Casinos - dead and gone w/ new policy?

Your unlikely to get caught, and the cops in RL have been very reluctant to pursue this type of "violation."

Because its a Private gathering. Not public.

While playing poker on the weekend with yer beer buddies for a few bucks is over-looked, for the most part, having tons & tons of people coming to your house to play Poker is not.

And dont tell me none of the law makers ever had "the guys" over for a game of poker.



Exactly. Just a gathering of friends, enjoying games.

The catch would be not to have large numbers of people there & be ready to delete anything you dont want seen.

The Law states NO ONLINE GAMBLING.

Your home online is not your home. It is a digital representation of a building inside a virtual world. Thus if you gamble in it, you are gambling online.

There is no law that states a home online = legal private property.

I find it confusing as a new user that LL takes such a strong stand on this, and things like simulated child abuse, etc., and yet fraud, which they quite often have the logs to prove, is something they don't meddle in. Gambling is legal in many places, but I am unaware of anywhere that fraud is legal...

Look like Sl Is now China ! No freedom What so ever!!!
IM MIGHT GET OUT NOW WHO WITH ME !

Oh fer pete's sake. Exaggerate much?

And for those suggesting the gambling can be gotten around by giving prizes with a certain value, and having the winner sell those back to the host:



...note the "or thing of value" clause...

Another thought- If you own the IP rights to that Poker table you just made, Does this mean there really is no IP Rights if something can be deleleted?

As for gambling- So does this mean I can't say to someone "Betcha $L5 you can't get (insert cards/numbers/etc Here)?"

LOL! Hmmmm, maybe instead of trying for something for "broadly offensive" we should go around betting each other to do something!

*thud*
Oh great now my face is bleeding!!! >.<

;p

Fraud is illegal but LL has no jurisdictions to enforce the law and investigate. Like copyright issues and other thing, you need to go RL organization to resolve it.
For fraud, if you are really a victim, you need to go to your local police to report it just like all the internet crime. Well... but if the fraud amount is too small then I doubt that your police department will take much action.

IP Rights have always been selective read the agreements you agree too.

As for the 5 dollar bet thing, Seriously - It's online, you're gambling. It's illegal.

This is no communists, you have the right to voice your opinion here. And if you are really against the online gambling ban, you can call your congress or senate representative to voice your opinion and ask them to change the law.

Nearly everyone reading this thread hs the ability to gamble away most of their money whenever they want.

Lotteries -
Race tracks -
Legal casinos nearby-

etc.

So i dont think the right to gamble is what really is infringed on.

Its just the right to gamble without leaving your computer desk thats being infringed on.

And the award for best first post on a Forum goes to.........

Personally, I love to Gamble in RL Casinos. I found online gambling to be lame, and Sl gambling lamer still, so I'm not crying. But as usual Linden totally bunglesd it, just dropping this bomb without warning, even though it was looming.

they didnt wait till friday tho - so this is a case of Premature notification.

I am surprised at how strong a stance and how definitive they have been in this move, but it is hardly surprising. There seems to have been slight missing of the point earlier in the thread, I believe this move is neither to do with morality, nor with specifically US laws. It's the Lindens attempting to accomodate a practice which has widely divergient regulation in numerous countries and the simple matter that if people are gambling with 'real money' or items that can be turned into 'real money', they are subject to all the taxations that might involve and LL are required, in many cases, to obtain proper licensing and submit themselves to gambling regulations - most likely in the US, but equally possible in other countries.

Even if LL relocated to other countries, where gambling laws were much less strigent, they would still have to structure themselves so as to protect their business from possible claims from governments whose citizens are gambling.

Like the house, when you are gambling, the government wants a cut.

Personally I won't miss the Casinos, 90% of them were blights on the landscape. I will miss the sploders though, they could be a very nice way to earn some pocket change on the easy. I guess this means I'll have to either go back to 'content adding' and earning money, or going guns blazing into every costume contest I can!

It's a nice argument, but you could have just as easily yesterday said that I should go and report SL gambling to the FBI, and that LL has no jurisdictions. Obviously, when illegal activity is taking place on their servers, they not only have the jurisdiction, they have the legal obligation to investigate, thus this decision.

If you were talking about, say, Ebay, then sure, Ebay doesn't know if I got my product or not, or what condition it is in. LL, on the other hand, can track events and exchanges within SL, and do. If a landowner collects 6 months worth of rent and dumps the property, etc., etc., it's no less criminal than gambling.

What about federal banking laws? Is that one next? Imagine the possibilities of money laundering, etc.

Um.. this has a lot to do with US law actually. US Law clearly states that online gambling is as such where you pay to wager and have the ability to cash out to RL earnings. Now if it was just kept in game, then it's not against US law...

Only if it's pure chance (random number generation) or a RL sports bet.

Bet me L$5 that I can't find where on your property you hid an item in under two minutes. Skill. Not gambling. And ok under the policy.

What if I played my poker game?
I simply want to play poker as a game to pass time with friends, not to wager.
But the game table I have is only activated by paying 1L, it is only a switch then it gives 2000 coins to each players.

Are they going to take my only fun out of SL?
Plus I paid 25000L for this table, I actually had the spare table which was lost in the asset server error.
Are they going to rob 50000L from me just because I played some poker with my friends?

DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING, LINDEN LAB?????????

Uh chance does not mean random number generation. If I said to you If you bet me 5L that you cannot find my item in 2 minutes on my property it's still a bet with a chance of wining or losing.

Yes it is the law being passed by the US law maker who take away such right and the only way to change that is to talk to them just like the issue on the internet radio fees.

Actually.. it might be against the TOS and US law.. but there is nothing to prevent anyone to open an underground casino or go to one. You just need to face the consequence if you get caught. Just like RL underground casino does exist even in China.

Funny thing about this is that all casino owners might start playing hipihi instead, well untill they do the same thing, look how much struggle there has been with SL and USD laws, imagine what it will be like in hipihi with chinese laws.

Are you allowed to gamble in china?

Could be good reason for there developers to get there A's into G.

I agree with this -

I think "Games of skill where a wager is involved" will be out too

You could have a game of skill (trivia contest for example) with no wager involved, Im certain.

I read somewhere that most places in the US the Church Bingo thing is Technically Illegal. Its just not enforced.

Much like Office Sports Pools, etc.

I may be incorrect but theres a lot of small time gambling that goes on daily in the US thats just kinda ignored (card games in basements w/e).

I think these "Bets about skill" fall into this dark grey area.

-----------------
I think its the "Wager" part thats the important one. Not what game it is.

To answer the OP......

Yes, casino are going, going,...... gone for good.

Sure, LL could do this, or they could do that, but they are not, they are banning gambling (as broadly defined).

Plain and simple.