The New York Times finally picks up the story (blogged here) of the potential tax treatment of online gaming:  Taxing Virtual Economies, by Clay Risen:

Economists, along with accountants and government officials, have started to think hard about the phenomenon of “massive multiplayer universes,” or M.M.U.’s. These are online video games in which players work, play and increasingly earn real money — income that some argue should be taxed. “A great deal of assets that have real economic value are being created inside video games,” the economist Edward Castronova says. To that end, the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress recently began an examination of the tax implications of virtual commerce.