In many online games, there are time consuming but fairly reliable ways to make money. You are paying for someone else's time to use them, in order to make your gaming experience more fun (not everybody finds buying a powerful character instead of working up fun, but clearly some people do).
(I recently read an online SF short story about it, with characters getting hired through an online guild to break up a competitors sweatshop, and ending up getting involved in real-life politics and unionization.)