Back to minecraftBack to minecraft.net

This category is for Realms and dedicated server feedback. Please send support issues to help.mojang.com, as support posts, bugs, and individual server issues will be removed. Remember that when it comes to "adding more servers" or realm restrictions we are constrained by the rules of the various platforms Minecraft is available on. Thanks!

← Realms and Dedicated Servers
13
Follow

(Servers) Ban "Casinos" From Bedrock

There is something very wrong with the Bedrock server environment.  Enter into any random featured server and you'll see an example of the rot.

Every featured server I've looked at uses the same basic template: a hub where players can teleport to various minigames.  Playing and winning in these games grants points the player can use to unlock cosmetics, "rank", land claims, server privileges, etc.  These come either from direct purchase, or from loot boxes that give randomized rewards.  Here's the kicker, though: you can also buy all this stuff directly using "Minecraft Gold", i.e. REAL MONEY.

These servers are casinos, marketing to and exploiting children with disgusting gambling mechanics and Skinner box conditioning taken from the tactics of the mobile gaming market.  One of this week's (3/26) featured servers, the Lifeboat Network, even maintains dummy hub servers that use false tags on server listing websites, and exist only as empty hubs with a portal to take you to the main server, to cast as wide a net as possible.

The nature of Minecraft's servers means that anything a player unlocks on this server (using, again I emphasize, REAL MONEY) can only be seen and enjoyed on THAT server.  This keeps them locked in, and siphons away more and more of their money.

The fact that a game like Minecraft has been lashed to the wheel of exploitative, disgusting casino/gambling mechanics for the exploitation of children is frankly abhorrent.  This kind of server, this whole marketplace, is corrupt and needs to be shut down.

If you won't police yourselves, the government should classify it as gambling and subject you to the same regulations as any other gambling establishment.  If this is Microsoft's influence, using a beloved game as their cash cow at the expense of children, they should lose the license to the property.

Avatar
Registered User shared this idea

6 Comments

Please sign in to leave a comment.

Sorted by oldest
  • 1
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    I agree with everything here, but the problem is that, with the loot boxes or things of that nature, you always receive 'something,' which means legally, and technically, it's not gambling. It is still very immoral, and uses gambling exploitations, but it means that there is no legal action to take, but still, very wrong, and should be banned

  • 2
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    Something to keep in mind is that laws can be changed to classify this stuff as gambling, also.  That loophole you mentioned is definitely well-known and it's how these people get away with what they're doing without regulation, but like, we can all see exactly what this is, right?  It's absolutely gambling in reality.

  • 2
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    If you don't like it, discourage other people from buying Microsoft's products.  It's called capitalism.

  • 1
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    You can not force a competetive cooperation like Microsoft to use their own capacities to expose servers you described, for following reason: Microsoft would have no financial benefit of this, but would still have to pay for such a capacity.

    The real culprit are the server owners, not Microsoft.

    What Microsoft really could do, though: They could create a player based poll for each server, to see if

    - payment methods exist for that server

    - payment methods are required for that server, or are optional

    - existant payment methods are solemnly meant for the operation of the server

    Connected to these results would be filters which players can flag/unflag, maybe in combination with a parental lock (meaning only a parent can "unblock" payment using servers for their kids).

     

  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    If I remember correctly, server owners for the past couple of years have not been allowed to let players pay with real money to receive something that was already in the game or part of the game. There was quite a few servers blacklisted for breaking this rule. If it's a rank, or some other feature that wasn't available in the vanilla game, or completely created from the ground up, it's probably acceptable. Maybe not ethical, but acceptable.

     

  • 0
    Registered User commented
    Comment actions Permalink

    It's sad to see that this issue that was raised back in 2019 has only gotten worse. It's not just Bedrock, It's all minecraft servers. Mojang forced some changes on the server that I play on by having server run casinos removed. However the server is rife with player run casinos and the chat is constantly spammed with players advertising their casinos and the prizes.
    Clearly they see a need to remove casinos from servers but surely they realise they achieve nothing by removing one and leaving 100's of others?
    Additionally, they had the server run "lottery" renamed to "raffle" however the mechanics have stayed the same. It is not a raffle as raffles have a fixed number of tickets and fixed, predefined prizes. The server is still running a lottery but Mojang seem ok with nothing more than a name change.
    Mojang claim under the heading "Our commitment to player Safety", "We hold ourselves accountable for making Minecraft as safe as possible for everyone"
    So Mojang claim themselves accountable for this, It doesn't need to be illegal, it just needs to be unsafe and it needs to be possible for Mojang to stop/restrict it.
    Removing/restricting casinos from servers is possible and Mojang have deemed themselves to be accountable for making this happen.
    So, Mojang, Please adhere to your commitment to player safety and start to enact change on servers that allow casinos and gambling. Whether they be legally classified as so or not, because the danger is the same.