I’ve written before about the virtual world of Second Life and how they recently cracked down on the virtual casinos within the game.  Well an online casino has stepped in and is considering providing a way for these players to gamble with their “Linden Dollars” – the online currency of Second Life.  Online backgammon and blackjack site “Backgammon Masters” has recently surveyed their membership to see what the interest level is in allowing for players to gamble with their virtual dollars and cash out funds into real world currency such as the the USD, Euro, GBP, CND, US Dollars, Australian Dollar, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Czech Koruna, Danish Kroner, Euro, Hong Kong Dollar, Hungarian Forint, Japanese Yen, New Zealand Dollar, Norwegian Krone, Polish Zloty, Singapore Dollar, Swedish Krona, Swiss Franc, and the South African Rand – all of which are accepted currently at the online casino.

If implemented, this would potentially open up some interesting possibilities for currency arbitrage and give players of Second Life more flexibility in accessing their virtual holdings. I personally don’t play Second Life but I know many folks who do and I think as the popularity of these online games increases, the line between virtual and real assets will continue to become more and more blurry.