Thursday, July 26, 2007

EXTRA, EXTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT! Casino's are closing in SL!!!

Wagering in second life: new policy
This is the title of the blog I read this morning.

"Policy
It is a violation of this policy to wager in games in the Second Life (R) environment operated on Linden Lab servers if such games:(1) (a) rely on chance or random number generation to determine a winner, OR (b) rely on the outcome of real-life organized sporting events,

AND
(2) provide a payout in
(a) Linden Dollars, OR
(b) any real-world currency or thing of value.
This includes (but is not limited to), for example, Casino Games such as:
o Baccarat
o Blackjack
o Craps
o Faro
o Keno
o Pachinko
o Pai Gow
o Poker
o Roulette
o Sic Bo
o Slot machines
It also includes Sports Books or Sports Betting, including the placing of bets on actual sporting events against a book-maker or through a betting exchange.
Linden Lab will actively enforce this policy. If we discover gambling activities that violate the policy, we will remove all related objects from the inworld environment, may suspend or terminate the accounts of residents involved without refund or payment, and may report any relevant details, including user information, to authorities and financial institutions."

Unbelievable, the Linden's are closing every casino, no more bets, no more slot machines, etc., and the worst of all, unemployment for several of us, residents.
What about the investments?
More to come on this.

In the meanwhile there was a strike going on, on Orientation Island. What will become of Second Life, how is Second Life going to survive this?
If there are no casino's anymore, there will be no more money for newbies, and they will not be able to buy things, so other residents will not earn money, so the economy of SL is at stake here.
Of course you can always take a premium account, and you don't have to visit casino's or camping spots, but was that not the charm of SL for newbies?
So, we will come at the end, to only premium residents, as they are the only one who "paid their membership" to the Linden's. All the others will dissapear sooner or later, I suppose.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

w00t! Not that I mind gambling, but I hate hate hate lag! A low-lag Topgol! Viva CLAM! (Campers Liberation Army Movement, I have no affiliation.)

Anonymous said...

And now that I've thought about it for a couple of minutes, I think this is yet another bad move on the part of LL--attempting to police the behavior of "residents" ensures that no US court will treat them as a "common carrier" (like the phone company), and as such, LL will be held liable for the behavior of its residents. Unless they get some pretty big corporate backing with clout in the US Congress, this will kill SL eventually. On the other hand, if they manage to get purchased by a major corporation, SL will continue to exist, but will be further sanitized. This is no game, people, but it sure ain't gonna be a second life worth living.

Sex workers will be next, then the crackdown on music streams that don't pay royalties.

Party now.

Bitter Chocolate said...

They way you put it reminds me of a song that begins "your world is coming to its end"... On the bright side, casinos are hideous... I've been avoiding casinos for quite a while, they are yucky and campers are like zombies... of course, you have a point, but I'm sure people will think of some new way how newbies can earn some pitiful cash, because there's a lot of money spinning in that...

tiana meriman said...

/me looks around then starts dancing a happy dance.