Update on Paid Random Items Restriction for UK Users Under 18

Good thing we’re saving the children from gambling :pray:, better update than nothing I suppose

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but the random items are basically a huge portion of the game (especailly for mm2), i feel like there should be some exceptions depending on the game. like mm2 doesn’t really feel like much of a gambling game compared to sols RNG.

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you can open the boxes without spending money on the game though. It’s protected if the API is introduced to the game, or the ability to remove diamond purchases completely

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no exceptions will be made, its breaking the law

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Oh so they allow it as long as you can buy it with in-game currency?

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Yes, they just don’t want users under 18 to spend real money and not get something they want despite paying mass amounts of currency,.

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I wonder why it’s not also banned for users above 18 though because kids can just make fake birthdays, roblox literally tells them to on the sign up page aswell.

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If Roblox requires ID then they would more likely push it for all countries.

Again anything someone does while they’re above 18 is on them, not Roblox or the UK government

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Yeah but honestly even gambling for 18 year olds is just… they should just keep it off for every age. I mean morally speaking it woudl be helpful to decrease gambling.

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If you mean the gift saves, those are directly purchased through an in-game cash system, making it unnecessary to use this API.

This API is only used in systems where a user can pay a certain amount of Robux to obtain a lootbox or a safe that offers random items you can get based on your luck.

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You underestimate the pure will of humans to obtain items through luck while spending not even a quarter amount of money required to obtain them normally. It will always be present no matter how much you try to keep it off.

And it makes money for the company, which is one of the most important reasons why Roblox is still allowing it.

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how dare the government protect children this is literally 1984

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This only applies to people under 18. The point is to protect minors who are more likely to make poor decisions and develop gambling addictions that will stick with them for life.

If this was an outright ban I could understand your concerns but this is only targeted at minors and is pretty consistent with existing gambling restrictions.

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This is also nothing to do with the new government. This was set in motion years ago.

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FWIW I had the same confusion when first reading this announcement post. I made an edit to the wiki, which should be published to the site soon: Merge branch 'main' into patch-1 · Roblox/creator-docs@f65df78 · GitHub

Do not move to the United States, just something you should’nt do.

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I love how they couldn’t outright say they’ve been allowing children to gamble on the platform so they use the term “Paid Random Items”. It’s rephrased so cartoonishly corporate that it almost feels like parody lmao

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Remember EA’s “surprise mechanics”? This is literally that all over again lol! Sometimes corporations make me want to rip my face off and scream, getting away with the unethical crap they do.

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Would it be a ‘W’ if we let kids gamble their pocket money away at a young age???

It is good for the UK to restrict minors from “lootbox” game mechanics, and wait until they can better understand money.

Yes, this will harm monetisation but I rather sacrifice some earnings in return for the well-being of minors who are vulnerable to such practices.

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An in-game rolling system aka Gambling with a in-game currency (a fiat currency) that you can pay for or pay to accumulate for is just two stages removed of obfuscation from real world currency. Robux itself is a obfuscation of that currency, and the in game currency is an obfuscation of that obfuscation. I would say “Paid Random Items”/Gambling still counts if it is bought through an in-game currency so long as there is a connection to Robux and therefore money any where along the long train of obfuscation (which is in-fact a technique used by gambling companies and games companies as a whole to help dissociate the gambler from the fact their money is going downhill fast). Another thing to keep in mind: “where there is a will there is a way.” Further levels of obfuscation are always implemented, if not through a in-game currency (which is used for a gambling/skinner box mechanics) directly, you’ll see things like grindy gameplay with typical Skip-The-Grind! gamepasses/micro-transactions which is just a fancier way of implementing paid gambling at the end of the day with the bonus of engagement, faster XP growth, in-game currencies used to buy different in-game currencies, and so on. That is what I would - idealistically - say the Paid Random Items Restriction for UK User Under 18 applies to, though this may fold.