From Reuters.com:

Gamers may enjoy bragging to their friends about their virtual skills and high scores but now there's a way for players to literally put their money where their mouth is. Richard Branson has stepped back into the video game space, where he was an early pioneer with Virgin Interactive, with his sights set on the emerging competitive tournament gaming space. Virgin Gaming will be giving away over $1 million in cash over the next 12 months through video game tournaments in which players can compete from the comfort of their own homes on consoles like Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Hal Halpin, president of the Entertainment Consumers Association, said competitive prize-based game companies like Virgin Gaming and BringIt! are no different than taking part in a March Madness office pool. "You can hear the usual suspects already ramping up their usual rhetoric about violence in games, to now include gambling - their spin would likely be that it's that much more of an adults-only activity and in need of regulation as a result," said Halpin. "But the same argument could be made for fantasy football."

To read the entire story, go [URL=http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSSGE65N06920100624]here[/URL].