So Linden Lab will not be allowing anyone to publicise anything that appear to relate to simulated casino activities.
Why? Well legally Linden Lab are in a lovely grey zone. The US Government has outlawed any company from aiding and abetting US citizens in using online gambling. of course, the argument goes that the Linden Dollar isn;t a real currency – they’re much liek the steel balls in pachinko, so when you ‘gamble’ in SL, you;re not gambling with anything that has value. Pity that casino chips in the US (Atlantic City, Las Vegas, etc) are regarded as having value. Where the Linden Dolalr stands in teh whole currency/token/variable in a server is a tricky one, so Linden are (i presume) trying to show intent here just in case a test case comes at them from teh FBI.
When you have ‘lucky number’ machines offering 10:1 payout odds on bets up to 100,000 L$ (around $400 US) that’s a lot of cash being thrown around. Linden Lab know gambling happens, on servers based in California, so they are, IMO, legally stuffed if it comes to court.
But what worries me isn;t this, but it’s the fact that online gambling in the UK is legal (hey our Culture Secretary is trying to make the UK a gold standar country to attract 888.com et al to these shores), yet we’re getting locked out, slowly, of anything that is against the law in the US. Ageplay has already been shut down quietly (don’t ask don’t tell is not a defence in court, Phillip). Online Gambling is happening now. How long until they turn their sites on the ‘physical’ entertainment area?
I rather jokingly put up an 18 USC 2257 statement when I started this site, but now? Who knows what I’ll need to write in the future jsut in case one person in one territory is offended by my pixels.
