Hacker Steals $12 Million Worth of Zynga Poker Chips

Gamasutra reports that a 29-year-old British man has been convicted of hacking into Zynga's game servers and helping himself to 400 billion virtual poker chips. "'The defendant sold around one third of the 400 billion poker chips, and looking at the auction history where one can purchase such items, he was selling them for around £430 ($695) per billion,' said prosecutor Gareth Evans, according to a report from local newspaper Herald Express. Sold legitimately through Zynga, the full amount of chips would have brought in some $12 million. The prosecutor estimated that if Mitchell sold all of the virtual chips on the black market, he would have made a fraction of that, around £184,000 ($297,000). Evans admitted that valuing virtual currency can be difficult and that the company was not actually deprived of tangible goods, but he said that the theft could still affect the developer by indirectly causing legitimate online gamers to stop playing Zynga Poker or its other games."

Re:Prediction

[Anonymous Coward]

The next boom/bust cycle will happen with virtual currency. Hope that nobody's retirement savings will be invested in the virtual world.

Yeah. That would be really bad if suddenly your money isn't worth anything anymore. I'm so glad that never happened up to now...

I'm curious

[goose-incarnated]

What exactly can one do with Zynga Poker chips, even if you won them legitimately? Can they be exchanged for cash and/or prizes?

Re:My sister stole 13 million worth of my monopoly

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually the key difference is that the stuff in my pocket is backed by a government which also enforces laws and regulates commerce. As such it is recognized by that government as having a specific market value and standing in legal proceedings also recognized as official by that government. If governments were to allow private currencies to have the saem legal standing then companies like Visa or Amex could print their own money and let markets decide which held value or not. It's not a completely crazy idea given that we already allow them to sell stock worth many times what they as companies are worth but it comes with a bunch of regulatory issues and probably subjects currencies to wilder swings in value than they already endure. That said if a private currency became a reality then your comment would be accurate and there would be little difference.