Virtual UIGEA implemented on SecondLife

There were recent reports that Linden Labs has invited FBI to investigate gambling in the virtual world following passage of the UIGEA, which has made it illegal for any US resident to stake ‘anything of value’ in order to gamble on any web site on the internet.

The virtual-UIGEA outlaws any of the possible games that rely on any kind of chance or random number generation so as to finally determine a winner of the game, or which rely on the outcome of real-life organised sporting events to provide a payout.

The core problem for Linden Labs has come up from the fact that Linden Dollars, the currency used in the virtual world, has a real world exchange rate which means that it qualifies as ‘something of value’ under the definition of the UIGEA.