FBI 'probes Second Life gambling'

True

But being a SL casino owner now during the investigation would not be in most people's best interests.

In my opinion anyhow.

I wouldn't go that far. Though I'd recommend that all of the SL casino owners dip into those profit pots and consult an attorney to get an opinion letter on the legality of their operation. Some may be on solid legal ground.

Considering most casino owners barely make enough money to cover tier, advertizing and camping costs , I cant beleive the miniscule proffits would be worth being on a future target list.

I think they should move all the servers in a ziploc bag to international waters. Then we can do whatever we want!!!

And when the lag is so bad it's like walking under-water, it'd be sorta fitting....

Actually what I read was that the feds acknowledge they currently don't understand the legality of gambling in SL themselves. A local lawyer won't be able to provide any insight into the matter.

If anything, prosecuting Linden Labs under the most recent internet gambling law for processing gambling proceeds would further the federal agenda. Somehow I don't foresee little black sunglass wearing virtual G-Men running around SL raiding casinos.

And yes I meant that to be funny but it also illustrates the point. The FBI would literally have to create a presence in-world to track and monitor virtual casino owners.

The FBI doesn't have the resources to monitor SL gambling. They have far too many agents committed to posing as 14-year-old girls in chat rooms looking for sex.

The Feds don't understand the legality of parking ordinances. I don't see any significant action being taken on this for a long time. More media hype in my opinion.

No they wouldnt

Theyd just need a list of Casino owners Real names and recent account activity.

Which LL will provide if asked.

"Search - ALL (mature checked) Casino - List - Gambling - List -
"Search - Classified (mature checked) Casino - List - Gambling - List -
"Search - Places(mature checked) Casino - List - Gambling - List -

Start with those. Then some Fed spreadsheet cruncher can go through the numbers and identify who they feel is the most likely targets and ask LL for more information about them.

Happens with audits all the time in business.

hides my 21 million in monopoly moneys lottery winnings ...........

How do you know? heheh

It was on the Cartoon network.....

I agree that would catch quite a few casino owners. But then the task becomes what transactions are gambling? Also there are thousands of random slot machines littering the SL countryside. Each of those would need to be tracked down.

And after the initial crack-down you would see a few things:

Slot machines named "Virtual vendor" or somesuch.

Slot machines accepting virtual tokens not Lindens. The machines then would payout in virtual tokens that could be redeemed in-world for virtual objects. No transaction tracking there.

Attachable slot machines placed on trial avs standing in little zombie rows.

The possibilities are endless - "Your World, Your Imagination".

As soon as any prosecutions on SL gambling take place - Linden Labs will ban it faster than you can say Sexual Ageplay.

My RL agency is in UK where the government seems to be bending over backwards to ENCOURAGE people to gamble! However, here in SL, I would welcome anything that gets rid of casinos, especially the one in my home sim!

As long as we can still speculate on land and buy and sell stuff I would be happy to see the end of gambling in SL.

Be sure that the U.S. Government, gruby and bloody hands and many tentacles, is all over SL sifting through data. Not having identified any Al Qaeda cells transmitting terrorist plans hidden inside scripts for penis attachments, going after gambling seems a worthy goal for them. Ageplaying, however, makes for a stickier target as the U.S. laws that relate to it aren't as clear as those related to prohobition of online gambling. Nevertheless, any level of investigation, and any legal action against SL that may result from it, holds the promise of giving the U.S, Government even more access to datails about all users and their activities in SL. They love that.

I'm surprised that a U.S. government agency---local cops or a Federa level organization---hasn't yet completed a sting operation inside SL that found users who violate pornagraphy laws or more serious related laws. I guess they're still working on them. Maybe locking down gambling will serve to justify their time here while they hunt for bigger game.

I agree. But it all comes down to policing. Whose job will that be to fly around all day and try to figure out what machine is a gambling machine? Linden Labs, the FBI, your local law enforcement, the community? Do you prosecute the machine owner and the player? What law governs each? If the owner lives in the UK and the player is in Alabama then what? What happens if the player wins some lindens then spends them in-world on some virtual clothes instead of cashing them out? What if the machine owner never cashes out?

The FBI created the most recent internet gambling law the way way they did for the same reason. It is much easier to police the few companies processing the money than it is to police the individual gamblers.

I could see them telling Linden Labs that they are in violation of the law and asking them to stop processing gambling transactions. Then LL makes gambling against the ToS. But in the end how could it possibly be monitored?

Actually, SL would be quite a good way to transmit secret data from one part of the world to another, thus negating the usefulness of email monitoring.

Well if they make it illegal - theres plenty of busybodies on SL to AR report offenders.

I think you are right on with that comment.

Also, the monitoring you speak of would more than likely also lead to Business monitoring in SL. Gambling is illegal...but then so is not paying taxes on earned income.

SL is a new frontier, eventually the Government will get their share of the pie like they have through history in the real world.

Publicity is everywhere for SL. Good and bad. I recently seen a YouTube video with someone explaining how if you no longer can play Poker online you can now come to Secondlife and play. Even details the $L use.

I am sure we all will witness a lot of changes in SL in the future.

I can't think of a more traceable money trail than Second Life accounts, $L and Paypal.

Whatever happens, I'm guessing it will be like the US IRS. If you use US banks, the US government can touch your bank account any time they want for whatever amount they want; even garnish paychecks through your US employer before wages are paid.

You or your lawyer will get to argue for years about why you deserve your money *back*...

It's as simple as residents filing Abuse Reports reporting a gambling device or casino (or some other form of illegal activity) in world. Linden Lab then follows through or fails to follow through at their own risk.

Though Ginsu Linden makes the claim that as L$ are non-redeemable [you can't show up at Linden Lab's offices and convert them to hard currency] thus gambling in SL is not "real" it's a pretty thin argument, if for no other reason Ginsu isn't a judge.
http://secondlife.com/knowledgebase/article.php?id=291

Ginsu's rationalization doesn't prevent the FBI from taking the records of their chats, fraps of their actions in-world, spreadsheets from their transaction histories and tossing it all in front of a judge to request warrants and John Doe supbpoenas so they can investigate and continue to build their case.

Ginsu's rationalization breaks down further when one considers that the biggest source of Linden dollars on the LindeX is Supply Linden. And L$ sold by the Supply Linden account are freshly minted L$ (not "earned as stipends, referral bonuses, etc.) with a US$ value of well over 1-million during the months of February and March alone (extrapolating, the Supply Linden account will sell about US$9-million in "new" Linden dollars during 2007).

Hmmm... you think any of those freshly minted L$ sold on the LindeX are being used for gambling? You think any of those L$ are being cashed back out on the LindeX by casino owners and a few winners? Why think about it when all it takes is one FBI agent toting a warrant to show up at LL's offices and dig around for a few days... or a few weeks... or a few years. Further build their case. Get it back in front of a judge again.

And LL's chronic refrain of "we're understaffed" doesn't float when one considers they have between US$6-million to US$9-million coming in from freshly minted-currency sales. LL can certainly afford a little more oversight and if they decline to do so it can be imposed by a judge. A judge can impose all sorts of unpleasant remedies.

Ultimately, LL has made the classic mistake of corporate hubris: Finding a way to obey the letter of the law while profitting from and avoiding the spirit of the law.

Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing the end of gambling in SL. It is a major cause of camping, ugliness, and wasted money.

Haven't you seen Dateline recently?

It will just increase the number of sex and dance clubs which are also "a major cause of camping, ugliness, and wasted money".

Wouldn't all vendors in SL also be banned? You pay money into them and hope in return you get an item. Sounds like a gamble to me.


Just as a side, many people want casinos banned because they don't like them. If everything was banned that someone didn't like, we would have a very boring world.