras. 

How Digital Currencies Entice Kids to Spend Money

Games use digital currency to entice kids to spend real money within the games they play by making sought-after game advantages or in-game items expensive. Some games make it very difficult or time-consuming to advance without spending money, which makes it really tempting for kids to purchase in-game currency. 

Game developers know that most kids don’t understand money and economics the way an adult does, and they use that vulnerability to get kids to spend money. In an article titled How computer games encourage kids to spend cash, one woman recounted how her son spent $200 worth of Robux in a matter of days. Developers know that if they make a game free initially, they can draw kids in and get them addicted to playing the game. Then, they’ll be more likely to spend money on the in-game currency. 

Games also entice kids with what many people would call a form of gambling. The game will offer kids loots or treasure chests for a set price, and they don’t know what will be inside. The items inside the loot could be worth more or less than what they paid. Of course, it benefits the gaming company to make the majority of loots worth less than what gamers pay for them. In the United States, this is not officially considered a form of gambling, but it is in other countries. Offering loot boxes has even been banned in Belgium due to their gambling laws. 

Roblox Digital Currency 

Roblox is one of the more popular online gaming platforms, and it allows players to create their own games and worlds within the platform. Like many other games that utilize in-game currency, Roblox itself is free, but within the game, kids use Robux to buy things such as clothing, accessories, pets, vehicles, upgrades, and more. Robux can be purchased within the app, which means that the purchase will be charged to whatever card is linked to the account the app was downloaded from, often an Apple or Google Play account. 

Recently, Roblox has been accused of facilitating and promoting illegal gambling for minors even though kids can’t gamble directly on the platform. Instead, the class action lawsuit against Roblox claims that the platform enticed kids to go to third-party gambling websites that use Robux as currency. The lawsuit alleges that Roblox allowed third-party casino game platforms to access the platform and lure kids away from Roblox and onto the gambling sites. The lawsuit also notes that Roblox didn’t just allow the third-party platforms to entice kids to gamble, but it also made 30% in fees whenever there was a transaction on these third-party platforms.  

Any parent or guardian who believes their child was taken advantage of and used Robux to gamble on a third-party website may be eligible to join the lawsuit. Sites children may have gambled on include BLOXFlip, RBXFlip, RBLXWild, and Bloxmoon. If you believe your child was lured away from the Roblox platform and enticed to gamble, a Roblox lawyer can evaluate your case to see if you are eligible to join the lawsuit.