And the casinos come crashing down....

what is considered casino though?

friends over at your house playin blackjack/greedy?
slingo? i have never seen slingo in a rl casino

gonna have to make things alot more clear

The snowball starts....

"Offshore casino turns away U.S.-based avatars
Thu Apr 5, 2007 12:04pm PDT
PalmVegas.com bans U.S.-based avatars from its virtual casino to avoid breaking anti-gambling laws. "

I was guessing that this may be a new feature built into private estates possibly using a third party verification system kind of like what some adult websites use. This would shift all the responsiblity onto the estate owner.

This is just my own speculation but makes me wonder if mainland will eventually become a PG playground for all ages and anything adult will have to exist in a private estate.

My guess is that it'll probably work the same way the ability to restrict entrance to verifieds only does currently. .

Also, please come and play my new game of chance - pick the correct shell to uncover the inspirational tract, and if you do you get to keep it! But only for a minute, then I need you to hand it right back! Can't be too careful you know! If people start having fun it might create a market value.

I will repeat again that LL has not outlawed gambling. You can play poker with your buds all you want. They will no longer accept advertizements for gambling. The same goes for ageplay. It has not been banned either despite what some hysterical people think. If you want to engage in gambling or ageplay do it down in some dark sleezy basement just like in first life.

It only makes sense for LL not to advertize these activities.

LL needs to give us the mozilla browser.

Then places can put ads up on the web. Gambling related ads would then not be housed on LL servers, but the ads and links to SL sites would still be readily available without having to Alt Tab (or whatever your OS requires) to get to another program.

I'll bet anyone $50 this is not the end of the clampdown. Whoops, nevermind.

*shrug* all they have to do is rename themselves as Vegas-style clubs, put up a freebie dance floor in a corner and some pinball machines, and say they have several "games" *wink*wink* for members to participate in.

All LL is doing is placing a sanitary napkin - a THIN sanitary napkin - between themselves and anything they would be legally liable for. I'm betting strongly that the age/country of origin verification would be optional as well, placing the burden on the player establishment to either require it or turn away any unverifieds...and lookie here, right next door to the club requiring age verification would be some place put up by a guy with a stolen or disposable credit card with no restrictions - and tons of camping chairs so when a player sees the legit club on the map, they'll see oodles of green dots and go there instead.

If I were a slimy bastard of that particular ethical bent, I'd be picking up those cheap blackjack tables right about now...

This won't have too much of an impact on SL. The only businesses to be hit hard will be the pure casinos. Most casinos I've seen have a diverse business. Most nightclubs have casino equipment in them, as do most malls. Most casino's have dance floors. The traditional casinos are going to gradually adapt themselves into nightclubs and malls.

The effect of this policy change is going to reduce the visibility of SL gambling. Because finding gambling locations will be difficult, analyzing the industry and estimating it's earnings will be near impossible. The ability to investigate gambling in SL on a large scale has been greatly reduced. I applaud LL on such an adept political maneuver (no investigation means less money spent on lawyers and more spend on coding).

In the short term this will have the effect of reducing lag from camping as casino owners will likely stop funding them. As casino owners transition to diversified business models the practice will likely pickup again.

Agreed. I have no quarrel with LL over this. Taking some proactive measures is the smart thing to do, I think. But man sometimes the US government deserves a good kick in its perpetually twisted knickers.

Well this has all been fascinating, to say the least. So when will Linden Labs disallow the advertising of escorts and prostitution?? All that is illegal in the U.S. as well.

As one pointed out, LL has stopped taking money from casino's via advertising... however they are still pimpin' out the hoes by accepting money for that!

This is a slippery slope.... will be interesting to see how this all works out in the end.

And again we say not yet that is! Some people jsut don't see it coming till it runs them clean over.

Hello, Nevada colo!

I can see disclaimers like this popping up:

"This casino operates under the laws of [[pick a country]]. But entering this parcel, you acknowledge that you are legally allowed to gamble here under the laws of your local jurisdiction, and you absolve the owners of this casino of any legal responsibility for your gambling activities here."

Wording probably needs tightening, and I'm not at all sure it'd stand up if challenged, but I can see it coming.

I see a lot of casinos shifting hands to unverified accounts renting land.

Welcome to the all new GOLDSTRIKE newbie center!

------=============================------

That's right, you've got 99% odds of HAVING a GREAT time here!

We've got the loosest slops in town, in our all new MEGA POT of free soup!

Your hosts Bugsy and Frankie will ensure you want to keep coming back AGAIN and AGAIN to have some of the most UNREGULATED, WILD good times!


Enjoy the new Spinning Fruit game, where if you match three cherries in a row, you get a free newbie handout!*

Like playing cowboys and indians? You too can play Texas Hold-Up with your friends!

Lastly, for our math enthusiasts, come see our all new Wheel of Probability! Stay transfixed for hours watching it spin, and try to guess the Next Number! Free handouts if you guess correctly!*


*small donation up front to Bugsy's required, each time.

LL has been wanting to offload the indexing of SL to third parties for a while now. Small third party sites can meet the needs of a target audience much better then any centralized system that can be taken down with a cleverly crafted lawsuit. With the appearance that LL provided services being cut back, it may serve as the impetus needed for the development and growth of those third parties.

Oh boy do you really think llabs would stop gambling on sl? The blog http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/04/05/advertising-policy-changes/
states "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." and "Despite reports to the contrary, we know of no law enforcement agency that has opened an investigation into gambling in Second Life.
" and "Linden Lab is committed to keeping Second Life a place of openness and opportunity. We plan to implement features that will enable Residents to optionally confirm aspects of each other’s identity, including age and jurisdictions"

Alot of double talk going on here..........

You mean hosting your own island ( open source ) servers overseas to LLabs "AGAIN" blame the users that they are breaking the laws and not LLbs themselves?

what choice does LL have? - them reducing potential liability for themselves is the only respobsible thing they can do as a business.

"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."

What about the all tab? Isn't that a free advertising section of the search? Will this really make a big difference in casinos at all? As mentioned by people on the blog, wont this increase spinning advertisements on 16m2 plots for casinos? I didn't see that mentioned anywhere in the blog post. This advertisement bad may just be the first step though.

Personally, I think they are lying about not being probed by the government. Take a look at something else they banned advertisements for, ageplay. That was because of bad publicity and other countries threatening to ban SL, which would reduce their potential customers. If it weren't the US government stepping in, it would have to be some kind of outside source such as the media painting this issue in a bad light.

all tab is just the sum of all the other tabs

so if they ban it on groups, place listings and classifieds then the advertizing is banned.


The absoulte why is less important than the what. They are also strongly encouraging people not to run casinos if they know they are or if they COULD be violating the law.

So they are doing everything short of an outright Casino ban.

In the event this thread is headed for closure, some folks might want to remember there are still group forums at forums.secondlife.com where discussions not allowed in the resident answers forum could be held.