Counterstrike: Global Offensive has been the focus of a crackdown on gambling by Valve and Steam. Many players of the game were found to be wagering in-game items on the outcome of online tournaments. Most of the sites were shut down but one website owner decided to try to go legit.
CSGO Lounge is the most popular and profitable skin-betting site, and they have agreed to comply with Valve’s cease-and-desist by seeking out an actual gambling license. While this seems like a loophole that will allow CSGO Lounge to continue offering skin-betting services, it wasn’t Valve’s intention to have CSGO betting sites apply for gaming licenses.
The site issued a statement: “We had to make a decision on how to proceed with Lounges as community place and entertainment service. The situation is highly confusing – we are not offering games of luck, we are not offering any transactions with real money or equivalents.
Despite those facts, in order to avoid or reduce the confusion, we have decided to acquire a licence to legally operate in most of the countries and be able to accept the esports bets by our community, as if it would be real money”. Until a gambling licensed is secured, players in certain countries will be unable to use the betting features; however, they will be able to withdraw their winnings. The countries restricted are:
- Belgium
- France
- French
- Guiana
- Guernsey
- Gibraltar
- Ireland
- Isle of Man
- Jersey
- Martinique
- French Polynesia
- Reunion
- Mayotte
- Turkey
- Spain
- Scotland
- Israel
- United Kingdom
- United States
With a gambling license, CSGO Lounge will have to submit to gaming regulations in a jurisdiction like Gibraltar or Antigua. It will mean that the site can legally offer gambling services but only to players to legal gambling age and in countries were online gambling is permitted by law. It is quite a confusing situation, especially with CSGO Lounge deciding to obtain a gaming license.
This would treat skin-betting as real money gambling, and it certainly makes the situation even more unclear for punters and site owners. Valve will have to act quickly, as there is the chance that other CSGO betting sites will follow the example set by CSGO Lounge in hopes of becoming real online gambling sites.
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