Valve Sends C&D Notice to Gambling Sites

Valve has started taking actions against the numerous skin/cosmetics betting sites, in the wake of the recent CS:GO betting scandal, where two YouTubers were streaming their own betting process on one such site, while withholding the fact that they owned the site themselves, which led to speculation that these bets were somehow rigged in their favour. Further investigation in this case revealed it to be true.

Valve had been getting heat in the recent past when one Counter Strike: Global Offensive player sued the company, allegedly blaming them for profiting from global gambling marketplace. Valve had been accused of allowing an “illegal online gambling” platform to sustain and propagate around the popular game.

As the lawsuit says, “Valve Corporation knowingly allowed … and has been complicit in creating, sustaining and facilitating [a] market” where players and third-parties trade weapon skins like casino chips. It goes on to say, “In sum, Valve owns the league, sells the casino chips, and receives 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,” the suit alleges. “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.”

However, in the defense of corporation it was said that Valve deliberately hadn’t been involved in any such activity. As they provide an open API, these third-party gambling sites do not need any permission from Valve to be able to let the users log in on their portals using their Steam credentials and use the in-game items as casino chips.

In an attempt to put an end to this fiasco, Valve has begun sending Cease & Desist notices to the biggest of these gambling sites, asking them to stop and/or shut down their platforms as they are directly breaching Valve’s Steam Subscriber Agreement. The notice focuses mainly on commercial use of accounts, a part of which says:

Steam and your Subscription(s) require the automatic download and installation of Content and Services onto your computer. Valve hereby grants, and you accept, a non-exclusive license and right, to use the Content and Services for your personal, non-commercial use (except where commercial use is expressly allowed herein or in the applicable Subscription Terms).

The letter has not been verified by ESRB yet, but it has been posted on CSGOBig, a major skin betting site, as a part of their announcement to temporarily shut down in order to comply with Valves terms of use. It reads as follows:

Dear Sirs:

Re: Violations of Steam Subscriber Agreement