Play Gaming Gold rush
You’ll need
- Scenario cards (one for each station)
Before you begin
- Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. There’s also more guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
- Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
- Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help.
Planning and setting up this activity
- Print and cut out the station cards.
- Prepare five location clues—one for each challenge base. These clues can be riddles, written directions, or What3Words locations.
- Design clues to encourage hiking, teamwork, and exploration in safe, accessible outdoor areas.
- Station one leader at each challenge base to present the challenge and give out the next clue.
- Each base should have a leader stationed.
- Make sure parents and carers are aware of the activity, as it may lead to your people discussing gaming, allowances or financial situations at home.
Aim of the activity
The aim of this activity is to help young people understand the financial side of gaming (both the obvious and the hidden costs) by exploring real-life gaming scenarios through a fun and interactive outdoor treasure hunt.
Along the way, they’ll learn to recognise financial risks (such as spending real money on in-game purchases, unintentional overspending, scams and account hacks) to help them understand smart money habits.
Becoming a Critical Consumer
- Making Financial Decisions
Running this activity
- Ask everyone to get into groups.
- Tell them they’ll do a treasure hunt quiz where they answer questions about money in online games, because the risks of spending money in games aren’t always easy to spot, especially when you’re having fun or trying to win.
- The person leading the activity will give each team their first clue, which leads to their first challenge base.
- Young people should hike or navigate their way to their new location.
- When they arrive, the leader at the base should give them their challenge.
- If the team solve the challenge, they’ll earn tokens.
- Once they’ve completed their challenge, either correctly or incorrectly, they’ll be given another clue to tell them where to head next.
- If another team is already at the base, they may just need to wait nearby.
- Once the teams have made it round all five challenge bases, everyone should head back to the start point.
- You may wish to give out bonus tokens for good teamwork, communication, listening and so on.
- The team with the most tokens at the end, wins.
- To make it harder, you could also deduct tokens for incorrect answers.
Scenario: You’ve just completed a big mission in your favourite game, and now there’s an offer to buy an extra life for your character. The extra life costs £5 (5 game coins), and you have 7 game coins left that you earned by completing challenges. Should you buy it?
Questions:
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How much would those 5 game coins cost in real money?
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Answer: They’d cost £5. Even though they’re called game coins, they could be bought with real money - so spending them is like spending cash.
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Could this lead you to spend more money than intended? How?
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Answer: Yes. Buying small items in-game can become a habit. You might start spending without realising how much it adds up, especially if the coins don’t feel like real money.
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Reward: If you can answer correctly, you earn 10 game tokens!
Scenario: A message pops up on your screen offering a free download to get extra game coins. You click on it, and it asks for your login details.
Questions:
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What could happen if you give away your login details?
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Answer: Someone could hack your account, spend your money, steal your progress, or even use your account to scam your friends.
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How can you tell if an offer is a scam?
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Answer: Real offers won’t ask for your password, login information, or bank details. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Always check with a trusted adult before clicking or sharing your details.
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Reward: If you can answer correctly, you earn 15 game tokens!
Scenario: You sign up for a ‘free trial’ of a gaming subscription service. After a month, £10 is taken from your account, but you didn’t even realise the trial had ended.
Questions:
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How can you avoid unexpected charges like this?
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Answer: Always read the terms and conditions before signing up. Set a reminder to cancel the trial before it ends if you don’t want to keep it.
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What should you do if you didn’t mean to subscribe?
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Answer: Contact the company right away to cancel the subscription. Ask if you can get a refund, especially if you didn’t use the service.
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Reward: If you can answer correctly, you earn 20 game tokens!
Scenario: You’re playing a game and get really excited, so you buy a pack for £7.99. Later, you realise you accidentally bought three more packs without meaning to!
Questions:
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What can you do to avoid overspending in games?
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Answer: Set a spending limit before you play. Talk to a parent or carer about setting up a budget and use tools, such as password protection or purchase limits, to stop accidental spending.
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What could be the long-term impact of spending more than you planned?
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Answer: You could run out of money, get into debt, or end up in trouble with your parents or carers for spending money without permission, especially if it’s linked to their bank card.
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Reward: If you can answer correctly, you earn 25 game tokens!
Scenario: You buy 500 in-game coins for £4.99. But just as you’re about to spend them, the game updates. Now those coins are only worth half as much!
Questions:
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How can you protect yourself from losing the value of virtual money?
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Answer: Be careful when buying in-game currency. Make sure the game is well-reviewed and trustworthy. Know that updates can change the value of virtual items, so there's always a risk.
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What should you do before purchasing in-game currency?
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Answer: Do some research, check the game’s reviews and see if other players trust it. Talk to a parent or carer about whether it’s really worth spending your money.
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Reward: If you can answer correctly, you earn 30 game tokens!
This activity may touch on sensitive topics, such as food, money or food banks, which some young people or their families might be affected by.
It’s important to create a safe, positive and supportive space where everyone feels comfortable. Let everyone know it’s okay to ask questions, say if they feel unsure, or step away at any time. Always follow the Yellow Card.
You might need to make adjustments, such as:
- Tell people about the activity in advance
- Offer the option to leave or do an alternative activity
- Speak with parents or carers beforehand
- Remind everyone they can talk to a trusted adult if they’re upset or worried
You can offer trusted support services if needed, such as Childline (0800 1111), Citizen’s Advice (0808 223 1133) and Crimestoppers (0800 555 111).
The Trussell Trust is a great place to start looking for a food bank near you. You can find details of independent food banks online. The UK Government have some debt advice support too.
Make sure that all adult volunteers and young leaders keep all discussions age-appropriate and supportive.
Reflection
This activity was all about spending money safely while gaming. Can anyone share one important thing they learned from the treasure hunt?
Why do you think it’s easy to spend money without realising in games? Sometimes the costs are hidden or sneaky, and it’s easy to get carried away.
What can you do to be smart about spending money in games? Always check prices carefully, set a spending limit, talk to a trusted adult before buying, and watch out for things that seem too good to be true. With in-game tokens that can be earned by gameplay or purchased, remember that when spending within a game, they have the same value but can come at a different cost or price.
What should you do if you think you’ve spent too much or something feels wrong? Tell a trusted adult, check your account or bank statements, and ask for help to sort it out.
Remember, gaming is fun, but it’s important to be careful with money so you don’t get into trouble or stress later. Be aware and look out things like in app purchases or constant pop ups saying, ‘limited time offer.’ Talking with your parents about your gaming budget can help you stay safe and enjoy your games.
Safety
All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.
You must run your activities in line with the Safeguarding Code of Conduct for Adults (Yellow Card) and report any concerns to the UK HQ Safeguarding Team.
- Active games
The game area should be free of hazards. Explain the rules of the game clearly and have a clear way to communicate that the game must stop when needed. Take a look at our guidance on running active games safely.
- Outdoor activities
You must have permission to use the location. Always check the weather forecast, and inform parents and carers of any change in venue.
- Visits away from your meeting place
Complete a thorough risk assessment and include hazards, such as roads, woodland, plants, animals, and bodies of water (for example, rivers, ponds, lakes, and seas). You’ll probably need more adult helpers than usual. Your risk assessment should include how many adults you need. The young people to adult ratios are a minimum requirement. When you do your risk assessment, you might decide that you need more adults than the ratio specifies. Think about extra equipment that you may need to take with you, such as high visibility clothing, a first aid kit, water, and waterproofs. Throughout the activity, watch out for changes in the weather and do regular headcounts.
- To make this activity easier, you could give multiple choice questions.
- To make this activity harder, you could add more questions and challenge bases, remove tokens for wrong answers, or use more difficult questions.
Make it accessible
All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.
If you enjoyed this activity, why not try out our other HSBC money skills activities.