Exactly my thoughts. Not only money, but money in exchange of nothing of real value.
Nothing of value in what sense? It's clear that there is value to the buyers of the gold, they pay for it. It costs something (player's time & computers) to accumulate, they forgo value to create this.
So they can control it at will. By outlawing it, they can shut down whatever they don't like, and skim the top off the rest.