And the casinos come crashing down....

From the Linden blog:

"...It has been a basic tenet of Second Life that all Residents are legally responsible for their own activities and for complying with the laws of the local jurisdiction in which they reside. However, given the ambiguities of the issues, Linden Lab has decided that we will not accept any classified ads, place listings, or event listings that appear to relate to simulated casino activity...."

http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/04/05/advertising-policy-changes/

And as I said 3 days ago on here I will ask again.... Do you see SL in trouble very soon with the U.S. Goverment? Its starting folks... And this is a sign they see it coming.

"We have recently received an increasing number of questions about simulated casinos in Second Life. Despite reports to the contrary, we know of no law enforcement agency that has opened an investigation into gambling in Second Life."

Well of course you don't! Like they are going to tell you.... You think they go up to a crack house and say "We just wanted to let you know, we are sitting over on the other street watching you now". lol come on. You won't know it till they come raiding the offices.

So are they going to remove those places from the top 20 list too?

So the U.S. government has decided the law for the for the U.S. and LL applies it to the whole world in SL? I'm in the UK, it's OK to gamble online here. But no worries, there are plenty of places outside SL if we get that urge. It does seem odd to stop ANYONE seeing casino ads though...

I am completely unsurprized.

As LL is in US, US laws apply.

They are no longer supporting gambling places....I wonder if gambling places will offer more or will they go under...

A few weeks ago those in the US who were fighting for free speech were upset it was european laws that were cited as one of the reasons for the "ban" on sexual ageplay

While the Euros were very much in support of their laws since they were concerned they could get heat over this content existing in Second Life becuase it was against their laws.


While I dont think either decision was based on any actual pure legalities. They were mainly business decisions-

People should at least be relatively consistant about when laws should matter and when they shouldnt.

Trust me..... I would bet money at this point that casino's will be banned from SL within 2 months if not sooner. Watch and see...

Honestly, I don't know why they were allowed at all. Did LL think they were above the law?

This is that grey area of just how much responsibility a web hosting platform bears for the illegal actions of its customers.

The conventional approach seems to involve posting warnings that customers are responsible for their own actions and keeping hands off until the heat gets turned on. Then the hosting companies become a little more proactive about scrubbing away porn photos or gambling or whatever other activity they've tried to ignore.

It's a pretty predictable tactic, really. Few web hosting services are going to enjoy having to play cop with the content they are hosting. It's not billable time, and they have no real training to do the job properly. Techie people want to do geeky, nerdy things and support services are already overwhelmed. So every resource that goes to police action probably gets pulled from customer support.

This is going to have a huge snowball effect too if they do remove casinos from SL. But maybe some good will come from it... Maybe land will get cheaper!

Maybe camping will decrease

I'm still trying to find the downside to this equation.... ummm, dunno, still looks all good to me.

Fewer casinos means fewer campers and fewer scripts draining sim resources. Also, in the long run, means residents will have more Lindens in their pockets to spend at stores.

Blackjack table for sale, cheap! IM me in-world.

lmao @ Raymond SELL SELL SELL!

They are consistent. The ones that matter are the ones that are most likely to cut into the bottom line.

There is no legal principle for consistency in this regard. Police, at least in the US, enforce speed limits more than they do running stop signs and red lights because it's easy to catch speeders. They may put more effort into catching online child molesters than online scam artists, because that's what public sentiment wants. They won't enforce jaywalking laws because the public largely doesn't want them enforced.

There's no reason Linden Labs has to follow some sort of theory of consistent application of laws. Just as the police have to decide where to focus their efforts, based on a variety of factors, so does Linden Labs. They may have evaluated the risk of being prosecuted versus the cost of enforcinig this restriction and decided it's worth it. But actually going to and shutting down such casinos takes more effort, and may not be worth it - strictly as a business decision.

The answer, at least for those of us in the U. S., isn't to beat up on Linden Labs but to pressure our legistlators to repeal the ban on internet gambling.

Contrary to some opinions here LL has not outlawed gambling. What they have done is to no longer accept money to advertize these activities.

I don't think anyone said they outlawed it..... yet that is. A blind man can see where this is heading.

That's what I was thinking... maybe casinos will offer a little more to keep the traffic up

Let's hope we don't have more sandwich-board wearing noobs in our future.

It's rather bright of LL to not take money for advertising gambling - that way they can say they don't know about it when the feds come knocking. When it comes to CYA, they're on the ball.

Wouldn't traffic cause them to be advertised though?

They can call themselves day care centers to get around the law....

Or they can call themselves graveyards....

I didnt say Linden Labs isnt consistant

Please read my post again.


Linden Labs IS being consistant on this


-The irony I see is that when people complained it was breaking laws in other countries everyone was supportive. Now its laws in this country and people are angry. Its becuase this issue is popular with many residents and the other unpopular with nearly all.

This part kinda worries me:

"We plan to implement features that will enable Residents to optionally confirm aspects of each other’s identity, including age and jurisdictions. Hopefully, these features will help Residents as they conform to their own local laws."

I wonder how they plan to do that. I don't plan to share with anyone else on SL my identity, including age and jurisdiction.

I assume this would only be if I wanted to gamble or hire a male escort or something. I sure don't want it to be a requirement that I have to divulge personal info in order to continue in SL. Surely that isn't what they have in mind.

coco