The Final Fantasy XI Website (thanks Frans) has word on another visit from the Christmas banning stick, which has been used to permanently close over 7,450 PlayOnline accounts and to temporarily suspend 250+ more. The update offers a breakdown on the various offenses involved, such as the use of third party software, and adds that this has resulted in the removal of over 6.2 Billion (yes, with a "B") gil from the economy of the MMORPG. Some of the banned accounts had resubscribed after prior bans for RMT (real-money trading/transactions) violations, and they say an additional investigation is currently underway to other RMT-related activities, with further disciplinary actions to follow.