If you were to hack into someones account and take it, I would think that is illegal. Obviously if you were to steal it ingame that would not be illegal. It's

If you were to hack into someones account and take it, I would think that is illegal. Obviously if you were to steal it ingame that would not be illegal. It's almost certainly illegal to steal bitcoins. I guess I'm referring to US law here, but I would expect it to be illegal in any country that has computer crime laws. And sure it is in the currency issuer's interest to do do that, if think in strict terms of maximising the value of the issued currency. But that doesn't mean the currency issuer will take every action available to do so. The bigger picture is much more complicated than that.