Valve, which is known for providing many popular video game, with titles including such successful launches as Counterstrike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) and Half-Life has been reported to face a lawsuit concerning the assumed “illegal gambling”, per video gaming news website Polygon. The lawsuit targets the CS:GO video game relating directly to its market known as the skin betting market.
After releasing Valve’s “Arms Deal Update” for the popular online game, the skin betting increased in the August of 2013; the skin betting concerns the possibility that is given to the players of Valve’s “Arms Deal Update”, who can trade weapons that can be used in the game and which are decorated and costumed.
It is known that the players could wager skins, just as casino players can wager casino chips, on the outcome of a number of different events, starting from eSports matches to more traditional games available at online casinos including roulette and blackjack.
According to the suit, it is alleged that Valve “knowingly allowed, supported and/or sponsored illegal gambling by allowing millions of Americans to link their individual Steam accounts to third-party websites.” The lawsuit was filed last Thursday, by Fairfield, Connecticut resident Michael McLeod.
As it has been recently estimated by Eiler & Krejcik Gaming and Narus Advisors, bettors are said to wager around $7.4bn on the activity as predicted for 2023.
The complaint concludes: “In sum, Valve owns the league, sells the casino chips, and receive a piece of the casino’s income stream through foreign websites in order to maintain the charade that Valve is not promoting and profiting from online gambling, like a modern-day Captain Renault from Casablanca.
“That most of the people in the CS:GO gambling economy are teenagers and under 21 makes Valve’s and the other defendants’ actions even more unconscionable.”
