The last time I read the Linden Labs Terms Of Service (TOS), gambling was not allowed. Linden Labs prefers to think of them as games of skill. I still do not know how some of these game creators get around that rule but they do, somehow. Trust me, spinning a wheel for a computer generated random number is not subject to skill by any means. Still, the gambling games are there. And quite honestly, I'm thankful for them. I enjoy winning money from those places.
In the past, I have won as much as L$600 (Linden dollars), but lost as much as L$500, all at one time. I think for the most part, I am breaking even over the past 4 years. That's pretty good in my book. I am entertained for the whole time I'm gambling and recreation is invaluable. It's why most people visit SL in the first place. Just as in your 1st life, you need to know when to stop. Either lose too much and stop or win big and stop. If you win big, then the odds are you will not win again until you have gambled away your winnings. And if you lose too much, then you need to come back another day to win it back. It's as simple as that.
But what about that guy who owns the gambling/gaming place? When I win, is he in the hole? Not likely. It's much like gambling in Las Vegas. The odds are always in the house's favor. For every win I make, I know someone lost to pay for it. I know it's not the owner of the gaming place. He/she will always come out on top. So why doesn't everyone own a gaming place? They are expensive! Many of those game "machines" cost around L$1000 (about $4 US). Many of those gaming places have dozens if not hundreds of these machines. That's a huge investment! Then, you need to get people who are searching to find your gaming place. If you cannot get gamers to go to your place, they will be spending their money somewhere else. And there are hundreds of gaming places out there to compete with. But what if you could erect a gaming place for a bare minimum of money out-of-pocket.
Enter my buddies JR and Dollar. JR came up with the idea. He is investing in half with me and only getting 10% of the profits for now. Dollar owns hundreds of gaming machines. He will place them in your gaming place for 50% of the profits. So he basically rezzes these machines in your place, and you are responsible for bringing in players. He has invested in the purchase of these games and his return on investment (ROI) is half the profits. Some weeks, the profits are quite low. Other weeks, they are impressive. Not every week is a payday, but most are.
So JR and I purchased a parcel (which happens to be right next door to cat's, Neva's and my home parcel) and erected a gaming platform. Dollar rezzed out and placed most of his gaming machines. This place has only existed for three weeks now but we are already starting to show a profit. It's called StarShip Games and it's located at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cabria/195/76/3901
If you like gaming, then StarShip Games is the place to be. There is always at least one big winner there, it might as well be you. I cannot get away with playing there because I have a partner, JR. But if it were only mine, I would not be against winning from my own account. But there is one game there that I can play because I do not own it, nor does Dollar. The game is free to me and I get 10% of whatever is paid to it to play. The game is called Eclipse and you can set them for various amounts required to play. Amounts from L$10 to L$1000 are possible. I mostly ever play the L$10 and L$20 games but I have a friend who plays the L$250 version and does quite well at it.
Basically, a player pays X amount to play the game. I get 10% of that and the rest is doled out over the "ladder" of the game. There are rungs or tiers on this ladder. Each rung is achieved by getting a high score. The rungs are set at 15,000, 25,000, 35,000, 45,000, 55,000 and 75,000. If you should happen to score 100,000 then you win instantly and the amount will depend on the cost of playing that game. To have your name posted on a rung of the ladder, you have to get one of the high scores. The higher the score, the longer your name will be listed on the rungs of the ladder. Once your name is listed on one of the rungs, and someone pays to play the game, you get 10% of what that player paid to play. There are 6 names associated with 6 rungs. So the owner of the land the game is rezzed on gets 10%. Each player gets 10% and the creator of the game gets the remaining 30%.
 |
| StarShip Games |
I play the L$10 often so that if I do lose, it's not much. That being said, if I win, it's not much either. So let's try an example. I pay to play the game. My payment goes to the land owner, Otto Turbo (myself). That's all most players see. But I see L$9 of my received L$10 going to the creator of the game. Each name displayed on the rungs of that games ladders will increase the L$ they have listed next to their names by 10%. Just so long as nobody beats that rung's high score, the names remain there. So if the game is played 100 times before anyone beats my high score, then I have made L$100. So as you can see, if the highest score/rung I can achieve is 15,000, I will be knocked off of that rung in very little time. But the highest rung of 75,000 could take hundreds of plays before someone beats it. That highest rung will pay out a great deal by the time someone knocks you off of it.
And the best part about these particular games? They are networked. Yes, they can be played all over the entire SL grid and are updated in real time. So I do not have to wait until hundreds of people come to my land to play the one game before I get my payout. Someone thousands of sims away could be playing it right now and I'm making 10% every time they play it, so long as my name is on one of the rungs. When my score is beat, then I am forced down the rungs of the "ladder". Once I'm forced off of the bottom rung, I get paid.
But if I am going to play that Eclipse game, or another networked game like it, I need to play it on my own land so that I get at least 10% of my payment back. This is just one of the ways that gaming room people make their money via SL gambling. If I'm feeling lucky, and want to play a non-networked game, then I will go out to someone else's gaming place an win their money. If you are feeling lucky, then you need to go to StarShip Games and try to win some of mine.
