Gambling ban = end of Second Life? This article thinks so.

If you look at the year long graph, it's pretty easy to see where the gambling ban happened, but there's a big flaw in the statistic. There is a significant downturn in the amount of money spent inworld on the graph, but most of that was just passed around instead of being anyones profit. There was a relatively small number of game owners turning over huge amounts of lindens. I was doing a few million per month. Sounds great until you realize that I'd pay someone's games 50k and get back 45-60k while at the same time having my own games take in 20k and payout 30k or more. On the good nights I came out slightly ahead, on the bad nights I had my ass handed to me. The same was true of nearly everyone out there that owned a gaming business. (I'm talking about the ones that centered mostly around the Slingo type games.) But it was a tremendous amount of fun for me. Many people wouldn't have enjoyed it, but I did and so did hundreds of people I met during that time. Now many of the games have been approved for use in SL again, but sadly most of the bigtime owners that funded the best jackpots haven't come back. I'd like to raise the prizes at my place, but until I can cover my costs by winning at other places, I won't be able to. I'll continue to provide my games at break even or a slight loss for as long as LL allows.

It always amazes me how many people respond to gambling threads by saying "I never gambled in SL, and I don't know anyone that ever gambled in SL, so listen to my greatly informed opinion."

My shopping sprees ended when the asset server started eating my no copy items.

Crap performance = end of Second Life is more like it.

Actually, Second Life ended almost a year ago. You people who took the red pill just think it is still going. Everyone who took the blue pill is sticking around only as long as it's open bar.

Wow, it's amazingly how realistic it still seems when LL debits my account US $195 every month.

They did think of everything, didn't they?

I don't drop acid but I have an opinion on it.

I don't hire prostitutes but I have an opinion on it.

I don't own land and therefore don't pay property taxes in RL but still have an opinion on it.

I have never been to prison but still have an opinion on prison reform.

and most importantly....

I've never lived under Nazi control but still am pretty certain Hitler wasn't a very nice guy.

But, boy was he a gambler.
/Me whips off her pants and waves them in salute

What's your opinion on dropping acid? Mine is, stay away from flourescent lights and make sure you have some kind Jerry Garcia Band on the shuffle play.

Do you really think enough people won at gambling and spent those earnings to make a difference in SL? I think not. The house wins, always. Sure, a few people win a little, fewer win more, and I would say most lose that gambling with it again. Not to mention that a gambling script in SL, without any regulatory agency, could stack the odds as heavy as it wanted for the house. The ones who made out like bandits are the casino owners. There were casinos paying up to L$100,000 a week on ads... just on ads... so how much do you think they were cashing out? I just find it hard to believe the SL economy, as diverse as it is, was crutched up with gambling...

SL economy got a boost from the Gambling, and lost it when it went away, big deal

The lack of gambling in SL might provide a market opportunity for competition.

I wonder if the alternative sim and grid folks put ran sims on computers located in a country where internet gambling is legal if LL would let them connect to the grid?

well....for all intents and purposes, it may be against the TOS, but it hasn't really stopped anyone and LL isn't really enforcing anything....a weasel will always find a way through the fence...

now that's a great plan...I'm not for gambling, but it's a way to co-exist......wait..never mind...I smell ad farms getting ready to multiply. But if it kept everyone happy and they didn't pollute the other grids, then what a wonderful idea. Hmmm what could be next...SL's own redlight district?

i am pretty sure that LL would only use local laws AGAINST you, as in 'such and such is _illegal_ in your locality, so...'
and im sure they could have worked legal gambling in somehow if the estate sims, regulation and its financing were both handled offshore. im pretty sure the tabcorp could run a wicked gambling sim, and aussie banks have atms in the casinos, so...

That is called "A dead Cat bounce" -

The problem is that the Feds issued warents for anybody running a gaming site that was used by US citizens, the rest of the woirld can gamble all they like online. But americans can't.

This article is both topical and up-to-date. Seriously.

Well, the argument that the person who writes those articles seems to be making is this (and I'm not sure I agree with this, I'm just trying to summarise):

- The key to the SL economy is people buying L$ for US$. Without that, movement of L$ are meaningless.

- Many users never buy any L$ for US$ at all. Of those who do, they tend to do so only for a limited amount of time (except for L$ bought for rental fees), because as Brenda mentioned, eventually you just don't need any more content ("diminishing returns", as economists call it).

- Thus, each day, some number of existing users make their last ever (non-rental) L$ purchase. To offset this, a number of new users making their first purchase of L$ for US$ is required.

- Thus (the article argues) SL as a whole is a deeply disguised ponzi scheme, because it depends on new users' money to pay returns to older users.

- This problem doesn't apply to real-world economies because they do not need foreign currencies to operate, and can export much more easily.

- Gambling offset this, because a gambler will never have won "enough" - they might potentially buy an unlimited amount of L$ over time to gamble with.

I think this is rather extreme - amongst other things, the tacit assumption is made that land barons don't do anything with the profits on their rentals other than cashing them out, and although that might be true in some cases, they may also spend money on content for their sims, which energises the prefab content and building market. Granted, the money from that market may not then percolate down into the economy (because expert builders have the least reason to buy content of anyone) but it's something.

QFOT

Yeah.

so is this thread.

I was SURE it would be a necro-bump.

Some utopian day there will be no more gambling threads ... some glorious day ... when I can come home from dealing with stuff about gambling and not even think about going back to work tomorrow ... oh happy day!

Yeah right.

Internet gambling is legal under federal law in the United States. People who say otherwise simply don't now the case law and the history or how the UIGEA works. You could put the servers on Mars and it would not make a difference. The UIGEA makes it illegal for banks to allow money to flow from US accounts to site operators of "unlawful internet gambling" with a definition of "unlawful internet gambling" that is so vague that banks are not going to touch an online gambling site with US account money with a thousand foot pole regardless of where the servers are and Linden Lab is not going to jeapordize its account receivables from US accounts for a little bit of gambling.

Our mob are based in San Francisco and Reno, mainly. The servers are in somewhere else. My office is based in the UK. We don't take bets from US players because we would put OURSELVES at risk by doing so. The person placing the bet is not liable to. This is how things work with an actual regulated Casino licence.

None of what was happening in SL was ever regulated. The moot point being, if it were not possible to BUY L$ then it would be irrelevant. If the Linden was a game only currency which could not ever be bought or cashed out then the whole gambling thing would be just fine - in fact, would run much as freeplay does on many casino sites.

However, whilst that was the case once it no longer is, as the Linden can be cashed out it can't be discounted any more. That's my take on it, anyway and I have to agree that the laws are very vague re "unlawful internet gambling".

In a word - no.

I spent a little time gambling while camping at a SL casino when I was "Young", neither we a good source of income for my active time. I did win a tidy some once, but mostly broke even, in fact would have lost a great deal more if it were not for my income from camping.

Casinos? A source of income? Only for those running a successful one. Those playing would find they are merely breaking even or loosing L$ with the occasional pay out to appease them and get their hopes up.