--- title: "Criminals Running Casinos for Children Using Roblox" description: "Illegal online casinos are allowing children to gamble using their Roblox accounts — and now, families are suing over it. " date: "2024-12-18" modified: "2024-12-18" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/illegal-casinos-children-roblox" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "children" - "gambling" - "ROBLOX" - "the digest" --- # Criminals Running Casinos for Children Using Roblox ![Illegal online casinos are allowing children to gamble using their Roblox accounts — and now, families are suing over it. ]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Playing the Numbers Illegal online casinos are allowing children to gamble using their Roblox accounts — and now, families are suing the video game's parent company over it. As the UK's [*Sky News* reports](), illegal gambling outfits like BoxFlip and RBLXWild are not hosted on Roblox itself. Rather, these third-party online casinos allow people to log in with their Roblox credentials and play games like blackjack and slots using Robux, the massive social gaming site's in-world currency. Winnings are then exchanged for cryptocurrency, which can be converted to real cash for a fee. As with all forms of gambling, however, the issue is less about the money people — or in this case children — than the money they lose. One of the teens impacted by these casinos, an American 16-year-old who *Sky* spoke to, said he spent the equivalent of about $190,000. The teen said he was just 14 years old when he began using these online casinos, and at the time, he "didn't even know what gambling was." Initially, he thought it was a fun way to make extra cash, but eventually, he began to enjoy "the adrenaline of doing bigger and bigger bets." While that's essentially the same ethos that goes into gambling addiction in adults, it's far more egregious when it happens to children who are still learning how the world works. ## Shifty Incentives This isn't the first time Roblox [has been accused]() of showing its largely minor user base [wildly inappropriate content](). But it may be the incident that finally pushes the court system to finally hold it accountable. As a group of families [alleged in a 2023 lawsuit]() that only recently began proceeding through the courts, Roblox failed to protect its underage users and profited off them in the process. In September, a [US district judge ruled]() that the suit should be allowed to proceed because Roblox seemed to have made "deliberate design decisions" that would knowingly put children in harm's way. Because Robox incentivizes developers to create games that users must pay to play, "it seems entirely foreseeable that developers would want to create highly addictive experiences... that entice users to spend a lot of Robux," District Judge Vince Chhabria [said in his ruling](). Though Roblox demonstrated in court that it requested that RBLXWild and BoxFlip be taken down from their hosting providers back in 2022, it wasn't until after Chhabria's ruling earlier this fall that it initiated legal proceedings against them. Roblox has denied all wrongdoing, and told *Sky* it "employs multiple methods to detect and disrupt bot accounts." One of BoxFlip's owners, meanwhile, said in a user chatroom that "many companies get sued" and it's all "part of doing business." With children already navigating so many other dangers online, being enticed by illegal gambling sites that only require a Roblox login is the last thing they need. **More on internet dangers:** [*A Google-Backed AI Startup Is Hosting Chatbots Modeled After Real-Life School Shooters — and Their Victims*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()