The Story of Gachas and Current Abuse

UPDATE: As of mid afternoon on November 1 the second floor main store gachas and the event set gachas are still out, active and usable.  If it was so important to be legal with the government it kind of makes you wonder why there is still "gambling" going on.  

 

From the Second Life Gacha Policy - full here. 

Gachas disappeared from the grid a couple of years ago. Whether you go along with the "gambling is bad" edict or believe in the "adults have a right to make choices" part of the scenario -- their demise hurt a LOT of creators. Me included.  Some creators sold the rare gachas as copy items for 25 lindens and while I bought those items and often featured them, I was NOT happy with that choice as it negated the time, effort and money that people spent to GET those items when they were gachas.  

I retired all my gacha items except for the full set copy version fatpacks.  I remade similar versions (better at mesh now) some of the items I liked a lot and they became gifts etc.  

And here comes the abuse part:

A couple of weeks ago I was at a very popular clothing and accessories store. Camming around to see what was new I spotted what seemed to be gachas (not the new conveyor machines that are still legal). Yep, there were illegal gacha machines -- out in the open on the main floor.   

I sent in an abuse report.

A few days later I went to a very popular long time event to find a gacha poster there. It was not so obvious as there was no machine but clicking on the poster let you try your hand at garnering parts of the collection which was displayed at the event.   Since I have learned repeatedly that the majority of event owners don't want to know if they have illegal items on the sim ...  

I sent in an abuse report. 

Both creators are often at The Arcade so it would be difficult to assume they did not understand the rules.   

It has been over a week now and I have checked a time or two. The main store gachas area on the main floor has disappeared  ..... BUT there is a whole section of second floor that are filled with gacha machines. They can be found easily in search and they are still active. So obviously the creator KNOWS (again) that they should not be there.  

I sent in an abuse report with a screenshot of all the gacha machines showing up in area search.    

The event gacha is still up as I type this.  

Sadly  both creators are brands that I have featured --- but that I will no longer advertise. 

I believe in rules. I believe in following rules unless I am protesting.  These changes hurt a lot of people; in my mind this policy breaking is extremely unfair.   I am happy that LL followed through on my one report; I have no idea what the timeline for compliance might be on the others.