Kill two birds with one stone

LL should move its server hubs and corp headquarters to the UK -- where, I understand, internet gambling is not restricted -- and should bring the billing service back to the US.

This could both side-step the problems with internet gambling on the one hand and solve the problems about foreign transaction fees on the other.

Beathan Vale

You want Linden Labs, who can't order Pizzas without bungling it, to pack up and move its operations across one continent, one ocean and into another country. And keep SL going?
And would internet gambling have an impact big enougt on THEIR bottom line to warrant the move? How many employess would go with them and how easy would it be to find qualified replacements. *OK skip that last part*

internet gambling is perfectly legal.

however for US banks to transfer money to and from internet gambling sites isn't.

so they'd lose cash from moving the servers, and lose cash from Americans not being able to buy premium or even lindens.

for me to sell you $L in a private transaction? or for me to buy them from you?

I don't think so at all.

All these "is it legal" arguments are pointless. Gambling is now gone because LL says so. It is not returning.

LL does not have to base their decisions on legalities. it is their product and they make the rules. In this case legal concerns played a part (or so I believe), but they could outlaw furries tomorrow and there is not a darn thing that could be done about it.

Footnote: Not trying to start a ban the furries rumor.

I don't know where the "internet gambling is legal" argument comes from. In my state, which happens to host a LL office, running a site that offers internet gambling is a felony. This is the law in most of the U.S. states.

Federal law is not clear -- due to Federalism issues -- but what is clear is that the money transfer that is necessary for internet gambling to occur violates Federal law.

Therefore, it is just wrong to say that Internet gambling is legal in the United States.

The UK, on the other hand ...

Beathan Vale

But it's ok to have the best porn industry in the world.....well done America....do you feel proud that you have killed off a lot of peoples fun??

You can use Lindens purchased via PayPal to pay for a sex slave or an escort girl all night long...you can watch avatars being subjected to degrading sex acts....but you cant spend L$1 on a game of blackjack or roulette...how bizzare is that?

I'm not even going to carry on this conversation...because I and an awful lot of non-americans think the rule makers are...without doubt...absolutely stark raving mad...nuts...fruit loops and plain bonkers!

Bye bye SL....you have become a mirror image of America...and most of us dont really want to be American....nope

Of course you are using our OS, chips and program (SL). Get real.

You want to start a thread discussing Windows XP and Vista...lol lol......the worlds best operating system???

Ask anyone that's trying to view SL land sales via IE7....ha ha ha.....

and my point was... (obviously missed by you....) yes SL is American based.....but not everyone wants it that way....I personally like the idea of an offshore location where common sense prevails...and not draconian rules biased to the US....

Read my post again....so it's ok to make porn....it's ok to create porn in SL....but it's not ok to let me gamble L$1 on a roulette wheel....gamble at my own free choice....

Enjoy your shoe shopping...it's all that will be left unregulated !!

But you are using (unless Linux) a US derived operating system, no matter it's shortcomings. Make your own if you are not satisfied.

If you don't like SL's location (they are, after all a US corporation) make your own and base it wherever you like.

Your free choice to gamble is not an absolute on LL's product. They have every right to decide what they will or won't allow. I liked to gamble too. It's gone. Get over it.

American porn is good, but so is most of the world's, with the exception of England .

My God was gambling that big a deal in SL? If online gambling is your thing, then go to the many sites available in your home country. Why are you playing for pennies in SL anyway? Stop whining. If SL doesn't meet your needs anymore, then you should leave, don't waste your time. LL OWNS SL, they can do what they want with it. If they decide to move overseas fine. But until then, it's hard cheese Sonny Jim.

And stop calling SL cartoon Humping Porn, or equating it to RL prostitution. It's just ridiculous.

"And stop calling SL cartoon Humping Porn, or equating it to RL prostitution. It's just ridiculous."

Have you not seen the RL DVD quality videos you can download then? Do you know about SL as much as you make out?

"If online gambling is your thing, then go to the many sites available in your home country."...ah....you must be from the USA then....the rest of the world doesn't matter does it....s'ok..no need to reply..it ALL makes sense now!

Yes it is restricted. The SL model wouldn't be legal in the UK. People could try and get licensced, very few would and that still wouldn't get around the issue of American transactions from Visa and Mastercard.



Wouldn't solve the problem of foreign transaction fees for those of us in the UK

God bless the USA, home of the free and the land of the brave. Always there when you need us

No, I don't need to watch SL videos. SL IS a video. And they are cartoon characters so there is no RL quality to it. It's not real. My knowledge of SL is quite sufficient thank you. as far as the rest of the world, LL took action because it felt SL was threatened, for ALL users. Would you rather the Feds shut Secod life down totally? Until the laws change here, where LL is based, and where the servers are accessed, OR The servers are moved or made open, this is the SL "Reality".

For the record I think you should be allowed to spend your money as you wish, and hopefully the laws will change here for those that wish do do that sort of thing. Why must every SL issue become a Trans Atlantic Pissing contest?

"For the record I think you should be allowed to spend your money as you wish, and hopefully the laws will change here for those that wish do do that sort of thing. Why must every SL issue become a Trans Atlantic Pissing contest?"

Indeed....we are asking LL that very question. I think you'll find a lot of the bad press comes from the outside view we have of the gaming laws.

We dont see Las Vegas being closed down, of course not...it's a fantastic revenue earner for the USA....what a lot of people do comment on is the obvious anti competition rules the USA makes...to have it all your own way.

Welcome to Vegas...gamble away all week..get married in 10 mins..and gamble more....but if a guy from the UK or Germany....China etc dares to try and earn some revenue himself from an American citizen via gambling...all hell breaks loose.

So we dont want to see the demise of SL...but hopefully LL are taking a long hard look at SL and in the future it would be nice to see regional versions of the game.

I appreciate that some (not all) Americans are unaware where places like New Zealand and Italy are located on a world map...but trust me....not everyone in SL is an American...so some of us are a tad annoyed at being treated like we are. Take the plunge LL and make SL truely global..dont make it reliant on US run PayPal and US made laws.

I agree totally with you....but the laws will not change....LL must change...or at least physically move the servers to a more liberal country in time.

"No, I don't need to watch SL videos. SL IS a video. And they are cartoon characters so there is no RL quality to it."

I think you need to search a bit deeper in SL then.....SL has access to a LOT of very RL videos available to watch for Linden payments.

I'm not making a point there...just stating a very clear fact. SL has access to lots of RL content...websites....videos....etc

Please do your homework on SL and the content offered before making statements that are lacking in the true facts.

It's not about Competition. The casino industry is highly competitive, most casinos are corporate owned with a lot of foreign investmnet. It is about money. Until a way is figured out for the Fed and the individual States can get their share, Internet gambling will be stonewalled here. It is about regulation as well. I go into a real casino, I am fairly well assured it is honest, and will pay out as advertised. If not, I have the Casino Corporate Management, and the State Casino Control board to go to with complaints. I log onto a site, I don't know who I am dealing with. I think online Casinos should be allowed here. Operate from servers based here and subject to all the same regulations as the real ones.
Second Life should globalize. But, it won't happen overnight.

What are you talking about? SL generated imagery is just cartoons. RL videos offerd are not made in SL. I don't understand your correlation?

See Ya!!

I'll nit pick. I agree with your comments but gambling is not gone. LL is being selective as to who they tell to close up shop or be banished and they are selective as to which games are being shutdown or not being searchable. Go play Tringo/Slingo/etc... and gamble all you want. That is still tolerated. But, as you correctly stated, it is their product and they can do what they want with it.

This always bafffles me, you see these sorts of comments on the blog too, usually complaining about the U.S.-centric downtime schedules.

TrackDay Kidd, and others of your countrymen, I can see you don't want to be American or treated like an American. Fair enough, I don't want to be treated like a Nepalese (for instance).

The simple solution to avoid being bound by various American laws is to play the virtual world simulator that your nation hosts and has developed. That way you will only be dealing with your homeland's laws and regulations. I'm assuming here, of course, that your home nation has built up a sophisticated comp infrastructure and educational system and has the technological wherewithal to actually make YOUR version of Second Life.

What? It doesn't?

Then stop whining about American laws and regulations, mkay?

Here is an idea for all those who want to gamble virtually:

Go to www.MakeMeBankRuptSlotMachine.com
Linden Labs' word is final.
Its not going to change.

Who invented the internet....read your history...certainly WASN'T American....your comments are EXACTLY the reason we do want to see SL changed...it was YOUR daft politicians that made this law!

Gambling is evil.....lying about war isn't.....hmmmmm

Can you find the rest of the world on a map??? No....how surprising...open ya eyes America...there is indeed an awful lot of the world past Long Island that would very much like to see SL become truly global...and not a flag waving dead duck!!