Roblox Enables ‘Illicit Gambling’ for Kids, Lawsuit Alleges

Roblox is being blamed for third-party online casinos that use its currency, Robux, and facilitate underage gambling. Will the case stick?

Kate Irwin

Last month, Sharpr writer Cody Luongo reported that minors are using Robux to gamble on sites like the Studs-owned Bloxflip—another gambling site whose staff use pseudonyms, has no working support email, and has existed since at least 2019—and livestream their gambling activities via Discord. Bloxflip’s site states that it does not take custody of users’ Robux, but instead uses “a P2P system” to move funds around, which is why it requires users’ Roblox logins.

Bloxflip allegedly emailed one 14-year-old Roblox content creator to promote its gambling site and has another 16-year-old with millions of followers promoting its platform. One anonymous trading site owner in Luongo’s report estimated that something like “90 percent” of such Robux gambling promoters are underage.

Asked to comment on the lawsuit, attorney Peter Bryce—who consults for crypto firm EverRise—told Decrypt that it is certainly possible that Roblox could be held liable for users’ illegal conduct.

“The interesting wrinkle is whether Roblox can be held liable for private conduct on their metaverse, so that the California statute (which applies to leasing land) extends to ‘digital places,’” Bryce said. 

“If I’m a landlord and my tenants have a casino, I can be liable,” he added. “Of course, it always depends on the specific facts, but I doubt it would be dismissed.”