OPEN FORUM: WHERE DID ALL THE GAMBLERS GO?

I took this screen capture at high Noon SLT, and 40,000 concurrent Residents in-world is about typical for this time of day.  This surprises me, because last week, the Lindens criminalized casinos, even though they have been some of the most popular establishments in Second Life.  With no place to play, you'd think Resident gamblers would leave the world entirely, and en masse.  But if that's the case, the numbers don't readily suggest that.

So what's going on?  Have SL gamblers left the world, and it just turns out that they're smaller in number than previously assumed?  Or have they turned to games of skill like Tringo, which have a wagering component, but aren't explicitly banned by the new policy?  Or is there already an active network of underground gambling in-world, if you know where to look and who to ask?  Or what?

Comments

[Laetizia Coronet]

If it's typical, it would mean a slight dip in the growth.
Anyway, some gamblers are in-world, pretending to be Linden Detectives, threatening people about their sploders - and that's from a trusted source and 'victim'.
(small tip: there are no Linden Detectives endorsed by Linden Lab.)

[Loloz Oh]

Don't be so naive. The "gambling ban" is just a bunch of words LL is using to cover their backs in the face of the eventual lawsuit. The Lindens might make a few high profile busts or turn a few names over to the authorities but the truth is gambling will continue to go on in plenty of underground locations. Not to mention the rampant money laundering (ever wonder why countries like the Cayman Islands rank SO high in the metrics for "most time spent online per capita").

People will just ignore the ban in the same way that they ignore the laws about illegal downloads. This is a PR tactic to appease people who don't really understand how SL works. If LL says there is no gambling in world then obviously there must be no gambling. lulz

[Gwyneth Llewelyn]

The interesting thing to notice is that the number of concurrent users, like Tateru Nino reports on her blog has really not decreased "dramatically". The new signups grow linearly, as usual — no changes there. It's only the "active users in the past 60 days" that seem to be decreasing ever so slightly, or, at least, finding a plateaux between 1.7 and 1.8 millions.

Still, it seems that the Big Casino Shutdown did not really affect things much!

[Bobby Troughton]

I wouldn't think it would effect population much. Only the hardcore gamblers who spent there lives in SL just gambling would leave. The others I'm sure have friends and fun beyond gambling, so it wouldn't be too much of a lost.

However I doubt people are too upset. At least they won't be losing their money and it might be wake up call to quit the addiction.

I used to play at Extreme Casino's free slot events, was alot of fun. But now I'm making much more building and selling things then I ever did gambling, and it's even more fun.

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