A new report from the United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau —an organization focused on enforcing the laws that protect consumers—indicates the bureau is aware of and monitoring big online video games that are filled with in-app purchases, digital currencies, and shady third-party markets that turn these games into pseudo-banks and casinos for kids.
“In the virtual world of Habbo Hotel, items are exchanged between players through the in-game market,” says the report. “Plastic chairs were originally designed to furnish virtual apartments. Over time, these chairs gradually became the currency of the game. Prices on the market would be denominated in plastic chairs, and the exchange of plastic chairs would allow players to buy goods or services within the game.