Gambling Ban

Written 1 August, 2007

Gambling Ban

A couple of weeks ago the Lindens announced that effective immediately, the use of gambling machines would be illegal.

There were rather explicit descriptions of just what would and would not be illegal, but certainly slot machines are no more.

The Lindens, with their servers in the United States, were, I supposed, frightened by a recently-passed gambling law and decided not to be a test case.

I'm no fan of gambling, but I think it might have been wiser to wait.

I would argue that despite the geographic location of the servers that generate Second Life's code, the world they create is outside of normal three-dimensional space and therefore not in the United States at all.

It's another world, after all. And as such, shouldn't it have sovereignty? And as a sovereign nation, shouldn't it be outside the laws of the United States?

Unless the U.S., hoping for an easier target than Iraq (which, several years after "mission accomplished,"  is kicking our ass), decides to invade.

And if they did, we do, after all, have our watermelon guns.

I would go further and argue that a private island is its own sovereign nation. Sweetie and I have declared Pele an independent nation-state, and we stick to that.

But just in case, I have disabled the four slot machines in the Dragon Skybar so they will not pay off.