I think with the pending lawsuits against Valve, it will force their hand in some manner to act. Maybe making skins non-tradeable? Or pulling them all together in a worst case scenario. It's crazy how much $$ is involved with these silly little cosmetic items. It kind of reminds me of the beginnings of online poker a bit. Like when Mike Matusow lost a million + because the site he was using was cheating. I can only imagine how many of the current skin sites have methods to fleece their users of skins because there is so little oversight and no penalties for doing so.CS:GO gambling is eventually gonna get destroyed. I'm no lawyer, but I'mextremelywell versed in gambling vs. skill games and the legality of such. There is no question this is straight up gambling, even if you're not using real money, simply because the laws never ever say "money", they simply say "a thing of value" andcourts all over have CONSTANTLY been very very liberal in the interpretation of "a thing of value". This is what Second Life went through during their gambling mess in 2007. This is also why to be a skill gaming operator there you have to go throughinsane amounts of red tape and lawyersto be able to operate and/or create games.
The guys that are betting on their own site are going to jail. Not only that, even if they haven't played on their own sites, they are IMO guilty of theinterstate wire act of 1961,theillegal gambling business act of 1970(assuming there are 5 or more people who are involved), thetravel act, and lastly theunlawful internet gambling enforcement act of 2006, not even beginning to mention all of the state laws, specifically in strict states such as louisiana, florida, montana, or tennessee.
edit: the above video was most likely removed simply because the guy has lawyered up I bet.
This was the key reason the court ruled in favor of the game, and called it a crucial factor of the ruling. However, this isn't the case of CS:GO gambling. While they cannot be redeemed for "real world" money, they can be redeemed for "real world" items of monetary value. Additionally, the players do get a transferable license as they can trade such skins with each other.Case_sl said:Crucially, there is no real-dollar value attached to "gold," chips, or any Casino prizes. On the contrary, Defendant's Terms of Service ("ToS")-appended to Plaintiff's Complaint - provide that "Virtual Currency and Virtual Goods may never be redeemed for 'real world' money, goods or other items of monetary value from [Defendant]or any other person"; that players receive anontransferable"revocable license to use the Virtual Goods and Virtual Currency" solely for personal entertainment purposes; and that, aside from the foregoing license, players have "no right, title, or interest in or to any such Virtual Goods or Virtual Currency."
In 2011, we added a feature to Steam that enabled users to trade in-game items as a way to make it easier for people to get the items they wanted in games featuring in-game economies.
Since then a number of gambling sites started leveraging the Steam trading system, and there's been some false assumptions about our involvement with these sites. We'd like to clarify that we have no business relationships with any of these sites. We have never received any revenue from them. And Steam does not have a system for turning in-game items into real world currency.
These sites have basically pieced together their operations in two-part fashion. First, they are using the OpenID API as a way for users to prove ownership of their Steam accounts and items. Any other information they obtain about a user's Steam account is either manually disclosed by the user or obtained from the user's Steam Community profile (when the user has chosen to make their profile public). Second, they create automated Steam accounts that make the same web calls as individual Steam users.
Using the OpenID API and making the same web calls as Steam users to run a gambling business is not allowed by our API nor our user agreements. We are going to start sending notices to these sites requesting they cease operations through Steam, and further pursue the matter as necessary. Users should probably consider this information as they manage their in-game item inventory and trade activity.
-Erik Johnson
CS:GO gambling is eventually gonna get destroyed. I'm no lawyer, but I'mextremelywell versed in gambling vs. skill games and the legality of such. There is no question this is straight up gambling, even if you're not using real money, simply because the laws never ever say "money", they simply say "a thing of value" andcourts all over have CONSTANTLY been very very liberal in the interpretation of "a thing of value". This is what Second Life went through during their gambling mess in 2007. This is also why to be a skill gaming operator there you have to go throughinsane amounts of red tape and lawyersto be able to operate and/or create games.
The guys that are betting on their own site are going to jail. Not only that, even if they haven't played on their own sites, they are IMO guilty of theinterstate wire act of 1961,theillegal gambling business act of 1970(assuming there are 5 or more people who are involved), thetravel act, and lastly theunlawful internet gambling enforcement act of 2006, not even beginning to mention all of the state laws, specifically in strict states such as louisiana, florida, montana, or tennessee.
edit: the above video was most likely removed simply because the guy has lawyered up I bet.
Currently silver elite master. De-ranked from Gold Nova II. Sent you a steam invite.Damn, definitely a nice overhaul. I'd be down to play sometime, what rank?