Valve sued by Casino for illegal skin gambling and "Unfair Competition"

[LukeSavenije]

sources: @AluminiumTech, youtube (Leonard French), casino.org

 

The Quinault Nation, a Native American tribe that operates a casino in the state of Washington, has filed a lawsuit against Valve Software accusing the gaming firm of facilitating and encouraging illegal online gambling through skins betting related to games like Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO).

 

Quote

The Quinault Nation, which operates the Quinault Beach Resort & Casino in Ocean Shores, Washington, accuses Valve of fostering an environment in which illegal gambling can flourish.

“Valve is well aware of the skins gambling that goes on, is well aware that skins have real world cash value…and actively encourages and facilitates skins gambling,” the lawsuit reads.

The suit also alleges that Valve is engaging in unfair competition with licensed and regulated casinos in Washington, which have to deal with extensive regulation in order to operate. In addition, the lawsuit references Valve’s use of so-called “loot crates,” which have been investigated as a potential form of gambling by regulators around the world.

 

It's a weird step... but i mean, what hasn't been sued yet?

[PlayStation 2]

That tribe sounds broke as fuck.

Or, more likely, greedy as fuck. 

[LukeSavenije]

2 minutes ago, handymanshandle said:

That tribe sounds broke as fuck.

Or, more likely, greedy as fuck. 

it's free real money

 

*insert free real estate meme here*

[VanayadGaming]

they are not wrong though...

[LukeSavenije]

9 minutes ago, VanayadGaming said:

they are not wrong though...

curious... why aren't they?

[DrMacintosh]

If it has real world value and you can gamble with it, it’s gambling! The whole skin betting economy always disgusted me in CS:GO. Hope the casino wins. 

 

And for the record, I’m not against gambling. Just don’t think what Valve is doing should go unregulated/checked. 

[star_pilot475]

24 minutes ago, LukeSavenije said:

it's free real money

 

*insert free real estate meme here*

Valve: *CS:GO exists*

 

Quinault Nation: 

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, handymanshandle said:

That tribe sounds broke as fuck.

Or, more likely, greedy as fuck. 

It’ll be interesting if successful though. It was fully classified as gambling in the EU. 

[Derangel]

56 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

If it has real world value and you can gamble with it, it’s gambling! The whole skin betting economy always disgusted me in CS:GO. Hope the casino wins. 

 

And for the record, I’m not against gambling. Just don’t think what Valve is doing should go unregulated/checked. 

Agreed. If the courts find that CS: Go is considered gambling by US law then it could open up a whole can of worms for these shitty pratices. Most likely, however, Valve will settle out of court if they don't think they will win in order to avoid the risk of the case setting a precedent.

[cj09beira]

1 hour ago, LukeSavenije said:

curious... why aren't they?

well cs go has boxes and keys where you need both to open it and get random skins, which can then be sold on the steam market, thus they are allowing buying skins from cs go to go from: buy a random skin to: get a skin with a random value that could then be sold aka gambling,

and considering the amount of children playing that game, i really don't like that aspect of the game 

[Kenji the Uke]

Oof

[The Benjamins]

2 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

> Valve sued by casino

....??

> for illegal gambling

????????

> prosecution is a native-american tribe

??!!?!?!??!!?!?!!?!???

just so you know, or others, Native American tribes can run casinos on trible land even if running a casino is illegal in the state.

[The Benjamins]

1 minute ago, VegetableStu said:

yeah but like it's the apple suing the orange for being such a fiddly fruit...??? o_o

oh ya the lawsuit is stupid, also AFAIK valve is fighting against CS:GO gambling sites.

[LukeSavenije]

8 minutes ago, The Benjamins said:

oh ya the lawsuit is stupid, also AFAIK valve is fighting against CS:GO gambling sites.

afaik too

[TetraSky]

But Valve are not the ones who own the gambling sites... In fact they've been shown to actively try to curb skin gambling.

 

This lawsuit doesn't have a leg to stand on. This is like if I went to a store, bought some limited goods and started a gambling house with them at stake. The store I got them from has NOTHING to do with it.

[mr moose]

14 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

. In fact they've been shown to actively try to curb skin gambling.

 

Not very hard, while they allow digital items to be traded they are not doing anything.

[RejZoR]

This makes no sense. How is Valve stealing their profit lol? They aren't even connected in any way. They don't even work in same industry...

[Trik'Stari]

Honestly, I hope they win.

 

That way, the loot boxes will be regulated and hopefully just disappear from gaming. Then maybe games like Fortnite will be abandoned by developers and we can go back to the good times of good singleplayer games with multiplayer being there as a side dish rather than the main course.
 

Although I'm sure the government will just introduce taxes. Gotta get their cut of money they didn't earn.

[Arika]

Oh. The. Irony

[LukeSavenije]

13 minutes ago, Trik'Stari said:

 

i'm afraid that won't really happen, even when it's regulated

[COTG]

5 hours ago, LukeSavenije said:

sources: @AluminiumTech, youtube (Leonard French), casino.org

 

The Quinault Nation, a Native American tribe that operates a casino in the state of Washington, has filed a lawsuit against Valve Software accusing the gaming firm of facilitating and encouraging illegal online gambling through skins betting related to games like Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO).

 

 

It's a weird step... but i mean, what hasn't been sued yet?

yea they are about 2 year late to the party. csgo skins gambling has almost completely died out, and is now all based on vgo skins, which are not owned/operated by valve

[S w a t s o n]

Gaben just got outplayed and is about to lose the pot

[VanayadGaming]

14 hours ago, LukeSavenije said:

curious... why aren't they?

 

12 hours ago, cj09beira said:

well cs go has boxes and keys where you need both to open it and get random skins, which can then be sold on the steam market, thus they are allowing buying skins from cs go to go from: buy a random skin to: get a skin with a random value that could then be sold aka gambling,

and considering the amount of children playing that game, i really don't like that aspect of the game 

As cj09beira said, loot boxes are very much like gambling. You pay X dollars and hope to get something better that you can sell. 

And let's not forget, that there are betting sites that use Dota2/CSGO items for gambling on who is going to win. Exactly like sports betting sites. The issue here is a bit more complicated, that it is not directly Valve, but other third parties. Maybe they could do something about it, but they won't because it is too profitable for them most likely.

[LukeSavenije]

43 minutes ago, VanayadGaming said:

And let's not forget, that there are betting sites that use Dota2/CSGO items for gambling on who is going to win

but are those sites from Valve? no

 

it's like saying you should sue the European bank because people illegally bet with money

[mr moose]

31 minutes ago, LukeSavenije said:

but are those sites from Valve? no

 

it's like saying you should sue the European bank because people illegally bet with money

The thing is the European bank isn't selling random items of value directly to the gamblers.