Casinos Return to Second Life... ?
Friday, March 06, 2009 | 
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Ari Blackthorne™
The problem with the "gambling over the Internet" policy and law from the united States dip-shi... er... Government, had to do with all the unintended effects.As the United States creeps sorrily toward the nanny-state — a socialist world where the government knows better how to spend your money than you do — the economy tanks, and all because of rules and laws these knuckleheads create and pass in the interest of 'protecting' us from ourselves.
Linden Lab banned not only casinos in Second Life, but any kind of 'game of chance' where the player anted up to play. There really was nothing illegal in these games, especially since Linden Lab has proclaimed the Linden Dollar as a "game token for trading purposes only".
However, because the LindeX (Linden Dollar Exchange, where you can trade Linden Dollars for real life legal tender) exists, there could technically be trouble in all of this.
I do not proclaim to be 'in the know' with regard to what exactly happened and the "who said what about why complained for threats". It is my (very fuzzy) understanding that banks, either locally in the United States or abroad, expressed serious concerns with regard to the gambling allowed in-world and the way Linden Dollars can be sold and purchased. Though a long stretch, pure logic explains that technically, if you buy Linden Dollars through the LindeX with your credit card, and then play these games of chance, then the bank is outside the law (as the law applies to the banks, not the patrons.)
When the casinos (the word I will use to encompass the whole of 'games of chance') were banished, and with extreme prejudice by the way, the Second Life economy tanked. It dropped like a rock over night. Which caused a run on the in-world bank called "Ginko" - which I understood was an actual legitimate effort - but the run sucked the enterprise dry, which brought shrill complaints to Linden Lab about banks in general - causing further decline when all banks were effectively banned - unless they could show legal documentation in real life.
Whew.
The ironic thing is this: the SL economy becoming twisted tighter than all these bank's panties all pulled into a wad, is mirrored in the real world. Real life banks are having hard times because of this 'gambling via the internet' law. To the point that one dimwit finally sees the light and will attempt to repeal the law altogether:
Frank to Push to Repeal U.S. Online Gambling Ban: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior Democratic lawmaker said on Thursday he would push to pass legislation to repeal a three-year-old U.S. ban on Internet gambling that has hurt trade ties with European Union.
'I'm going to be pushing it,' House of Representatives Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank told reporters at a press conference to lay out his agenda for reforming U.S. financial regulation"
It's rare that any law is repealed. Even when it doesn't work, because when diapers are outlawed, only outlaws will wear diapers. I suspect it's a taxing issue: tax revenues where hunky-dory before this law went into effect. The economy was strong. All was good.
Now that the real world economy is taking a nose-dive (and based on what I see in the New York and other world Stock Exchanges' confidence in his new taxes and 'stimulus' bail-out spending) the prez called Obama is in the pilot seat steering the plane.
Anyway, the promising news is this: if the law is repealed, hopefully an appeal will be made to Linden Lab to re-allow these "games of chance" and the SL economy will be kick-started with an infusion of adrenalin. All the lag in those sims was worth the strong economy, real humans in-world instead of only one-in-three green dots on the map (the others are bots or campers or worse: camper bots.)
So, I suppose hell is freezing over right now as I am actually not only supporting proposed legislation (the repeal of this law, even though I never gamble myself) but I am awaiting with baited breath on the success of it and in turn, Linden Lab loosening that tight grip on what was arguably the most popular activity in Second Life.
Categories:
Socially Promising
