Under pressure from the government, Linden Lab the creator and operator of virtual world “Second Life” have given up all virtual gambling within their realm. Gambling is now strictly prohibited and possibly a crime.

Coming in late July or August the Joint Economic Committee (Congress) will be issuing their report on the possible taxing of virtual world economics. Rumor is that committee members privately say they are not looking to tax the gamers. Let’s hope so!

Entropia Universe just issued 5 virtual bank licenses which combine financial services from the virtual game world and real world banking type business. So, when does ‘virtual’ banking fall under the category of a Money Service Business…..its very hard to tell after learning of this mashup between virtual game currency and cash.

Rapid growth and strong financial backing as the Peer-to-Peer market for RMT trading debuts

eBay puts the brakes on virtual products auctions, but Second Life products are exempt and shall remain OK.

New Financial Services Developing Around Virtual Game Currency.

This month I’m taking a closer look at virtual game currency or virtual e-currency. For the last few years, China’s virtual currency world has been quickly growing up and today it is rapidly expanding and gaining real e-commerce muscle. China’s Xinhua News has reported that the volume of virtual currency transactions has reached several hundred million USD a year in China.
The QQ coin is a virtual currency issued by Tencent which is China’s largest IM provider. The virtual money is highly valued and already the central bank of China is worried …read more

All January we are taking a closer look at Virtual Gaming Currency.