Second Life Bans Gambling

Linden Labs, the online company best known for creating and maintaining Second Life, the popular virtual world, have announced that all forms of gambling have now been banned from the game. This means popular in-game events such as blackjack, poker, roulette and slot machines will no longer be allowed.

This comes on the heels of an invitation from the company to the FBI to tour their site and make sure that they were in compliance with United States laws.

In an entry on their blog, Linden Labs wrote, “If we discover gambling activities that violate the policy, we will remove all related objects from the in-world environment, may suspend or terminate the accounts of residents without refund and may report any relevant details, including user information, to authorities and financial institutions.”

Second Life uses a form of online currency. While it may only exist online, it can be used to buy a wide array of virtual goods and services. The online currency, also known as Linden Money, can also be purchased with real dollars. This is why the company wanted to make sure they were in compliance, as the former system might have constituted a breach of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.

Luckily, nobody has tried to tax virtual transactions yet, although I’m sure the Republicans will try to ban it at some point. The UK’s Fraud Advisory Panel have added to the hysteria by suggesting that criminals could use Second Life to transfer large sums of money. I wonder if you can create a money launderer in the game?

With over 8 million virtual residents, companies such as Calvin Klein and Nike have set up a presence in the world of Second Life to increase their online visibility. Unfortunately, regular people have also brought their petty disputes into the cyber world. Recently, a Florida man filed a copyright infringement suit against another online resident when he learned that the man was selling a virtual bed very similar to his own. That’s right….a virtual bed. The mind boggles.

For more one the subject, check out the article below:

Second Life Probed by the FBI

Second Life Bans Gambling