A man goes to a casino. He exchanges dollars for chips at the entrance, and heads in. While there he plays a variety of games where the results are randomly determined, gaining and losing chips as he goes. When he is done, he exchanges his chips back for real money, and heads away, richer or (rather more likely) poorer.
A man loads up Everquest 2. He buys some plat with dollars, and heads out into Norrath. While there he slays many beasts, where the reward for doing so is randomly determined. When he is through, he sells his plat and loot for real money, and logs out, richer or poorer.
Does Station Exchange Everquest 2 count as gambling? I must admit, I cannot think of a good argument as to why it does not. I am aware that gambling laws in the US vary wildly from state to state, but I think most of them are somewhat unhappy with allowing minors to gamble. They also quite like to tax it.
For instance, Tennessee law states that “a person commits an offense who knowingly engages in gambling,”defined as “risking anything of value for a profit whose return is to any degree contingent on chance,”(From here). Can that definition ever fit in any possible permitted usage of Station Exchange? If it does, it’s illegal to even sell Everquest 2 in Tennessee.
We all know people who are addicted to Everquest 2, and many of us also know people addicted to gambling, I can’t help thinking that this is a truly undesirable merger of the two. For every one of Moorgard’s college students putting themselves through college, there might be someone who neglects themselves and their children.
In the past, while Everquest addiction was certainly not rare, SOE itself did not profit more from addicted players than non (or maybe less) adicted players. Now they will, and I find that deeply troubling.
Though perhaps I’m drawing parallels with the wrong sort of addiction. Will it be long before someone turns to real life crime in order to fund their plat habit? We’ve already had our first MMORPG-related murder.