Would you still use SL if there wasn't an option to cash out?

I wonder how many users actually make enough Lindens to cash out significant amounts, and how many don't intend to anyway.

If there was an option to hold a no cashout account, gambling would be still legal for these users, taxes wouldn't be a problem, and mony other problems wouldn't arise... we would genuinly PLAY SL for fun, earning a bit of Lindens to make our virtual living, or just buying Lindens to have fun in-world, without the intent to make RL-money.

You need to add a poll option for those of us who spend more than we make, but who need the cashout option because we can't buy if other residents can't sell.

And buying L when no one can cash out doesn't work. How am I supposed to pay other residents for goods and services, or does this cease to exist in your new version of SL?

How about land costs - a lot of cashouts must end up as LL tier payments anyway. Without that money, owning land on SL would get really expensive really fast.

It's not a "new version" but a feature suggestion. You could pay in Lindens.

Many users don't own land. They don't earn enough Lindens to cash out, but just want to use SL as a way of recreation. Why not giving them special accounts with a one way cash flow and letting them gamble?

But than the owners of the gambling machine would still want to cash out the proceeds.
Still against US law

i wish thety would get rid of fake money completly,
Activeworlds did very well with out fake money, Land was free and still is
Secondlife is ripping ppl off charging for land (that dont exist)
i wont take money out of this game and im not putting any in
secondlife is still in beta nothing ever works why pay for it?

I would still be here if there was no cashout, but Caledon would go from 1.2 million square meters to... 500 square meters.

Shrinking by a factor of 1:2400.

Cashing out to USD credit is how I pay tier.

We'd probably have a lamp post, a top hat and a tea set to share once it was over, but that would be about it.

A quarter million prims --> 117 prims would be kind of a... tough prim reduction job... I don't think we could do it even with a *reeeally* creative use of textures....

Not if they also are in only for fun. My views are unrealistic I guess...

If all you want to do is gamble without the possibility of cashing out, all you need to do is setup your monalisabucks that cost 1L each, and keep track of them somewhere, and never let anyone cash them out. That's perfectly legal.

(Also since we all love talking about gambling. You could even gamble, using linden dollars, on non-SL servers)

I think you'd see that quite a bit around SL Desmond. I know I'd cash out the extra 1000sqm I have and fit everything onto the standard 512. Not sure how that would work, but it'd be a lot less painful for me than others =D

I'm willing to pay 20$US per month (premium+tier+spending cash) to play a game that I can cash out of even if I'm not making any profit at all and that's all out of pocket. My limit is about half that for a game that I'll never be able to cash out of though.

It's all about perspective.

OK, let me try and get this straight, because YOU want to be able to gamble in SL, you want the ability for everyone to cash out Lindens to be removed?

Yep I wouldn't mind if they canceled buy out option as long as they stop charging us real money for lindens. Yet still allowed us to make, trade outside products in whatever ways we want for those who still want to do it.

What if it was payable in Lindens?

No one's going to do any genuine hard work for a currency they can't cash out.

No one.

You obviously have no idea the extent to which the SL economy is really run on real money, with L just being a convenience to make micropayments affordable.

Many of the things you see in SL wouldn't exist in your version, because no one is going to take the time to do that much work for mere entertainment. Also, no one would be able to build RL related projects.

In your version of SL, sure there would be people in the game with no stake in the game, but they'd have very little to do.

You want to get real L from your gambling and that then spend it on an equal footing with people who are participating in a genuine economy. Where does this extra L of yours come from? Out of nothing? Then the L inflates to the point that no one wants to take it anyway and we're just back to square one. If the L is coming from people who can cash out, you're now gambling whether or not you personally ever cash out.

If I want someone to spend a lot of time making something for me, I have to pay her in real money. Simple.

No LOL. I have never gambled, I don't even miss the casinos. I was asking about a theoretical option to add more freedom to SL without making it illegal.

The poll options are confusing, i was forced to click yes... in my peak month right before gambling ban i made twice as much as i used to when i had a fulltime job rl. I would prefer if L$ vanished because it would make Lindens work more on the world itself and less on hiring lawyers to read rules and apply them. Everybody would still make money the only difference would be you would not be able to exchange it through linden labs anymore. (there are tons of internetcurrencies around now so i have no worries there)

If Linden Lab didnt kill Gaming Open Market with the goal to monopolize L$ in the past none of the current legal problems would occur and this would be a much faster growing world.

Ok, well Ive been watching the online numbers since the removal of gambling was predicted to drastically lower the number logging into SL. Ive seen an approx 2000-3000 online drop since the gambling ban. Im guessing these numbers are campers who have had the camp chairs removed since the casinos closed. So Im not certain that many residents are missing gambling, or if they are, theyre still logging in and finding other things to do.

Why even think of changing what works well. I mean, whats the point?
Some people use it, some people don't. Myself, I will be cashing in my Lindens if I get enough to make a difference. Some people here make a great deal of money, making and selling their wares and should have the right to cash in if they so feel. If you don't want to cash in, then don't. If you do, then you should be able to. And if you are wondering if I say this because of gambling... well I don't gamble. If gambling is an issue, maybe the question should be "should gambling be allowed in SL?"

If I couldn't cash out, I wouldn't bother owning land.

cash out = tier fees.

Then LL would still fall foul of the US anti-gambling laws, since that would mean teh lindens won in gambling could be used for payment of RL bills, in effect making them equivalent to a RL currency.

hell no.

the poll is rigged in favor of having the ability to cash out. since those who do/can have a greater interest in second life and are more likely to pay attention to forums.

I didn't think about that. But still, it's at a 50-50 rate now.