With the legal issues regarding CSGoLotto and other weapon skin gambling sites still continuing, Valve has taken a lot of heat for their inability to prevent these websites from exploiting customers. In an effort to get some heat off their side, Valve took the initiative of denying any knowledge or wrongful actions done on their end. Here is an excerpt from Valve’s letter to the Washington State Gambling Commission:
“Valve can enforce its user agreements against the Steam accounts of skins gambling sites, where we can identify the site and identify the corresponding account. In fact, we would be happy to cooperate with the Commission, if it is able to identity more skins gambling sites that are illegal in Washington and the Steam accounts through which [they] operate,” the letter says. “We welcome the change for further communication with the Commission, if it would like to clarify the legal allegations against Valve, or alternatively to work with Valve to identify offending Steam accounts of gambling sites.”
Valve took issue with the concerns from WSGC being made public, but responded nonetheless with a letter that denied any wrongdoing in the case of CS:Go gambling.
Now, for those unsure with the situation, here’s a quick description of the whole thing: there’s a game called Counter Strike Global Offensive that’s very popular on Steam and has been for some time. A big part of the game is the available weapon skins that can be received through the game and outside of it through the means of gambling for said skins. There were many websites, with the most notorious being CSGOLotto, that would allow children and young players to gamble even though it was illegal with no limits, leading to massive credit card bills and parents of those kids complaining to Steam and the websites themselves. The situation took a turn when two prominent Youtubers who were known for playing on CSGOLotto, were proven to be owners of the website and purposely leading on others so that they would go to the website, spend their money, and the two Youtubers would profit. This whole time, Valve, who had the rights to the game (and likely would’ve profited a little from these gambling practices) hadn’t really been taking any action to combat this, leading to the fingers of blame also pointing in their direction.
With that out of the way, I think it’s obvious what Valve’s response to the accusations would be. They wouldn’t admit any wrongdoing as there’s no deeply incriminating evidence for them, but when examined at the potential benefits that Valve received thanks to these gambling sites, it’s clear why they weren’t in a hurry to stop these third-party sites from turning profits left and right.
Also, considering that CS:Go gambling has become a billion dollar industry (yes, that’s a “b” in front of that word) there are more benefits to attempting to keep the industry going rather than stopping it at its height of popularity.
All in all, it’s a messy situation overall, and it doesn’t seem that these legal tensions and issues will go away anytime soon. We will keep looking for updates as the situation progresses, but in the meantime, just remember: if multiple sites can make a fortune with gun skins for a video game, then all of you can accomplish whatever you want in this life. CSGoLotto proves that ANYTHING is possible, especially when you lie to customers and let thirteen-year-olds gamble on your site meant for adults.
What do you think of this situation? Do you think it matters how old you are in regards to visiting gambling sites? Let us know in the comments!
