" I'm so excited to answer this question with one of my favorite games I played when I was growing up! ^-^ "

Gambling within online games, particularly those targeted at children and teenagers, poses significant risks, as it can lead to addictive behaviors fueled by the excitement of winning - even when losses are greater than "actual" wins. This thrill can create a compulsion to continue gambling, which negatively impacts young players both psychologically and socially, but it can also impact the game's "economy" itself, causing it to dilapidate. A notable example of a game that previously thrived on this model is Habbo Hotel - one of the games in my childhood I both love and loathe in the same breath.

Now, gambling wasn't Habbo's ENTIRE draw towards the game, for there were also scams like fake giveaways for rare furni*,but gambling was the most popular activity on the site, so we'll just address that aspect.

Since its launch in 2000, Habbo Hotel saw a rise in user-created “casinos” where players gambled using coins and rare furni. There was massive concern for the platform’s large minor audience, leading the developers of Sulake to ban these "casinos" after pressure from the Danish Tax Ministry. However, they didn’t remove ALL chance-game furni, allowing users to continue exploiting the remaining items for gambling.

Here's something to ponder about: imagine if your teacher let you use your phone for almost the entire semester, then suddenly enforced a strict "no phones" rule and punished past usage how would you feel? That’s how many Habbo users reacted when a previously ignored gambling ban was suddenly enforced by the rather-shoddy moderation team. Furious, for they flooded all the rooms in protest, leading to the platform to crash for hours.

To note, this problem isn't exclusive to just Habbo Hotel, for numerous other online games have this exact same problem... And the moderation wasn't and still isn't doing anything about it. In fact, some could say they're LEANING into it.

Sure, some developers might put a "ban" on it, but if their moderation doesn't uphold that rule, and the developers don't take out ALL of the items the users are exploiting for inappropriate activity, then that ban they've just created... is rendered futile.

This has been Cherubear Speaks, going offline! ^_^