Second Life Gives Up Gambling

For many months now I’ve been following the growth of virtual currencies around the globe. Because most ‘virtual currency’ such as the Linden Dollar are convertible into national currency, its of vital importance to monitor the future growth of this industry. Possible taxation, regulation, trading restrictions or outright prohibition are all genuine threats to not just virtual currency but other currently unregulated ‘digital currency’.

On April 5th I took a rather sarcastic look at how certain government agencies were looking at Second Life for their gambling, Is Linden Lab (Second Life) Violating The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act?

This past week, Forbes is reporting that Second Life has dropped all forms of gambling due to the FBI’s advice.

Following an FBI investigation, Linden Labs has banned all forms of gambling from Second Life, according to a posting on the company’s blog. Linden Labs had announced in April that it was cooperating with FBI scrutiny of the virtual world, including law enforcement officials’ visits to the game’s casinos.

The company blog didn’t reveal to what degree the ban was mandated by the FBI, saying only that “Linden Lab and Second Life residents must comply with state and federal laws applicable to regulated online gambling” and threatening to remove players and objects from the game that violate the new policy.

Interested in learning more about Second Life? Visit their community portal, its very informative and you might be amazing at all they have going on!