Virtual Banking Banned in Second Life

January 8th, 2008 at 10:56 pm

As someone who has only briefly checked out Second Life over the last year or so I wonder how prevalent these sketchy types of industries and activities are in Second Life. In my personal experience there seemed to be a lot of this going on when I was just roaming around, but then again maybe it was just a bad area as there are in the real world. For anyone who plays, how important are these sketchy industries to the game?

January 9th, 2008 at 12:34 am

Why can’t Linden Labs let a few authorized banks operate?
It’d be in their interest also and taking up the challenge, not fleeing from it, would be a more desirable way :/

January 9th, 2008 at 2:18 am

The problem started when it was tied to real money. It would also help if there were actual, useful, real goods and services that an economy could be based on.

On the bestiality front, think of the virtual animals!

January 9th, 2008 at 5:20 am

What kind of loser actually banks in Second Life? Use your First Life for that.

January 9th, 2008 at 8:55 am

Does anyone actually use Second Life for legitimate reasons? Just a matter of time before the Second Life economy implodes on itself and the website becomes little more than a lesson-learned.

January 9th, 2008 at 11:50 am

Can you post (or email me) the SLUrl for the bank location depicted in your screenshot?

thanks: Conrad

January 9th, 2008 at 2:23 pm

Virtual Banking in Second Life Banned! Virtual sex with a children still good to go.

January 9th, 2008 at 7:59 pm

First Meta fully supports regulation of financial services activity in the virtual economy. As First Meta’s business is not dependent on savings accounts or other investment instruments which are addressed by the new policy, we believe that the new policy will not have any adverse effects on our company. Insofar as the new policy strengthens the virtual economy, we believe this will actually benefit First Meta and our customers. You can read more about our view of this new policy at: http://www.firstmeta.com/main/policy

January 10th, 2008 at 10:47 am

As a member of SL for nearly a year now, the original premise of SL was a very nobel one, a sort of virtual wild west where anything goes. But when people actually get hurt or lose money, this is a serious problem.

as far as i know all casinos and gambling establishments have been shut down after numerous FBI warnings. Now these SL banks are going out of business because they may have violated federal and state banking regulations. This does not surprise me at all.

i now visit SL only about three or four times a month and notice that many businesses or sites have gone out of business, while new ones have opened up.

i honestly don’t know how some of these virtual businesses will survive over the longterm. there really aren’t any real barriers-to-entry on SL. Too man copycats, and many businesses rely strictly on donations to make money, such as dancing sites. the successful ones have their own shopping mall to generate revenue.

the verdict is still out on the viability of running a commercially successful business in a virtual world. just too learly to tell. marketing and promotions is a real issue and since Sl is multi-cultural with 30% of the members from the US and the other 70% from other countries, language is another problem.

Tommy Toy
PBT Consulting

January 11th, 2008 at 10:42 am

Fun maybe. Commercial not.

January 31st, 2008 at 9:38 am

I worked for a very self-important bank owner in SL and learned his real name. I goggled him, and discovered he was a questionable business character in rl, he’d had ‘run ins’ with people before. Not only did I not bank with him, but I shortly thereafter ‘fired’ myself without notice. Sure enough, a few months later, Mr Shady Deal was gone, banked Lindens and all, while trying to pass the buck to someone else (in cahoots, most likely). I was lucky, tho., many people were not. What a nasty racket, glad it’s been stopped.