Linden Labs Bans Gambling in Second Life, Time to go Yakuza
Well, it turns out that Linden Labs has banned gambling for lindens or real-world value items in SL. What is a casino owner to do?
Simple, just do what the Yakuza do.
In Japan, gambling for money is illegal, so while you buy Pachinko balls for money, you can’t cash them in for money after. Instead you take your winnings to the counter and get… a pen, a stuffed bunny, etc.
Pretty lame right? Well, almost. The thing is, just out the door and down the alley from your local Pachinko parlour is an unremarkable small window. Take your cheezy item to said window and lo and behold, the guy on the other side pays you way more than market value for it.
The pachinko place is doing nothing wrong, they only allow you to gamble for items of no real worth. The guy at the window is doing nothing wrong, who says he can’t overspend when buying his favorite trinkets for obscene amounts?
And the authorities, they don’t really care since the law was imposed by American invasion forces and wasn’t their idea in the first place. Sound familiar?