Monday September 1st saw the Skill Gaming policy come into effect. However, as the application process has apparently been slow-going, those who had submitted an application to become Operators and / or Creators of Skill Games were permitted to continue to operate as such, even if they had not received formal approval on their application from the Lab.

However, on Monday September 29th, the Lab issued a further updated on Skill Gaming, stating that as from Saturday November 1st, enforcement of the updated Skill Gaming Policy will come into effect – and will include anyone with an application currently pending with the Lab.

The blog post reads in full:

On September 1, 2014, the updated Skill Gaming Policy for Second Life went into effect. As a reminder, this policy allows for skill gaming activity in Second Life, but establishes that only approved Creators may make skill games with L$ payouts, only approved Operators may run them, and they may only be run on designated Skill Gaming Regions, where access is restricted to those who meet certain qualifications.

As our FAQs explained, applicants to the program who submitted their applications prior to the September 1 deadline have been permitted to continue their skill gaming activity while their applications are reviewed.

Beginning November 1, 2014, the enforcement of our Policy will apply to all Residents, including those with pending Skill Gaming applications that await Linden Lab review and approval. As of that date, any objects or regions found in violation of our Policy will be taken down. We strongly encourage all applicants to submit any outstanding materials for our review as soon as possible so that their applications may be processed before the deadline.

From the start, we’ve seen strong interest from Residents seeking to become approved skill gaming Creators and Operators. You can find the current list of approved participants here, and we’ll continue to review applications as quickly as possible to expand that list. If you would like to apply to become an approved skill gaming Creator or Operator, you can do so here.

The third paragraph is key to this announcement, as it suggests that the delay in processing applications may be as much down to a failure to supply required information to the Lab as with any internal delays in processing applications on the Lab’s part.

Therefore, if you have submitted a request to the Lab and have not received approval, now might be a good time to check to see whether you have missed any requests from the Lab to supply additional or missing information, or to touch base with them to ascertain the current status of your application.

In the unlikely case that anyone has been attempting to continue to operate or create games of skill without having made a suitable application, or who has been delaying submitting an application, now might also be the time to do so. Please refer to the EchoSign application form.

A small aside in to this is that while the Lab indicates “strong interest” from people wishing to become approved Creators and / or Operators, there have been no updates to the list of Skill Gaming Approved Participants, which is linked-to in the Lab’s blog post, the only operators and games having been listed on August 21st. It will be interesting to see if this announcement yields further additions to the list.

In the meantime, you can keep abreast of the Skill Gaming Policy changes through the links below.

Related Links