US authorities are investigating gambling in the virtual reality world…

US authorities are investigating gambling in the virtual reality world of Second Life. The FBI has reportedly examined casinos that operate in the game following a month-long crackdown on internet gambling.

“We have invited the FBI several times to take a look around in Second Life and raise any concerns they would like, and we know of at least one instance that federal agents did look around in a virtual casino,” Linden Lab’s vice president Ginsu Yoon told the Reuters news agency. Linden Lab operates the phenomenally successful online service.

There are hundreds of casinos operating in Second Life, but Linden Lab said that it had not received clear guidance on gambling within the game.

Second Life has its own currency, the Linden Dollar, 250 of which are worth just one dollar.

The US Department of Justice has been operating a crackdown on internet gambling. It used a 1961 Act outlawing inter-state telephone betting whose application to online gambling was disputed until last autumn when a new anti-gambling law was passed.

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