MTCW Regarding Casino Ownership BEWARE

I bought into the dream that owning a casino in SL would be profitable. Mostly because the owner of the three-letter chain of casinos told me exact profit numbers. I won't list the name in hopes that this article reaches as many people as possible.

Immedately following the purchase of said casino, the seller was unreachable for three weeks. Officers in the group helped me but in a very limited capability. This help was later turned against me by the owner as discussed later in this warning.

After losing money in my "annex" casino for almost a month, the owner finally responded to me. So long was his absence that another long-time annex owner was selling his casino in anger due to lack of communication from management. Being the eager new guy in the company, I bought the equipment from the disgruntled owner through the moderation of the above mentioned Officer. The three of us met and decided that, if the owner were present, he would not mind the transaction.

I happily bought my second annex location and began spending more money on advertising and events. A few weeks later I noticed our group had a new officer. There were no announcements or votes regarding this appointment. That drew up a red flag for me but I kept my mouth shut. After all, I had around $500 invested in these virtual casinos.

After finally getting my casinos to start making a little profit ($200L a day, a mere fraction of what was hinted at by the owner), I could finally sit back a watch at least a little income trickle in. That's when it happened:

The owner stole ownership of both my casinos away from me. He retained one for himself and gave the other to the new Officer. Two days of IM's and Emails from me went by with no explaination whatsoever. Finally, the Officer gave me a little information but said I would have to talk to the owner.

The owner claims I did not respond to any of his IM's. That he had given me a week to comply with donating land to the group. This was all a big lie. I had purchased ajoining land right next to my annex in Dosojin for the specific purpose of expanding my casino. I had even asked the owner how I could expand the casino. Of course, he never answered.

So now, I've had both of my casinos stolen from me. I've been kicked out of the group and the head of the casino group is back to not responding to my IM's. I spoke with the disgruntled ex-member. He believes that this is how the owner is conducting business. He sells a casino annex to a noobie. The seizes it back under some BS excuse.

I spent many long hours, over a course of three months trying to perfect my casinos. I designed shirts and motorcycles to promote the casinos. I held events and spread the word about our chain of casinos. And it all got hi-jacked in a matter of minutes. My email address was never used for communication by the owner either. If his story was true, he could have at least emailed me if he truly thought I wasn't responding to IM's. But I know he is lying. He bragged to me about how he makes $20K USD a year from SL. Now I know how he does it.

So heed my warning. Don't buy into a casino chain. Start your own. Its not worth playing GAMES with someone else's PROTOTYPE. Its a shame. Ex-military personnel should have more honor than to rip off hard working people. I will no longer play SL thanks to this jerk.

Signed,
JETT WEBB

I bought into the dream that owning a casino in SL would be profitable. Mostly because the owner of the three-letter chain of casinos told me exact profit numbers. I won't list the name in hopes that this article reaches as many people as possible.

Immedately following the purchase of said casino, the seller was unreachable for three weeks. Officers in the group helped me but in a very limited capability. This help was later turned against me by the owner as discussed later in this warning.

After losing money in my "annex" casino for almost a month, the owner finally responded to me. So long was his absence that another long-time annex owner was selling his casino in anger due to lack of communication from management. Being the eager new guy in the company, I bought the equipment from the disgruntled owner through the moderation of the above mentioned Officer. The three of us met and decided that, if the owner were present, he would not mind the transaction.

I happily bought my second annex location and began spending more money on advertising and events. A few weeks later I noticed our group had a new officer. There were no announcements or votes regarding this appointment. That drew up a red flag for me but I kept my mouth shut. After all, I had around $500 invested in these virtual casinos.

After finally getting my casinos to start making a little profit ($200L a day, a mere fraction of what was hinted at by the owner), I could finally sit back a watch at least a little income trickle in. That's when it happened:

The owner stole ownership of both my casinos away from me. He retained one for himself and gave the other to the new Officer. Two days of IM's and Emails from me went by with no explaination whatsoever. Finally, the Officer gave me a little information but said I would have to talk to the owner.

The owner claims I did not respond to any of his IM's. That he had given me a week to comply with donating land to the group. This was all a big lie. I had purchased ajoining land right next to my annex in Dosojin for the specific purpose of expanding my casino. I had even asked the owner how I could expand the casino. Of course, he never answered.

So now, I've had both of my casinos stolen from me. I've been kicked out of the group and the head of the casino group is back to not responding to my IM's. I spoke with the disgruntled ex-member. He believes that this is how the owner is conducting business. He sells a casino annex to a noobie. The seizes it back under some BS excuse.

I spent many long hours, over a course of three months trying to perfect my casinos. I designed shirts and motorcycles to promote the casinos. I held events and spread the word about our chain of casinos. And it all got hi-jacked in a matter of minutes. My email address was never used for communication by the owner either. If his story was true, he could have at least emailed me if he truly thought I wasn't responding to IM's. But I know he is lying. He bragged to me about how he makes $20K USD a year from SL. Now I know how he does it.

So heed my warning. Don't buy into a casino chain. Start your own. Its not worth playing GAMES with someone else's PROTOTYPE. Its a shame. Ex-military personnel should have more honor than to rip off hard working people. I will no longer play SL thanks to this jerk.

Signed,
JETT WEBB

I bought into the dream that owning a casino in SL would be profitable. Mostly because the owner of the three-letter chain of casinos told me exact profit numbers. I won't list the name in hopes that this article reaches as many people as possible.

Immedately following the purchase of said casino, the seller was unreachable for three weeks. Officers in the group helped me but in a very limited capability. This help was later turned against me by the owner as discussed later in this warning.

After losing money in my "annex" casino for almost a month, the owner finally responded to me. So long was his absence that another long-time annex owner was selling his casino in anger due to lack of communication from management. Being the eager new guy in the company, I bought the equipment from the disgruntled owner through the moderation of the above mentioned Officer. The three of us met and decided that, if the owner were present, he would not mind the transaction.

I happily bought my second annex location and began spending more money on advertising and events. A few weeks later I noticed our group had a new officer. There were no announcements or votes regarding this appointment. That drew up a red flag for me but I kept my mouth shut. After all, I had around $500 invested in these virtual casinos.

After finally getting my casinos to start making a little profit ($200L a day, a mere fraction of what was hinted at by the owner), I could finally sit back a watch at least a little income trickle in. That's when it happened:

The owner stole ownership of both my casinos away from me. He retained one for himself and gave the other to the new Officer. Two days of IM's and Emails from me went by with no explaination whatsoever. Finally, the Officer gave me a little information but said I would have to talk to the owner.

The owner claims I did not respond to any of his IM's. That he had given me a week to comply with donating land to the group. This was all a big lie. I had purchased ajoining land right next to my annex in Dosojin for the specific purpose of expanding my casino. I had even asked the owner how I could expand the casino. Of course, he never answered.

So now, I've had both of my casinos stolen from me. I've been kicked out of the group and the head of the casino group is back to not responding to my IM's. I spoke with the disgruntled ex-member. He believes that this is how the owner is conducting business. He sells a casino annex to a noobie. The seizes it back under some BS excuse.

I spent many long hours, over a course of three months trying to perfect my casinos. I designed shirts and motorcycles to promote the casinos. I held events and spread the word about our chain of casinos. And it all got hi-jacked in a matter of minutes. My email address was never used for communication by the owner either. If his story was true, he could have at least emailed me if he truly thought I wasn't responding to IM's. But I know he is lying. He bragged to me about how he makes $20K USD a year from SL. Now I know how he does it.

So heed my warning. Don't buy into a casino chain. Start your own. Its not worth playing GAMES with someone else's PROTOTYPE. Its a shame. Ex-military personnel should have more honor than to rip off hard working people. I will no longer play SL thanks to this jerk.

Signed,
JETT WEBB

Caveat Emptor.

Since it's officially Internet Slang Day, I'd just like to say "pwned".

Lawdy!

I am sorry to hear about your losses. Drop me an IM, I will be on tonight.

Pwned Emptor?

Not much you can do, but I'd have been weary of any setup that required you to give officer rights to others in your land group because you can't stop them taking your land then.

forgive my 2 day n00bness, but if you became the owner of the establiment how did he take ownership back?

And was it necessary to post the identical message in three different forums? We get it, already.

I would encourage you not to quit SL over something like this, however. If, in fact, your description of what happened is accurate, there are very, very few people in SL that would ever do anything like that.

P2

If land is group owned, any officer of the group can announce that the group is giving the group-owned land to the officer. Having done that they can sell it to whenever they want.

Never put land you've bought into a group which has officers you don't explicitly trust, because any of the officers of the group can sell your land.

Additionally, if entering a business venture with someone -- get a contract. If it's for relatively small amounts of money, that your willing to loose, use a notecard contract -- basically have them create a new notecard, put the contract in it, mark it as No Modify / Copy / Trans. Then give it to you. Then create a new notecard, copy/paste the contract in it, mark it as No Modify / Copy / Trans and give it to them. Now each of you has a no modify version of the contract with the creator set as the other. There was even a notary service in SL at one point, I don't know if they're still around.

If it's for a large amount of money, then pierce the virtual veil as it were, and get a binding contract using your legal names signed and notarized.

Saddly, it's been my experience to find that most of the "contracts" in SL are established via chat with little or no record of the actual contract -- thus little to nothing actually binding the participants. On the upside, there is a very small number of people that take advantage of this.

Gambling always leads to misery, even more often than Gin. *sings a woody guthrie song and shuffles off*

Ok. I realize that wasn't helpful. Good luck, OP. (that wasn't helpful either, but sounded nicer, didn't it?)

... and the moral here?

Treat SL as a game, rather than an income; don't spend more money on it than you are prepared to lose; have fun instead of worrying about a profit, and all will be well.

I know it's not a funny situation because of the amount of real $ involved here... but it does seem slightly ironic that someone gambled with a casino and lost - and isn't surprised.

Lewis

Don't spend real cash on anything until you are sure how it works. The advice on groups and land above is spot on.

Developing your own casino would be a better idea, as then your place could be unique. Don't be in a hurry in SL--learn the ropes first.

AR This person--he may not have technically broken any rules, but if the wheel squeaks loud enough the Lindens may fix the land tools, one hopes.

Doesn't anyone watch movies? Where you have casinos, you have organized crime!

I've merged the three identical posts into one. Please read the Guidelines:

You mean kicking people out of the chairs and not giving them the money they earned while camping didn't get you into profit? (Like you did to me when you said the chair was supposed to kick me out at L$1000) when I had put nearly that much into it and was about to break even?
I guess what they say is true, what comes around goes around

hahahahha. So true.

A game of musical camping chairs with more kicks? How unclassy, and a dispute unfit for these forums!

Please, keep your personal disputes that way.

Thread closed.