I thought gambling was banned.... ???

1) grep wont work on a mysql db file.. it'd be a pain in the butt =p Run a mysql search hehe

As for them not acting, they are probably getting the legal version to write into their TOS before they do anything. I would NOT take the fact they haven't written anything as them not wanting to do anything.

They don't want the legal rammifcations if they just let it continue without taking any action. (And their would be)

Unfortunately the not particularly informative headline of "Wagering in Secondlife: New Policy" (which could equally have been a link saying advertising was now allowed again) fell off the list of headlines on Friday (within 48 hours of it appearing on the blog in the first place) and is now also burried quite a long way down the blog page itself.

Matthew

The short (and cynical) answer: Linden Labs loves to make rules. Linden Labs hates to enforce rules.

The long (and less cynical) answer: If Linden Labs doesn't want some more lawsuits on its corporate hands like the Bragg lawsuit, they'd be wise to make sure that they can prove plenty of notice to casino owners before starting to close them down.

The simple answer may be the Lindens are as powerless to do anything as we have been for the last few days.

They have choices. LL could have made everyone with a gambling operation register thier business in the U.K (where it is legal). They can post signs outside of every casino announcing that Americans are not permitted to gamble(whether that actually deters anyone would not be LL fault). They can send every U.S citizen an e-mail stating that by law they are prohibited from gambling( again no one is guaranteed to listen, but at least LL has covered their ass).
The feds are infamous for coming into someones business, scaring people with threats of jail time( trust me, its nothing new), but if you have never been involved with the process, the feds will very easily make you feel powerless and scare you into submission(usally with good lawyers they tone down their act).LL needs to stand a little bit taller in front of "The Man". They must remember, that this platform they built is'nt just inhabited by us Americans( the majority of the residents reside in the U.K), and in knowing that LL must fight the fight for the majority who supports the SL platform.
Look at the 24 hr spending stats. If you are a regular on this sight, you would have noticedthat the spending rate was once stuck on 1.5 spent daily, then it went to 1.7 daily, now after the gambling ban there has been a 5-600,000 loss daily. That sounds like LL is better off fighting in court with the feds, and making concessions with them through the court system( show some backbone for your residents, and stop getting pushed around by the "boys".

I think we need to wait until the grid disaster passes before making asumptions on spending stats. Also, LL does not need to stand up to the man. They built the platform and own it. It really isn't your world, your imagination. After all you are not the one who would be indicted.

The way gambling operated in SL wouldn't be legal in the U.K. Where's Cherry when I need her?

If they had gone down the licenscing route, then some of the big companies might have came in but the people running businesses in SL, I doubt many of them would have been able to attain legal status.

And in any case, UK online gambling games have to prevent US people from playing them. Since the UK gambling businesses would still be communicating with US servers and cashing out their money in the US, they would still be affected.

I read the entire thread /13/7c/19503/1.html and wondered where it could be leading that would end up having something to do with the topic at hand ....

Then I realized I failed to copy the last digit of the thread number.

Yeah, $75000 US a year for a license in antigua, i very much doubt there are any casinos making the kind of profit required to make this license fee meaningless. Then again if there are only 2 or 3 casinos instead of the thousands there are currently maybe they would be able to make enough.

Now, let me ask you a question, would you prefer to have no gambling at all or gambling that is run by a major corporation which SL residents wont see any of the profits?

I think i'd prefer no gambling

This would depend, if the big companies had came in, then maybe it would have created a gambling island that would have been completely insular from the rest of the world, whereas I don't have a problem with that scenario, it wouldn't really add anything to the world as a whole.

However if people won L$ there and came to spend them in the world, as a whole, then we'd see a boost to the economy. I doubt we'll ever find out which of these two scenarios would play out.

I am going to have to contest this a little. There has been a very large amount of activity in the past about issues with FBI and legally concerning casinos and gambling in Second Life. Any clever casino owner would have seen the writing was pretty much on the wall and started diversifying their business. If you can't realise that LL may be placed under pressure by the FBI to start curbing gambling activities through what has happened in the recent past and all the coverage on it, then you probably don't deserve to run a proper business anyways. If you know nothing about the recent activities regarding FBI pressure on LL with gambling activities, its no excuse. If your in the business, you should stay in the know.

I hear sob stories that so and so has lost everything because of the policy changes. Granted it was sudden and sort of unexpected. If LL did something similar to my line of business, I'd be equally frustrated .. but this change has not come about without any kind of warning.

My partner and I were curious about starting our own casino setup as they seemed to be quite lucrative. This was at about the time that new stories came out about gambling in SL and the FBI looking into it. So we didn't. If I had owned a casino at the time, I would have started slowly puling the plug on it.