On the 7^th of April 2014, the gambling ban within Habbo was officially endorsed. This was implemented to prevent players from placing bets on random outcome chances, due to Habbo being criticised from outside sources for allowing players under 18 to place bets.

As an adult, I understand why this was implemented. I recall seeing many players losing a huge amount of credits and furniture via betting in casinos and paying for “P2S” etc in games, however the loss of foot traffic within Habbo since this change is obvious. The ban on gambling never affected me as I never used Habbo for gambling, but I knew many who did – and who enjoyed it greatly!

What does interest me is that players are no longer allowed to bet and spend credits on random outcome chances where the credits may go to another player, and yet with the release of the “chests of the light” furni and the diamond gift box recently, is that not precisely the same thing in itself?

Let’s focus on the last two items, firstly the Teal Chest of Light. You could purchase this at the time for 75 credits and 75 diamonds, and that contained the possibility of 16 teal coloured rares. So, you had a randomised chance of what item you would receive from the chest: you could end up with a brilliant rare (for example the teal dragon lamp which to the current date has a market price average of 362 credits), or this could go the other way and you could receive the lovely teal road barrier (which to this date has a market price average of… 2 credits). Is this not betting your credits on a randomised chance of making a profit or a loss?

Next is the new diamond gift box, which you could purchase for 5 credits and 5 diamonds and is set to appear again throughout the month. Again you’d have a randomised chance of what the box would contain – it could contain one of three diamond items of clothing which would all be worth more than the box itself. Wonderful. However, it could also contain items which have very little value. Along with that, these lower priced items contained in the boxes brought the value of these items down even more; the flower cart which had an average of 4 credits dropped down to 2 credits, implementing a loss on those individuals who had purchased it before, even if folks with this furni didn’t partake in the diamond box gamble.

Again, is this not players spending their credits on a randomised chance of occurring a profit or a loss? To my definition this is gambling, so is gambling right when the profits go to Habbo itself but wrong when it goes to another player?

Let me know what you think!

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