Second Life Under Fire

With the passing of the UIGEA, banks and other entities may no longer process payments for Internet gambling transactions. That means that no one can gamble really, if they are gambling for real money. So because the real kind is now illegal, many have turned to places like Second Life to do some virtual, or pretend gambling, on their sites.

However, now the government is trying to stop that as well. It doesn’t quite make sense really – the government said that they were trying to keep those who had gambling problems from getting into trouble by gambling online as they could lose everything they had on an online slot machine and no one would be there to stop them. However, if you aren’t playing with real money – where is the danger?

However, the government seems to think that fun is dangerous to its residents as well. The online site, Second Life, has virtual gambling for what are called Linden Dollars – which is just taken from the name of the company that runs the site – Linden Lab. The site clearly states that there is no real monetary value to the money, and that it is just for fun.

However, the government seems to think that this is just too much fun for players, and is investigating the “virtual” casinos and their slot machines to see if they need to shut them down within the “virtual” world. It seems to me that if the government would spend a little less time worrying about people playing with pretend money and pretend slot machines, and a little more time on our economy, gas prices, and the war, that perhaps something might get accomplished.




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