Here’s a link to a well-edited YouTube video about the recent gambling ban, put together by Second Life’s ‘Bernhard Drax.’

The video features me (as ‘Benjamin Noble’) talking about the legal side of things, ‘Prokofy Neva’ on how Second Life is like Yeltsin’s Russia, a sleazy (albeit blurred) video that maybe can’t be shown in Germany, a disabled veteran who has lost a source of income since this move, electronic music, an underground casino, giant dollar bills, and a righteous protest complete with angry, recycled signs and t-shirts. Basically, your average, everyday, Second Life experience.

What’s the takeaway from this? Well, like I’ve said before, from a legal perspective, it was bound to happen. While it’s undeniably sad that people have lost a source of income due to the ban, they really should have known they were on thin ice running unlicensed casinos in a virtual world to begin with, regardless of the fact that Linden Lab let them get away with it until now.

Also, on a personal note, I noticed something about mixed media watching this: it’s just incredibly odd to watch your avatar on screen and hear your own voice at the same time.

SLBA Press Release – The Second Life Bar Association (SLBA), an informal professional association for attorneys and legal scholars in the virtual world of Second Life, recently concluded its first-ever elections.

The SLBA’s new President-Elect is U.K. lawyer David Naylor. Naylor participates in Second Life as the avatar ‘Solomon Cortes,’ and is a partner at European firm Field Fisher Waterhouse (FFW). He led his firm’s project to establish a FFW office in Second Life earlier this year. He will take over as President February 1, 2008, when SLBA Founder and current President Benjamin Duranske’s term expires.

The new Vice President of Finance is attorney Geri Kahn (‘Geri Kuhn’ in Second Life). Kahn is an immigration and Social Security disability attorney practicing in California. The new Vice President of Communications is ‘Henri DeCuir.’ In real life, ‘DeCuir’ is a law student at the University of California, Berkeley, and has a background in computer science. The two Vice Presidents will assume their new roles immediately.

The new SLBA Executive Board will consist of ‘Cat Galileo,’ an attorney and law librarian in both real life and Second Life, ‘Jessica Holyoke,’ a recent law school graduate, and ‘Theophan Paine,’ an attorney in private practice in New York. Like the Vice Presidents, the Executive Board members assume their new roles immediately.

The SLBA currently has over 160 members, and regularly holds meetings, lectures, and social events in the virtual world of Second Life.

[Note: VB Editor Benjamin Duranske, as avatar 'Benjamin Noble,' founded the SLBA and is currently the organization's President.]

[Editor's Note, August 5, 2007: VB is providing ongoing coverage of the Ginko collapse in the comments to this article. I probably won't run further standalone articles unless criminal charges are brought, a lawsuit is filed, or Linden Lab takes action.]

One more post on this and I’m punching the clock at the financial desk and going back to covering issues more directly related to law. That’s because after tonight, there’s not much left to cover. Aside from some cleanup once Ginko finally disappears, the story has mostly been told.

Cliff Notes: The big bail out everyone was expecting occurred. Second Life’s self-styled high-interest “bank,” Ginko Financial, was supposed to buy one of Second Life’s stock exchanges, AVIX, using money from an IPO that was to be held on, you guessed it, AVIX. It didn’t happen.

Why not? Because lot of smart people who understand finance, law, and ethics showed up to explain why that wasn’t going to work and ask some very hard questions. As a direct result, Ginko no longer has an IPO on AVIX, and is, apparently left to drown on its own (we actually find that last part out later, in a strongly worded, though poorly timed, statement from AVIX).

In the transcript below, we learn that Ginko has basically no money to pay depositors, that AVIX’s ‘Investor Allen’ claims he doesn’t think that a company promising 60% returns is paying old investors with new investors’ money, and (in answer to one of my questions, thank you very much) that ‘Nicholas Portocarrero’ is really a guy in Brazil named Andre. [Or maybe not, there's some reasonable debate about even that name, now.]

So if you’re into the SL financial markets, or have money in AVIX, or in Ginko, you’re going to want to pay close attention and work through the transcript of this meeting. It’s actually pretty entertaining, though you’re not going to think so if you’ve got a lot of money in this thing. But if you’re here for the highlights, you’ll probably be more interested in my one on one interview with ‘Nicholas Portocarrero’ (Andre Sanchez [Or Michael Pratte] in real life) from earlier tonight. Why? We got to the important stuff. He told me he doesn’t have your money. Well, not in any “liquid” form anyway.

Where did it go? Well, for that, you do need to go to the transcript, because at this meeting we learned that some went to in-world investments that he can’t sell for what he paid for them for, that some went to real-world investments (e.g. his websites) that depend on “potential,” and, (also via one of my questions… I’ll take tips in the lobby) that he’s been paying himself and his buddies a couple thousand U.S. dollars per month each out of deposits. How’s that grab you, depositors who are limited to $19 daily withdrawals right now?

Basically, he’s in ur bank, spendin ur monez.

Here’s the transcript link again.  Settle in for a long read.

Well, here’s the big news:

[20:05] Nicholas Portocarrero: The IPO is part of the process of a deal I have worked out with Allen, in order to acquire AVIX.

Good luck, everyone.