Share This Post

Games

Valve Sends C&D Notice to Gambling Sites

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

We are aware that you are operating one of the gambling sites listed below. You are using Steam accounts to conduct this business. Your use of Steam is subject to the terms of the Steam Subscriber Agreement (“SSA”),http://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/. Under the SSA Steam and Steam services are licensed for personal, non-commercial use only. Your commercial use of Steam accounts is unlicensed and in violation of the SSA. You should immediately cease and desist further use of your Steam accounts for any commercial purpose. If you fail to do this within ten (10) days Valve will pursue all available remedies including without limitation terminating your accounts.

Karl Quackenbush

General Counsel, Valve Corp.

The following sites have been targeted as of now. Whether more sites will be included and whether this notice will extend to all sorts of commercial activity regarding these accounts, is still under speculation.

  • CSGOLounge.com
  • CSGStrong.com
  • CSGODouble.com
  • CSGO500.com
  • CSGOCosmos.com
  • CSGOCasino.net
  • CSGO2x.com
  • CSGOHouse.com
  • CSGOatse.com
  • CSGODiamonds.com
  • SocietyLogin.com
  • Dota2Lounge.com
  • CSGOCrash.com
  • CSGOLotto.com
  • CSGOBig.com
  • CSGOFast.com
  • CSGOSweep.com
  • CSGOMassive.com
  • CSGOBattle.com
  • Skins2.com
  • CSGOPot.com
  • CSGOWild.com
  • Bets.gg

For more news and reviews, keep checking back at Gaming Central.

Share This Post

To know absolutely nothing about me, follow me on Twitter and Facebook. I do nothing there. It's also a good way to keep your news feed clean. I will post no updates.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>


Lost Password

Register