Anyone Attending the Protest!!!!

um.. Gambling? its illegal. o.o...

*just... headdesks. Over and over.*

*places a cushion on your desk*

Aw. <3

and the kicker is Linden labs can't do anything about it The FBI is the shutting them down

SO this kind of thing is as fake as SL nothing is real thous no real results.

It like trying the keep a bar open with once the licence has been taken by the police yelling at the owner will never change the fact.

Lindenlabs is an American company and must comply with US Law E.O.D.

Yeah, the Herald is talking about a huge economical decline, like a recession.

You mean when most Avatars are unemployed and have no money............... Umm games been like that for last 6 months

The Herald is useful for wrapping digital potato peelings in, but that's about it. It's certainly not something to be really taken seriously.

Remember that the majority of SL players do it just for fun; only a small number are actually here purely to make money. I don't think there'll really be as much of a 'hit' as some are predicting.

If people were only here for the gambling... then goodbye I guess. There's plenty more that you can do, even without taking time to learn some simple building tools and make your own stuff. There's far more satisfaction when it's your own; like making your own bread v buying a mass produced loaf in the supermarket; it's just much better.

Broccoli

Well, if spolders are still legal and it doesn't effect the economy much, then I welcome this.

No more laggy eyesores on the mainland, maybe the grid will run a bit faster too, right?

As much as I despise SL gambling (having shamefully been part of that industry for a time), I do think properly targeted protests might serve the limited purpose of getting LL's lawyer busy working out sweepstakes boilerplate to make it possible for stuff like SLingo and Sploders to be permissible, if they payout without contingency on the winner(s) paying in to the pot. That's legal, given the right disclaimers, since it's really not gambling.

I rather hope something causes an economic downturn more significant than the vague malaise we're in at the moment... but despite all the bluster, I don't think the exit of gambling will do much at all. The cash flow from the average casino was dismal, with only a few quite visible exceptions (or, stated another way, the mean was vastly greater than the median).

And that's one of the reasons I wouldn't expect much lag impact: most of the casinos sat empty most of the time anyway--again, with those few exceptions. And even when in use, the "good" casino equipment itself contributed very little to lag, although the presence of avatars (especially high-attachment-count gamblers) would have had the usual lag effect. (I'm sure there were laggy slot scripts, too, but the big gaming-equipment companies did actually have decent scripters.)

Hey! I've been gainfully unemployed in SL for 4 years!

Better rip up my horse racing bet I wrote out this morning then!

That reminds me... Where I live, it is indeed illegal to play the ponies--or even to have a friendly game of poker in one's own home. But of course people do it, risking a lot worse outcome than an account suspension, on the basis of trust that the other people involved won't rat to the authorities. So there's really nothing to prevent illegal gambling in-world, too. The ban makes public gambling impractical, but a Friday-night poker game among trusted friends would still be viable. Dunno if there'd be enough interest, though, to justify anyone's time scripting the necessary HUDs for that kind of game.

The majority of SL players do it just for fun, sure. The majority of SL players are not what makes SL viable though.
To be viable a business has to make money. The majority of SL players do not contribute significantly to the economy. This is not a socialist utopian collective.

Fun that isn't profitable is ultimately paid for by profitable sectors of the SL economy.

Right, and guess what. Horse racing? Heavily regulated.

Gambling in SL? Not regulated at all.

See the difference?

Like what about all of those of us with premium accoumts, especially if we have more than 512m of land? As for the basic free members, most of them seem to have little or no cash anyway.

As`for gambling, I'm with LL on this one - it's an American company and internet gambling is illegal in USA so they are playing it safe - who can blame them?

I rather like the idea of SL as a socialist utopian collective, as long as I can be the supreme leader!!

Err yes I see the difference, I said elsewhere that I considered gambling in SL a gamble in itself, and it's precisely because you'd have no rights if the table didn't pay out. However participation in internet gambling is not illegal in the United States and LL obviously believed for quite some time that they were not breaking the law as it was not being directly funded by credit card payments. They've changed their minds and I believe they should have given notice.

What if they didn't change their minds? What if their mind was changed for them?

I'm sure they realize that with the banning of gambling, they are getting rid of a huge revenue source for themselves. I don't think it was a decision made lightly. The warning signs where there a while back already when they banned all casino advertising. They probably only had 2 options, ban gambling and cross their finger that not many people would care -or- don't ban gambling and wait for the FBI to come raid their servers and SHUT IT ALL DOWN. Now, which do you prefer?

A warning period, which they could have implemented anytime between banning the adverts and Wednesday. Do you not find it concerning that if this is such a serious offence, that LL have risked having this whole place shut down by not banning it earlier? I think they should have announced a ban was on the way back in April when they banned the adverts. Maybe they were worried that would leave them wide open to legal proceedings, I don't know, I just don't like the way they've implemented it, I'm not objecting to the ban itself.

Agreed. But then again when have they implemented ANYTHING that wasn't a bungle? I don't understand why they continue to just drop these things like bombs on us.

I like to gamble in Las Vegas, Monaco, or even dice in an alley. I'd like to see it remain in SL. But, because the US Government is forcing the Lindens to shut down gambling in the game you're just going to have to do something more intelligent with your time, or less intelligent, that the Feds don't want to regulate. Casinos were almost always idiot magnets in SL and I am glad they are gone. I do not support the US Government but if I was the operator of SL I'd do exactlty what the Lindens did.

I think the legitimate casino operators here got a raw deal by the announcement. That being said, I won't lament the loss of SL gambling. I tried it and it didn't do anything for me. Just as online gambling doesn't either. I go to Vegas once every year, and Atlantic City or Connecticuit once a month, and I prefer the live Casino atmosphere. Just as with the Ageplay situation, LL decided to cover their Legal Asses, I have no problem with that. I am amused by the howls of hypocrisy from some who were extolling LL's actions in that case but are now crying foul. Hey, Second Life's a bitch.

I think what we can take from this is

If your advertizing is banned -

Thats basically 90ish days notice that your activity will be banned.

Thats how it went down for Ageplay

Thats how it went down for Gambling.

So the time to complain and protest will be when the next thing gets Ad Banned - becuase it will definitely mean an actual ban is on its way.

As for gambling - Its a lost cuase as far as LL/SL goes.

No matter what anyone says - they are not going to risk attaining a status where US credit card companies are not willing to pay them.

I don't know why i have to explain this clearer. In the US, gambling has been illegal for some time, except for Vegas. Thats why people use cruise ships for it. Since Linden Lab is stationed in the US they have to avid by US laws. This is the only reason they are doing this to the grid. They don't want any trouble.