Valve Faces Lawsuit Over Video Game Gambling (bloomberg.com)

An anonymous reader writes from a report via Bloomberg: Valve's Counterstrike: Global Offensive game is being sued for its role in the multibillion-dollar gambling economy that has fueled the game's popularity. Michael John McLeod filed a lawsuit Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Connecticut alleging that Valve violated gambling laws and engaged in racketeering with a handful of off-shore gambling companies. McLeod, who has been gambling on CS:GO since 2014, is asking for class-action status for the suit. The suit was first reported by Polygon and doesn't give a specific request for damages, nor does it say how much money he lost by betting on the site. According to Bloomberg: "Valve provided for money, technical support, and advice to such websites as CSGO Lounge and Diamonds, which take bets, and OPSkins, which runs a market where virtual goods are traded and can be redeemed for cash." Valve has yet to respond to the suit.

Comments

Please protect us from ourselves, Big Brother!

[Enigma2175]

Once again someone is petitioning the government to protect them from themselves. Listen, dumbass. You're the one who made the bets, if you won I doubt you would be filing a suit. But since you're a loser, and will always be a loser, I guess it's time for you to ask the nanny state to go after that evil company that hosted a game where your in-game experience mirrored your real life - you being really overconfident but lacking any skills to back up your hubris.

Re:Please protect us from ourselves, Big Brother!

[St.Creed]

Valve runs a game where you buy keys to boxes for 5 dollar or more. The box can give you a skin that is worth up to a 1000 dollar in cash. And the sites where you can convert it into cash are supported by Valve.

This is nothing like eBay or an auction house. The point is that I have to buy tickets in order to have a chance at a nice payout. It's a lottery, and Valve made the very serious error of supporting sites that convert in-game items into real cash. Suddenly, we're talking tax evasion, running a lottery without a permit, and selling lottery tickets to minors. I dunno about where you live, but in my jurisdiction these are highly problematic behaviours for a company to display if they want to keep doing business.

CSGO hit its peak and is on its way out

[Woldscum]

The 3 top Twitch streamers have quit streaming the game. Twitch has 3 to 4 Esport companies CSGO tournaments a week. Twitch also has its own weekly CSGO turny which the finalist play on TBS every weekend. CSGO is over exposed and will die soon just like Starcraft before it. If you have skins sell out now at the top of the market. No more skin gambling and it is all over.

http://www.e-league.com/news/2...

Re:WHy dont we sue ice

[vux984]

Isn't this basically the same as suing winter because people gamble on hockey

Not really. Valve has been on a lot of people's radar already for how some of its F2P marketplaces are operating. (Team Fortress, DOTA, and CS:GO in particular.)

http://wccftech.com/problem-un...

A 2nd part of the issue is that the major Casino's are unregulated, allow minors to play, (and accusations that its rigged by its owners etc.) So these sites are operating illegally; and quite probably corrupt.

There's a reasonable argument to bad that Valve has an obligation to prevent such sites from tying into its APIs etc.

There is also a reasonable argument to be made that Valve is endorsing it by allowing such things as this:

For example:

CS:GO Lounge
"A community based around the trading of CS:GO items "

"trading" lulz... right, "trading"... the discussion has a nice forum post pinned for everyone:

Bets: the all-in-one guide
http://steamcommunity.com/grou...

or this, a "hey kids, if you got scammed its on you" and then signs off with safe betting.

http://steamcommunity.com/grou...

This isn't on some 3rd party site. This is right on the steam forums, in a Steam Group. You can arguably suggest that its not steams problem to stop 3rd parties from betting... but this stuff is right on Steam. They probably do need to take some ownership of the issue if they are letting it make itself that comfortable right on steam itself.

Yes, it's gambling. Just like fantasy sports.

[ffkom]

And just like trading derivatives on a financial exchange. Whether it's deemed illegal totally depends on the size of their respective lobby.

Re:Dota

[Pubstar]

You are completely off the mark. There are two betting systems - One you bet on games to earn tokens to level up your Compendium (which gives non-tradeable, not marketable items), or you get charms that you get 3/5 matches right, you get a pretty cheap (read: worthless) skin. Neither of these systems net you anything other than crap to your account.

Re:Why is gambling illegal?

[lgw]

In the early days: because the Bible says it's bad. These days: it's not outright illegal, but it's highly regulated, as it should be given the long history of scamming by gambling houses. Plus, many states want their state lottery to be the only legal betting: no one else gets to milk the gambling addicts.