Real cash for virtual cash anyone?

Looking throught Firefox's news feed.. i came across this article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4953620.stm

Project Entropia

Basically, it's a MMORPG like say R.O or WoW but where you can actually convert cash into virtual cash, known as PEDs in the game and also vice versa!
There's an exchange rate of 10PEDs for 1 USD. For those unfamiliar with the MMORPGs, you basically live a second life online but in a fantasy world. Besides the usual killings and gaining experience, some MMORPGs like WoW let you take up professions by making potions or skinning animals.Project Entropia is taking it to higher level by making bytes of data into real cash.

I'm no genius.. but wouldn't it be opening up new possiblities of say.. fraud (hacking into account or exploiting a glitch on the game and converting the PED into USD) and even money laundering (say I stole 5k from a bank.. how do i clean it up? Buy a few accounts with fake IDs.. but some virtual cash and keep it there for a whole or trade it for goods and re-sell 'em) I can even imagine that if there was sufficient demand and this whole thing took off, people wouldn't need to work in the real world and can't just earn money by logging on and earning some money in the virtual world.

Yet...It's nothing new to create economies out of 'nothing'. Collectibles and even card game companies have succeeded in creating 'value' out of nicely painted figurines or pieces of cardboard in the past decade.

Mm.. how the world is changing indeed.