Forced labor is a familiar concept around the world, but instead of making license plates, cleaning highways, or chipping away in mines, some prisons in China are under the microscope for forcing inmates to farm for gold in MMOs after their usual duties.

While the situation sounds comical, an inmate of the Jixi labor camp complains, "If I couldn't complete my work quota [in the game], they would punish me physically. They would make me stand with my hands raised in the air and after I returned to my dormitory they would beat me with plastic pipes. We kept playing until we could barely see things."

Prisons/guards are then able to sell the virtual currency in exchange for real cash. Selling virtual currency without a license has been illegal in China since 2009.

Full article at Guardian.