Second Life May Also Represent New Life For Online Gambling
from the but-when-will-the-feds-open-up-shop-there? dept
As the exaggerated hype around Second Life has continued to grow, quite a few people have started pointing out that the most prominent activities in Second Life aren't the highbrow talks given by famous people, or various economic or social experiments, but like so many popular internet spaces: vices rule the day. Especially popular is gambling -- though, you almost never hear about that when the press writes up their latest gushing piece about some big celebrity showing up in Second Life or a big company opening a virtual building there. Yet, it's one of the more popular activities there -- perhaps even more since the US government began its big crackdown on online gambling, forcing financial firms not to do business with online gambling operations. However, how will they manage that when the currency is not US dollars and the medium covers a lot more than just gambling? As Rob Hof notes over at Business Week, you can lose real money gambling in Second Life -- and it doesn't seem like there's an easy way for the government to stop it directly. Of course, because Second Life decided to bring real world laws into their virtual world, it may only be a matter of time until we hear that the Feds have set up shop in Second Life as well, in order to crack down on such things... It's going to be a blast to watch the jurisdictional battles that show up when governments start trying to enforce laws within Second Life.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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SL Gambling
At least in Vegas, the industry is regulated and you don't encounter BJ tables where you bet $100 USD, win the hand and the dealer doesn't give you your money. In fact, SL is starting to look more and more like a big phishing scam (and I am a fan of SL) as I've found vendor devices that don't give you products when you pay them, etc. are being seen with increasing frequency. Complaints to Linden Labs get the same canned response.
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Question
So, SL has adopted the laws of the US (Though, as many states have different laws, I imagine they have stuck with just Federal ones-- though if they adopted the state laws of Nevada, would gambling be okay again?) That doesn't mean a violation of these adopted laws means a violation of a REAL law. It means a violation of a fake law that looks a lot like a real law-- therefore it falls solely under the game admins to deal with, not the Feds.
In a different light, I've read of and seen several scams while playing World of Warcraft-- but could you imagine the response you'd get if you called the cops because someone on WoW scammed you out of 500 gold? Or if we decided to up the ante on our dorkiness and gambled rolling dice?
..and before it's said, there are sites that will buy WoW gold from you, so yes, I could translate it into real money if I so desired.
That's just my take on things.
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Re: Question
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Re: Question
Second life added systems that directly allow real world monies to change hands, as well as the concept of IP Laws into their enviroment. in doing so they have blured the line between real world and online game. through that they have opened themselves up to the legal headaches of both.
just my 2cp
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Selling Gold
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Now, where did I put that point?
Just because SL adopts laws doesn't mean that breaking one of them translates to breaking a real world law. Except for perhaps IP, which is all made up anyway. No matter what the hype, it is not real, it is a game. Just because it mimics the real world (which, I think defeats the purpose of a game-- but that's just me) doesn't mean it *is* the real world.
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Sounds like fun...
:-)
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Agent Smith Anyone?
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What's wrong?
Oh well, with the Democrats now controlling congress maybe we can get online gambling legalized.
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Other MMO's would not be affected though as they don't have an official and controlled exchange rate mechanism, actually in most cases they have the complete opposite, rules against selling for real life currency thus in many ways protecting the publisher and to a lesser degree the players from government interference. SL though have removed those protections, opening themselves (and their players) wide open to get done over by the government
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Biggest losers
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Feds can easily prosecute if they want
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carry on kiddig yourself
The inability to distinguish fantasy from reality is a serious illness. It does not manifest itself overnight as a spectacular symptom, rather it creeps insidiously into the consciousness of the patient by small measures. Conditions are optimal for the disease to propagate when there are others who share and reinforce those irrationalities. (Dawkings entire book in one paragraph there for you)
Religion, fantasy role playing games and political ideologies are all facets of this same madness. Gambling is an interesting special case of reality denial, where an otherwise intelligent person who knows the odds are stacked completely against them still clings to the delusion (often aided by superstitious beliefs) that they can "win" against the system.
But don't be discouraged, in fact carry on. One of my own perculiar fantasies is that one evening while you are all engrossed in playing Second Life, I , and my legions of evil ninja sharks (with fricken lasers on their heads no less) will simply take over the world.
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Yesterday i want to buy FFXI goldfor my brother.
i hope him like it. i will buy Final Fantasy XI gold for him
as birthday present. i like the cheap Final Fantasy XI Gold very much.
I usuallybuy FFXI Gil and keep it in my store.
I can get aion kina cheaply,
Yesterday i bought aion online kinafor my brother.
i hope him like it. i will give aion gold to him
as birthday present. i like the cheap aion kina very much.
I usually buy aion kina and keep it in my store.
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3 or so scripts more than should be in the game, along with notecards to control thier settings.
1 called "skin" (zyngo has skin control built in FFS, just copy the UUID)
Zyngo HB V1 Sender Script
Zyngo HB V1 Settings (notecard)
and more disturbingly
Zyngo Stats Collector V1.4 Sender Script
Zyngo Stats Collector V1.4 Settings (notecard)
i have a screencap of this. and i am prepared to rub it in whoever's face i need to to bring this facade to an end.
This is something i would love to see zymurgy worm out of with his technical words.
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Hermes bag
MARNI bag,
couture bags,
designer watches,
Hermes bags,
marc jacobs handbags,
Hermes Kelly,
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