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  • The Lawbringer: Gambling in World of Warcraft

    by 
    Mathew McCurley
    Mathew McCurley
    09.02.2011

    Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play? Casinos and player-run games of chance have been around in World of Warcraft since the game's launch, clogging chat channels with advertisements, creating numerous GM tickets because of player fraud, and generally being disruptive in the grand scheme of things. Then there are the gambling outfits within guilds, where we would bet who would die first on Nefarian attempts way back in 2005. I lost a lot of gold back then -- I'm still ashamed to admit it. This week on The Lawbringer, we're going to discuss WoW casinos, gambling within the game, and why Blizzard came down hard on player-run money games. The current policy on the books, so to speak, is that casinos are not allowed in WoW, as a disruption and potential scam for players. There is no way around it -- running a gambling or /roll game in chat will have you dealing with some serious retribution, especially doing it in the open. Today's topic, as usual, is spurred on by an email that I got asking a relatively straightforward question that has some nuance to it. This email comes from a digital bookie looking to make an addon that tracks bets based on real-world events.