UPDATE: Rigged gaming machine

I would like all of you to revisit this thread:
/120/9a/7445/1.html
I posted about a rigged gaming machine belonging to a group and listed its officers.

Nicko Snow
James Chaos
jacob Chen
Ben Fonzarelli

A few things have since been brought to my attention.
The big red "WIN $20000" machine is still very much around. A good old friend of mine just gave me a chat log between her and Jacob Chen where the latter invited her to fly up into the sky and then tried to con her into putting some money in the gaming machine.
Nicko Snow claims that his role in this was merely that of an investor - apparently he gave Jacob Chen 2k of his money, probably with the expectation of turning a profit.
He also claims to have no knowledge of any scam going on with the machine, and feels profoundly saddened by the comments some people have given him since, to the point of considering leaving the game.
My intention was to merely list the officers in that group, which was publically available information.
According to Nicko, the script in it turned out to be a simple donation script that had no intention of ever paying any money to anyone.
Since my post has had a negative effect on his reputation, I feel I should publically apologize.
Some people have flamed Nicko on account of reading his name on my post, or have otherwise changed their opinion of him.
I hereby invite you to reconsider, in light of these new developments.
Please take into account his testimony, as related by me, per his request, and if you feel an apology is in order please post it here or send him an IM.

Nicko told me he had nothing to do with it, and Jacob told me the following. I quote, "i am sry i wsnt prt of that i just gave $ to them sry"

I suppose real soon now every one of them will be saying the others did it. In the interests of full disclosure, Ama just told me he had problems with Nicko having a broken machine before.
We really need an SL court system.

I wonder if they claim no part, or if they were duped.. are they still part of the group?

If I were duped into something and found it to be a poor choice and detriment to my reputation I would pull out, publicly apologize and get rid of (via return or donation) monies collected. By remaining a part of the group, they continue to profit from something known to be a scam device.

That being said I personally feel by remaining a part of the group (if they have), although they deny knowlege or guilt, they remain guilty.

NOTE: I have not gone inworld to see who is or is not still in this group. These are just observations from afar.

They all left the group as soon as I found out about this.

Thx for the clarification. So then, the only person to reap benefit is the object owner. I have not seen one. Who is the object owner?

The object was deeded to the group. Money was split evenly among all members I suppose. That's what usually happens with groups.

Oh, nm. By this I thought it stll existed.

I am the one Jacob Chen tried to get money out of.

He appeared on my property, told me he wanted to show me something and transported me very high where he created a platform. He then rezzed the machine and seemed surprised that I already knew about it. (Thank you, Eggy!) The *instant* I told him I didn't gamble, he dropped the floor from under me and I fell back to land.

I asked him if he really went to all that trouble just to get me to play and he said "yes."

Then he left. Never said hello. Never offered to exchange cards.

Very abrupt and to the point. Come here. Let me show you this. Want to gamble? That was the entire encounter.

That doesn't sound like "just being an investor" to me.

Maggie

I also had the same "want to gamble" schtick laid out for me, around the time that it went out over global IM that this was happening.

He rezzed platform like 800m up, rezzed the machine, and I paid it $1 to keep the guise going. The machine was owned by him as he had just rezzed it, so likely the money went to him, as opposed to the whole group-owned no paying out issue of the prior thread.

However, if all that was in there was a donation script, then, well, i guess I got duped out of $1.

Solution: Don't play the red machines. If one appears on your property and you didn't ask for it, delete or return.

Well MJ there were two of them at the Coney and Mocha divisions of Omega Games, which I swiftly deleted. By still around I mean what Maggie just said.

When you play at Omega Games you are likely to break even. The goal is for you peeps to have fun, not go bankrupt. Over 95% of the money you guys put in there will be returned to you eventually. Actually, considering that I will have to hand out a $100,000 prize soon, as long as my balance is below that, I'm in the negative.

This certainly isn't the first bad gambling machine that's come through SL.

There needs to be some kind of "certification" or something, be it a group or something, stating that the script has been inspected and the game sampled enough (at creator's expense...which is fine since he gets the money whether he loses or wins) to prove a reasonable chance of payout. That inspector needs to have the right to inspect any "certified" gambling machine at any time.

Another idea would be to create a secondary script that reports wins and losses on the machine, so you can ask around to see if anybody has really won.

For myself, I won't play any gambling machine where I don't know the creator well enough to trust him. Caveat emptor or whatever. Think of it this way, if your local deli put up a homemade slot machine, with no authority stamp of any kind....would you play it?

Ama had an "Omega Games seal of approval" program of sorts if I recall correctly. I'll have to ask him about it, but if anyone has reason to believe that any gaming machine at Ama's arcades is rigged, I'm sure the owner would have no problem letting us inspect it.

I dunno about inspections. I think the only player-policing, other than contacting the Lindens, is via word of mouth.

Scripts, like everything else, are now copyright protected. And no matter how much you'd like to have one inspected no one has the right to enforce that (without seeking Linden intervention).

Bos

I have the right to enforce whatever I want on my land. If you dont want people seeing your gaming script, its probably because its rigged.

No, because it's not YOUR code, but someone elses.

Of course on *your* land you do have the right to delete it (and I would choose that option myself for a rigged game). But you do not have the right to *force* the owner of a (suspected) rigged script, or any script for that matter, to show their code, regardless if it's your land or Santa's.

I put copyrights in my scripts now, not because of this thread but because it's now, in SL, my legal RIGHT, and a damn good one to have. And it would be foolish not to enjoy such protection.

I do not at all support any rigged game, or intentionally malicious script of any sort, but I definitely don't support other players demanding (I know, no one is demanding to see them -- yet, but it's possible) to see scripts because they suspect something's fishy. I do suggest contacting the Lindens who are the first step towards a real solution to an otherwise pointless player-initiated inquest.

Bos