Valve Accused of Allowing Gambling in Counter-Strike
The Washington Gambling Corporation wants Valve to know that it means business. Today, the commission revealed in a press release that the Valve Corporation missed an important deadline to end the transfer of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive items on Steam for the purposes of gambling. Valve apparently had until Friday, October 14 to explain to the state how the company was “in full compliance with Washington’s gambling laws.” Otherwise, Valve could face some serious actions.
At the end of the day, the Commission claims that a Valve representative notified the governing body’s staff that Valve was still working on a reply to the previous letter, which will be provided on October 17. Speaking on the announcement, Commissioner Director David Trujillo stated: “I am disappointed that Valve Corporation missed Friday’s deadline, but encouraged that they have committed to responding today. I look forward to reviewing their response in detail.”
Valve was said to have been notified it has to stop the transfer of virtual weapon skins for gambling activities on Steam. Otherwise, Valve has to risk the Gambling Commission taking additional civil or criminal actions against the company. Commissioner Chris Stearns claims, “The type of approach Valve decides to take will be very important.”
Whether this is just a publicity stunt by the Commission to get attention or if they are just puffing their chests remains to be seen. It doesn’t seem that Valve is truly allowing any purposeful gambling activities on their site. I don’t see how it’s Valve’s fault how users might mis-use the system for Counter-Strike. I doubt any serious charges are brought against Valve, but that remains to be seen.
Still these charges that the WGC is accusing Valve of are quite serious. Even if Valve “missed” the deadline, it seems that they plan on crafting a response based on the reply from a representative. In some ways this does come off like a witch hung on the Commission’s behalf.
AlexandraUrj
November 29, 2016 @ 5:10 pm
Valve is not responsible for gambling. It's the sick web pages all around the web that let children gamble. Its like accusing US Government for issuing US dollars that people use to gamble in casinos