Roblox is one of the biggest free-to-play sandbox games in the world. It’s primarily geared towards younger players, but its popularity and reach extend well beyond young gamers. The biggest daily active user audience is the 13-year-old and older demographic, and it’s reported that the platform draws more than 20 billion active hours of user engagement per quarter.
The Roblox platform has grown immensely since it was founded back in 2004. Helping its rise to the top is accessibility because it’s available for free on any device. The platform’s popularity is also driven by the variety of available gaming options because Roblox isn’t a game. It hosts user-created experiences.
However, Roblox hasn’t been without its criticism along the way, including over what it does to protect younger players from sensitive content and open chat. There have also been growing concerns about gambling on the platform within experiences and whether this is a potential problem, given its targeted audience. But where does Roblox stand regarding gambling, and could it potentially be a good thing?
What is the Roblox platform?
Developers David Baszucki and Erik Cassel founded the platform in 20041 and two years later released it to the public. The goal of their platform is to give users a space where they can not only play games but spend time creating their own as well. It is an amalgamation of creativity, learning and community, and it has come together perfectly to become the gaming behemoth that Roblox is today.
Roblox has over 200 million active monthly users, and over 40 million games have been created for the platform. It is a massive digital ecosystem that blends together creativity, social interaction and fun.
It ticks every possible box for a successful gaming platform, as it caters to all, and the volume of games across a vast range of genres is part of what makes it so appealing. There are millions of very different experiences available within the game, from role-playing to creative building and challenging obstacle courses known as “Obbys”.
Gambling in Roblox
But what about gambling? The terms of Roblox strictly prohibit any gambling on the platform with real money or with Robux. In 2023, they banned all simulated gambling as well, but that is not the end of the story. Experiences within Roblox are still allowed to simulate a casino or gambling-related items, such as cards and dice, but they need to be unplayable.
Essentially, direct real money gambling within Roblox is off the table completely. However, thanks to the gamification opportunities within experiences, developers can still provide some kind of gambling2.
Is all gambling gone?
There are still some things that survive in the grey area of exactly what gambling is within Roblox because games of chance are still permissible. Games of luck or chance that are not based on real money gambling can still be found within experiences.
This includes arcade-style and bingo games, but the platform’s Robux currency doesn’t enter the equation directly with any of these. There is an even bigger area of games of chance, including loot boxes3 and random item generators, both of which can be purchased.
A loot box can give players various features to help them level up within a game and can be purchased with in-experience currency or Robux. Similarly, random item generators are a very popular feature of some of the leading games on the platform.
A simple example is earning points within a game to spin a prize wheel, which could reward prizes like in-game digital pets or vehicles. Token-based gambling, where a player can open a prize box, from which one of several special prizes could be won, is extremely common.
These features are very much like a lottery but are allowed on the platform if the exact chance of getting each individual prize is listed and at least one of the prizes is guaranteed with every turn. The down-funnel problem is that in-game cash, tokens or loot boxes can frequently be purchased with Robux, which in turn is purchased with real money.
Could gambling be a good thing on Roblox?
If Roblox ever opened its doors to developers to run casino-style gambling, there would be an uproar. The platform, while used by minors, teens and adults alike, is still primarily geared toward younger players, and any form of gambling should be restricted.
There are different age levels on the platform, including 17+, which still falls under the legal gambling age of South Africa and many other countries around the world. As a result, much would need to change for gambling to be introduced onto the platform, and there is minimal chance of that ever happening.
The risks for the game maker would just be too high. As with online casinos, it’s not uncommon for older players to share accounts with underage ones or even create fake accounts for underage players to access age-restricted gaming. If Roblox provided real money gambling experiences, this could lead to underage gambling.
Underage gambling issues
A recent report found that around 5% of South African teens showed signs of having a gambling addiction. A staggering number 54% of South African youth had also taken part in some form of gambling activity, which is about as big of an eye-opener as it gets.
Underage gambling4 is a very real problem, even with legitimate online gambling platforms like casinos being readily available. Introducing real money gambling to one of the world’s biggest gaming platforms that is directly targeted towards children would have dire consequences. In no way would this be a good thing.
What does Roblox cost?
Roblox doesn't cost anything to download. It’s free for all players, and rich experiences can still be had on the platform without spending any money. As with any kind of gamification platform, there are situations where players can spend real money.
Robux is the in-game currency on the platform, and it can be purchased with real money. There is also a tiered subscription model for users, where for a regular payment, Robux is automatically credited to a player’s account.
As Roblox actively encourages the open-ended development of games, people jump on the platform to use their skills to create titles and experiences. Developers of Roblox games, which can only be used on the Roblox platform, can monetize their work by selling things like in-game perks, special avatar skins, weapons and more. While the game is free, there is a real money side to playing on Roblox, which is something that parents should be aware of.
Does Roblox protect players?
Whether Roblox does enough to protect players is a question that’s long been debated. They have had age ratings and features like turning off messaging on their platform for many years. In late 2024, the developers of Roblox announced a new suite of safety features geared towards giving parents a bit more control of accounts to protect younger players.
The new security changes5 now mean that children under 13 are no longer able to direct messages to any other Roblox users. Broadcasts within the public chat of games can still be made by players under 13, but the lack of direct one-on-one messaging is designed to help prevent potential predation.
Parental controls on a child’s account can also be linked directly to an adult’s Roblox account. This provides greater control over what can be seen and done via a remote management setup. Parents can control screen-time limits on linked child accounts and exclude the child from certain games based on maturity levels. Parents must provide a source of verification, such as a government ID or credit card, to set up this feature.
How big is Roblox?
Roblox is huge. Try and find a child 13 or under who hasn’t used it or at least heard of it. The platform was launched almost two decades ago and has done an amazing job of spreading its wings. It can be downloaded to iOS and Android devices and is also available on modern Xbox and PlayStation consoles too, so it is very commonplace.
Numbers from the second quarter of 2024 reported that there were 79.5 million daily active users on the platform, a massive jump of 1.8 million from the previous quarter. In the first quarter of 2020, Roblox reported 23.6 million active users, so the growth in just four years has been staggering.
Players tend to spend an average of two and a half hours per day on the platform. The total number of games available on Roblox is around 5.3 million, and the platform has a reported 2.5 million developers churning out these experiences.
2. Roblox Gambling - What You Need To Know, Written by Rudie Venter, Published by playcasino.co.za
3. Loot boxes linked to problem gambling in new research, Written by BBC, published by bbc.com
