Habbo.dk disables dicemasters! Casinos = illegal

[Michael]

http://shocknews.dk/articles/pictures/1346421948_untitled.png

Googled as:


"Upon request by the Gaming Authority (SKAT), is the dice on Habbo Hotel has been disabled for all Danish users of Habbo Hotel. , we must remind you that gambling is not allowed in Habbo Hotel. If you have offered, organized or participated in such gambling or in the future provide, organize or engage in gambling on Habbo Hotel, this may result in exclusion from Habbo Hotel. "

Whether this will effect any more hotels, we do not know!

- Dicemaster
- Holodice
- Wheel of fortune are all disabled.

The danish law says you must be over 18 to bet, Habbo betting is still betting as the furniture is brought using real life money. As Habbo allows from 13+ they were asked to remove all furniture thats used for betting (as listed above) and perm ban casino owners.

Read more about it here: http://shocknews.dk/articles/2530
http://www.habbohelpers.com/habbo/chitchat/445/habbo-casino-is-now-illegal/

[efq]

OMG lol wut?

habbo is basically gambling or its no fun.

[SorryDude]

Cant wait for gambling to be banished on all hotels, but then my main $ income will be gone. :(
But possibly reliving good ol habbo <3 events & new creative ways of gambling.

[Red]

Wow.. omg.
Thats going to kill so many great games though :(

[MKR&*42]

Oh dear :o. Feel sorry for the Casino ovvners over there =/

[CrazyLemurs]

Cant ban the owners now
That's saying that when a new law is passed, everybody who disobeyed it in the past (when the law wasn't active) should be jailed.
PLUS
Probably a lot of people are over 18, so they're legally OK.
Habbo can be right idiots when real life gets involved.

[Michael]

I doubt it will happen to any other hotels unless someone files a complaint.

[Shorty]

Oh wow, a new beginning.

[geo]

er, bingo? don't roll a six? higher or lower?

so many great games will be screwed thx habbo. better not happen to us.

[:odey:]

I'm with Georgia,
But this is like the thing that happened with banning casino owners,
Don't think it will happen in the UK..
He says hoping.

[Volunteer]

This is very interesting.

I guess it will depend on how each country defines gambling as.

Does it have to be real money? Is Habbo currency considered "real" money to the country in question (ie since people can buy coins with real money). Will Sulake be forced to file a gambling license? Would Habbo only allow Habbo players over 18+ gamble on Habbo? If so, how would it work? Also .com =multiple countries--since gambling laws (ie. age) differ by country, how would Habbo deal with it?

[Munex]

This is very interesting.

I guess it will depend on how each country defines gambling as.

Does it have to be real money? Is Habbo currency considered "real" money to the country in question (ie since people can buy coins with real money). Will Sulake be forced to file a gambling license? Would Habbo only allow Habbo players over 18+ gamble on Habbo? If so, how would it work? Also .com =multiple countries--since gambling laws (ie. age) differ by country, how would Habbo deal with it?

By removing the gambling furni, as they have done on .dk. They're not going to complicate things.

[Abdicators]

Habbo have never said gambling was ok, they just went along with it as many users are involved in that area.

[lawrawrrr]

I hope this doesn't happen, would ruin a LOT of games :/

[PiippBB]

It's strange as I've always wondered how Habbo has evaded this law; it's an EU law bought in a long time ago, it's the reason behind such actions as the removal of the slot machines in Pokemon games. I just wonder how long it will take to catch up with other hotels now tbh. Even .com could be in danger considering we in the UK have access to it. If it does come to affect other hotels it will certainly be another nail in the coffin for Habbo. They may not make much from casino owners, if anything, but they certainly help drive the economies of the hotels, and keep a large number of users interested in the game. If it hits .com it could prove disastrous. I'd prefer it if they didn't actually remove the dice and the wheel, just clamped down on casino or rare grabber owners. Basically anyone using the furni for gambling purposes. There's still many games to be made and played using this furni which don't involve betting any other furni. Still, such a pity for .dk. I also think it's highly unfair to ban those users who have participated in gambling in the past; it's not as if Sulake have ever made any attempt before to rule it out (although they use the term 'we remind you') before and fair enough if they have to disable these things immediately, but they could at least give users some prior warning to cease the behaviour before they start banning them. Anyone who hasn't within a time limit should be banned, not given an immediate ban for something they may not have done for many months. Hardly fair at all. But I guess they're being pushed by the law.

Also, que everyone selling their dice on other hotels all of a sudden, lol. Prepare for their price to drop; A LOT.

[LoveToStack]

Do the fridges not generate items completely randomly as well?

Take a fridge item which dishes out a choice of 6 possible hand items (or some multiple of 6) and assign a numerical value (1-6) to each item (or group of items) and voila; you still have a gambling community which is based on chance.

[Volunteer]

good point :)
Do the fridges not generate items completely randomly as well?

Take a fridge item which dishes out a choice of 6 possible hand items (or some multiple of 6) and assign a numerical value (1-6) to each item (or group of items) and voila; you still have a gambling community which is based on chance.

[PiippBB]

Do the fridges not generate items completely randomly as well?

Take a fridge item which dishes out a choice of 6 possible hand items (or some multiple of 6) and assign a numerical value (1-6) to each item (or group of items) and voila; you still have a gambling community which is based on chance.

Whoa, you thought up a work around quickly! Lol.

[Mat7]

I've never thought about Habbo gambling in this way before. If this was to happen to the UK hotel, I'd have to find a new way to earn credits...

[efq]

Tbh it doesn't affect me or my friends on Habbo. We just chat and chill at xxMATTGxx; help desk all the time, that's the only reason I log on Habbo :3


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[auffant1]

This is the most pointless thing ever :P. If this happens to .com, .com will be so unfun.

[Icemaniceice]

I never was into gambling on habbo, but it would ruin a lot of games, so that sucks.

[Volunteer]

If it does come into effect on .com, it may also be the end of Habbox Lottery?

[Matthew.]

Habbo are getting so pathetic tbqh.

[Jarkie]

Wow! Soon events will be banned lol. Farewell Germany habbo.

[MKR&*42]

Denmark Jarkie :P. Although I don't believe it's allowed on .de anyway. I'm sure I've asked a few friends on there... I might double check later xo

[Eric]

lots of games couldn't work without those furni then, habbo...

[xxMATTGxx]

What makes this strange is, doesn't the UK pretty much have a similar law/rule against gambling? I'm surprised it hasn't been stopped before.

[-:Undertaker:-]

Watch visitor numbers drop and revenue fall as casino owners leave, because they ain't going to stay around to play adoption games.

Another case of the state sticking its nose in and possibly even, as a result of indirect consquences, harming a business.

[Jarkie]

What makes this strange is, doesn't the UK pretty much have a similar law/rule against gambling? I'm surprised it hasn't been stopped before.

Yes it does, any gambling etc is 16+ (hence the lotto etc) so it wouldn't supirse me if it does come to the .COM hotel, considering it has UK, USA, AU and CA in :P

[Red]

Gambling was banned in sg before, wasn't it? I would rather have the hotels unmerged than have a dice ban enforced on ours :(. This really is going to kill denmark.

[Special]

things will kick off big time if this is introduced to habbo.com - up till now casino owners & players haven't really been affected by the silly updates this past year but this will really rock them and force many of them to leave

[LoveToStack]

I can't think of any reason why a gambling system based on fridges won't work. This ban on dice shouldn't really do anything to affect the casino community. They've removed furni which has strong connotations of gambling but they've left in a heap of furni which works in the exact same way (as far as I can tell).

As best I can remember, it has never been possible to pull a specific drink out of a fridge-furni which dispenses more than one item (I know it's possible to pull an item from the air but I mean when you click a fridge and it dispenses a random item). This leads me to believe that the fridges probably work the same way as dicemasters, holodice etc all worked; with some kind of pseudorandom number generator. This would make it impossible to know what you'll get which makes it perfect for gambling.

vito201-:D or Abdicators might be able to clarify if that is in fact how fridges assign items. If it is then you could literally just replace dice with fridges and assign numerical values to the items which they dispense.

[Jake]

If this happens on .com imo it will cause a complete disaster for sulake.


Gambling was banned in sg before, wasn't it? I would rather have the hotels unmerged than have a dice ban enforced on ours :(. This really is going to kill denmark.

Yeh it was banned in .sg i went on before to see what it was like and it seemed pointless tbh lol.

[Pidy]

Hey, i'm from Habbo.dk

I just wanted to say that most of the danish Habbo's have left the hotel, because of this.
It's so annoying that we can't play casino, grabber, bingo etc..

I really hope they will do something about it, cause it's god damn boring!

[Special]

Hey, i'm from Habbo.dk

I just wanted to say that most of the danish Habbo's have left the hotel, because of this.
It's so annoying that we can't play casino, grabber, bingo etc..

I really hope they will do something about it, cause it's god damn boring!

come to .com! you only need to learn a few phrases haha

[:Act]

What Habbo (and to a greater extent anybody in a controlling/powerful/governmental position) seem to forget is that if people want to do something, they will find a way to do it no matter what laws and regulations are put in place. As already demonstrated an idea has been thrown around about using fridges instead. Going back only a few weeks look at the amount of people that managed to evade the chat filter when even singular letters were banned. When more and more restrictions come into play, people become more and more innovative to do something if they really want to do it. Clearly there is a huge demand for not only casinos, but also dice based games (Bingo, trivia, DTTW), and to ban them to stop gambling is a joke. When they realise that people are using other random generators (fridges) to create gambling games then will they ban them? The more they try and ban the less user-friendly experience the hotel will have and then people will have no real reason to come on, effectively killing an already destroyed community.

Furthermore I don't entirely understand how this can be deemed as gambling under the law. Yes under 18's can buy credits and use them or furni purchased to 'gamble' with on the hotel, but you cannot get anything non-virtual back (without breaking rules at least, since you could potentially sell any winnings on ebay or something), and so there is no real element of gambling since you cannot (by the rules) get anything of physical value BACK. I see this something akin to when you pay £1 to use a Toy-Grabber machine at an arcade. You pay the money which turns into credits and you are gambling that money based on your ability to grab a toy. If you win you get something physical. These are still legal, but when you don't get anything physical back, I don't see how it's gambling. It's more like going through the motions of gambling without winning anything in return. If the law is so worried that people will turn their winnings into cash then more should be done by Habbo to control sales of furni into real cash. As it stands though I think their definition of 'gambling' is inaccurate since you cannot get anything physical back, and I think Habbo is wrong to remove use of dice. They're not really doing much to improve the vibe on the hotel are they?

Edit: Also just as an afterthought - under 18's in this country can get onto betting websites where they have games, and you can play with real money, and also fake money to try the game. You don't need to register or anything. You can play roulette, bingo, keno, other gambling games etc and not get anything in return. A similar principle is on Habbo, not every person who uses Habbo pays for it. Someone can go to a giveaway, get some furni, gamble it at a casino, and never have spent any money. Is this not the same principle as the 'free gambling games' you can find pretty much anywhere online where you receive nothing physical in return?

[Pidy]

I'm already playing on .com :)

Been playing on .com since 09 :D

[edible]

I know someone has sent an email to the Gambling Commission (based in UK) asking them to investigate Habbo.COM.

[Pidy]

On Habbo.dk you only need to be 12+ to join :)

[Michael]

I know someone has sent an email to the Gambling Commission (based in UK) asking them to investigate Habbo.COM.

Well that's cheeky of them

[PiippBB]

Actually thinking about this, and reading into what has been said about toy grabber machines above. .com could be safe from the UK, because although there are EU laws in place around gambling, over here it's only illegal for those under the age of 16 to gamble (look at Camelot and the National Lottery; 16s and over can play). There's then the fact that many arcades (and I'm often visiting those on the coastline near me) have slot machines that have no age limit. I think it's all to do with the jackpot involved. I know casinos allow only 18s and over to enter and play; this includes betting shops. Then, when it comes to the lottery, players only have to be 16 or over. Looking further into it, younger age groups are allowed to play certain slow machines in arcades with no age restriction at all; I'm pretty sure it all depends on the potential jackpots involved and the likelihood of addiction to gambling caused by each individual type of gambling. Therefore, Sulake probably won't be penalised by UK law, seeing as the jackpots on Habbo are very small, there's a limit to how much a user can spend on credits per week and they must always get permission from someone of age 18+ before purchasing credits, as mentioned above, none of the prizes are actually physical; everything is virtual, and finally, users never actually own the items on Habbo anyway, as noted in the T&Cs, everything is 'rented' by the player and continues to be the property of Sulake. UK law on gambling seems very cloudy tbh and I'm not sure why there are restrictions on casinos which are different to those on scratch cards, but I guess that's down to a strange combination of UK and EU law. Either way, I'm doubtful this will happen to .com.

[qaxzsw]

Hmm... like others have said, gambling was always banned on Habbo Singapore, yet after the merge they've stopped enforcing it, even though it was to keep within the singaporean law.. I wouldn't be surprised if they decide to ban gambling in .com in the near future...

[Zak]

I love how Habbo would actually ban casino owners and not give a ****.

Habbo clearly have no problem in banning everyone for **** all.. And their mistakes.

[Samantha]

Actually thinking about this, and reading into what has been said about toy grabber machines above. .com could be safe from the UK, because although there are EU laws in place around gambling, over here it's only illegal for those under the age of 16 to gamble (look at Camelot and the National Lottery; 16s and over can play). There's then the fact that many arcades (and I'm often visiting those on the coastline near me) have slot machines that have no age limit. I think it's all to do with the jackpot involved. I know casinos allow only 18s and over to enter and play; this includes betting shops. Then, when it comes to the lottery, players only have to be 16 or over. Looking further into it, younger age groups are allowed to play certain slow machines in arcades with no age restriction at all; I'm pretty sure it all depends on the potential jackpots involved and the likelihood of addiction to gambling caused by each individual type of gambling. Therefore, Sulake probably won't be penalised by UK law, seeing as the jackpots on Habbo are very small, there's a limit to how much a user can spend on credits per week and they must always get permission from someone of age 18+ before purchasing credits, as mentioned above, none of the prizes are actually physical; everything is virtual, and finally, users never actually own the items on Habbo anyway, as noted in the T&Cs, everything is 'rented' by the player and continues to be the property of Sulake. UK law on gambling seems very cloudy tbh and I'm not sure why there are restrictions on casinos which are different to those on scratch cards, but I guess that's down to a strange combination of UK and EU law. Either way, I'm doubtful this will happen to .com.

With you really, I've been playing on things like 2p pushers (a smaller form of gambling), slot machines and grabbers for years now. I'd say I used my first when I was about 5? Now I play online bingo, that's online and have to be over 18 to play but with Habbo some people don't gamble as much as others as if say they brought in a law then how would you know who lies about their age or not? I bet if I walked into a betting shop, tried buying a scratchcard or lottery ticket I'd be kicked out/denied it as I look like 12. I even wasn't allowed in over 18 area in an arcade with online services you can't monitor it as much can you. Espeically when it's meant to be a game.

[LiquidLuck.]

This is ridiculous.. and I guess I'll have to take down my grabber..

[Fiendly]

I think we should be fine.. If not then they should definitely make Pokemon a game for over 16 - 18+ since gambling is involved!
This is being taken to an extreme, without dicemasters then Habbo is just...boring.

[karter]

is it possible in .com? you know coz we are mainly 5 countries not 1. the law might not apply on everyone

[Aiden]

I hope nothing like this happens on .com :(

[Seikou]

that's a bit ridiculous really, hoping they don't do this on .com, would ruin a lot of fun games..

[Flamedragon3]

Always had a feeling this may one day happen to .com.. Although I can never see Sulake banning casino's from .com unless the subject recieves a lot of negative attention from the press.

[October]

I'm actually rather curious as to how it isn't illegal for Habbo.com anyways, considering it's illegal to gamble under the age of 18 here in the U.S., and Canada I think, too?