Last updated: ‹‹DATE››
These terms add to the Terms of Service for members who build rooms in the Builders' Hall and earn from them. If the two conflict on a creator matter, these terms apply.
What the program is
Members can build rooms in the Builders' Hall. Staff review each room; approved rooms go on show in the hall and in the Hangout. A room can contain playable slot machines. When visitors play those machines, the room's builder (the "Creator") receives a share of the house's edge on those spins. A room can also contain one playable poker table; when that feature is switched on, it becomes a real HoldemHeroes poker table and the Creator receives a share of the rake it collects (see Poker tables in rooms).
Earnings come from people using what a Creator built. Nobody has to buy a token or lose money to a Creator for a Creator to earn: the share comes out of the house's own edge.
Earnings are not guaranteed. They depend entirely on how much visitors choose to play in a room or at its table. Many rooms will earn little or nothing. The program is not an investment, a job, a partnership or an employment relationship, and nothing in it is a promise of income.
Who can take part
Any member in good standing who can use the Platform under the Terms of Service. ‹‹CREATOR ELIGIBILITY: age, location, identity or tax checks before payouts››
How earnings are worked out
- The share. For each spin played on a machine in an approved room, the Creator receives the creator share of the house edge on that spin. The share is set in the Platform's house controls and is shown on the Creator dashboard (
/builders/earnings); at launch it is 25%. - Theoretical edge, not results. The share is calculated on the wager multiplied by the house edge, not on whether the player won or lost that spin. Earnings never go negative, and a lucky or unlucky run doesn't change them.
- Only the player's own chips count. Airdropped or otherwise free chips never count towards earnings.
- What never counts. A Creator's own spins in their own rooms; spins by the Platform's house bots (which are always labelled BOT); and spins we reasonably believe were arranged to generate earnings rather than genuine play (see Abuse).
- Earnings are recorded to the millionth of a chip and collected in whole chips.
Tips
Visitors can tip a Creator CHIPS from an approved room's page.
- Tips come only from the tipper's own chips. Airdropped or free chips can't be tipped.
- A tip leaves the tipper's balance at once and can't be refunded. It reaches the Creator as an earning, subject to the same hold and collection rules as any other.
- There is a maximum tip size (currently ‹‹TIP MAX›› CHIPS). Tipping your own rooms isn't possible, and tips arranged to move money between accounts, to pay for anything outside the Platform, or to get around cash-out limits count as abuse.
- ‹‹TIP TERMS: platform fee on tips, if any; treatment of tips for tax purposes››
Poker tables in rooms
A room can contain at most one playable poker table. Once the room is approved, and while the house has the feature switched on, it is opened as a real HoldemHeroes cash table that shows the room's name in the poker lobby.
- The share. The Creator receives a share of the rake collected at their room's table. There is a base share, and higher tiers that apply once the table's rake over the last 30 days reaches set thresholds. The base share, the tiers and their thresholds are set by the house in the Platform's settings, are shown on the Creator dashboard (
/builders/earnings), and may change. At launch the base share is ‹‹POKER BASE SHARE››, with tiers of ‹‹POKER TIERS››. - Only real-chip play. Only rake from play with chips on the website balance counts. Practice or play-money games never earn anything.
- Only hands with two or more people. Only rake from hands in which at least two people were dealt in counts. Hands against the Platform's house bots alone never earn anything.
- Rake, not results. The share is worked out on the rake the table collected, not on who won or lost. It never goes negative.
- Same hold and collection. The Creator's share is recorded as an earning and follows the same hold, collection and cancellation rules as any other earning.
- Collusion and playing against yourself. Playing at your own table to generate rake, using several accounts, colluding with other players, or arranging games to generate rake rather than for genuine play is prohibited. Where we find it, the affected earnings are forfeited and the other measures under Abuse apply. ‹‹POKER ABUSE: whether the Creator's own hands are excluded automatically once that is possible››
- Turning the feature off stops new rake share; earnings already recorded stay collectable under these terms.
Challenges
A Creator can run a high-score challenge in an approved room: a contest on one of the Platform's free arcade games, with a prize in CHIPS that the Creator puts up. The feature is switched off until it has been reviewed; while it is off, no challenges can be started or entered.
- Who runs it. The Creator is the sponsor of their challenge and funds its prize. The prize comes only from the Creator's own chips (never airdropped or free chips) and is taken from their balance and held by the Platform ("escrow") when the challenge starts. The prize is limited to what is held: nothing more is promised or owed. ‹‹SPONSOR: whether the Creator, the Platform or both are the legal sponsor or promoter; sponsor identification and contact in each challenge's rules››
- Free to enter. Entering costs nothing and no chips are staked. Playing the game is free whether or not a player enters. ‹‹NO PURCHASE NECESSARY: free alternative method of entry, if required››
- Skill-based. Places are decided only by score in a game whose every run is replayed and verified by the Platform from a seed the Platform issues. ‹‹SKILL CONTEST: statement that the outcome is determined by skill, not chance, and the analysis behind it››
- Who can enter. Signed-in members in good standing. The Creator, accounts linked to the Creator (sharing a principal, wallet or cash-out account), the Platform's house bots, and anyone the Platform reasonably believes is entering on the Creator's behalf cannot place. ‹‹ELIGIBILITY: minimum age, excluded countries and states, employee exclusions›› ‹‹VOID WHERE PROHIBITED: void where prohibited or restricted by law››
- How places are decided. A player's best verified score made in the challenge counts; a tie goes to whoever reached that score first. Runs must be finished before the challenge ends.
- Payout. When it ends, the Platform pays each place its share of the prize as CHIPS, automatically, using the split the Creator chose. Shares of places nobody fills go back to the Creator; with no entrants, the whole prize goes back. Prize CHIPS are ordinary chips: they can be played or cashed out under the normal cash-out rules. ‹‹PRIZE TERMS: taxes and reporting for winners, prize value disclosures, limits per person››
- Cancelling. The Creator can cancel a challenge, and get the prize back, only before anyone has scored. The Platform can cancel any challenge at any time, for example for abuse, an exploit or a legal reason, and then returns what is left of the prize to the Creator.
- The Platform's role. The Platform provides the games, verifies scores, holds the prize and pays it out according to the challenge's settings. ‹‹PLATFORM ROLE: whether the Platform is administrator only, its liability, and dispute handling››
- Abuse. Using several accounts, paying or arranging for others to play, sharing accounts, scripts or bots, or using a challenge to move value between accounts or around cash-out limits is not allowed. We may disqualify players, cancel the challenge, and take the other measures under Abuse.
- ‹‹CHALLENGE RULES: official rules template, governing law, publicity release, privacy of winners' names››
Hold and collection
- New earnings wait in a hold (currently ‹‹HOLD DAYS›› days, shown on the dashboard) before they can be collected, so that abuse can be caught first.
- After the hold, the Creator can collect earnings as chips on their website balance. Collected chips are ordinary chips: they can be played or cashed out under the normal cash-out rules.
- Earnings that are still in the hold can be reduced or cancelled where they arose from abuse, error, an exploit, or a refunded or reversed purchase.
Changes to the share and the program
We may change the creator share, the poker rake share and its tiers, the hold, eligibility, or pause or end the program, with notice on the site ‹‹NOTICE PERIOD››. Changes apply to spins played and rake collected after the change. Earnings already recorded keep the share that applied when they were earned, unless they are cancelled for abuse.
Abuse
Self-dealing, collusion, using several accounts, bots or scripts, paying or rewarding people to play in a room, or any other attempt to manufacture earnings is not allowed. Where we find it, we may cancel the affected earnings (including collected ones, by reversing the chips), remove rooms, and suspend accounts. We'll tell the Creator what we found and why. ‹‹APPEAL PROCESS››
Your rooms and content
Creators keep ownership of what they build. By submitting a room, a Creator grants the Platform a licence to host, display, promote, and let members visit and play in it. ‹‹CONTENT LICENCE: scope, duration, sublicensing, what happens on removal›› Rooms must follow the Content Policy. Staff may decline, remove or take down any room, which stops new earnings from it; earnings already recorded remain subject to these terms.
Customisation
Creators can change how their room's machines look and sound: a machine's name, its colours, its symbol set and the room's music (chosen from the Platform's music library). Customisation is cosmetic only. Odds, paytables, bet sizes, return to player and outcomes are set by the house and are the same on every machine; nothing a Creator chooses changes them, and Creators must not suggest otherwise.
A Creator must own, or have the rights to use, any name or text they put on a machine or in a room, and must not use another person's or company's name, brand or trademark without permission or in a way that suggests an endorsement that doesn't exist. Staff review names and music choices and may reject a room or update, or remove a name, for any of these reasons or under the Content Policy. ‹‹CUSTOMISATION: rights warranty and indemnity wording››
Taxes
Creators are responsible for any taxes on what they earn. ‹‹TAX REPORTING: thresholds, forms, withholding››
Questions about the Creator Program: ‹‹CREATOR EMAIL››.
