Valve to the rescue

With the monumental rise in popularity of eSports comes the inevitable dark side — gambling. Till the middle of 2016 CS:GO gambling sites were allowed to work with impunity as neither Valve nor the authorities were aware that such sites were not only operating, but were also turning over millions of dollars per month in profits. Gambling is a regulated activity in most countries for adults, but here’s the caveat, online eSports gambling sites, and more importantly, gambling sites that are tied to the in game inventories, do not fall under any current gambling laws, online or otherwise. This has led to several minors getting hooked to the “sport” and have resulted in them losing thousands of dollars. Valve took cognizance of this last year when a bunch of families filed a lawsuit against these gambling sites, and named Valve in the suit as well. This forced Valve’s hand and led to a large scale shutting down of several shady skin betting sites like CS:GO shuffle and CS:GO diamond.

Today, Valve is targeting yet another gambling ring that has existed for many years, the Team Fortress 2 ring. Valve announced that they would be taking action against these sites by blocking them and their bots that enable the item trading and has urged users to discontinue using them. I feel that this is an excellent move, one that ought to have happened sooner. It is imperative that eSports gambling be brought under the same umbrella of laws that govern traditional sports gambling so as to offer a legitimate and regulated outlet for adults looking to partake in the activity. Seeing as how the primary audience for eSports are teenagers and young adults, it is great to see a company as influential and dominant in the world of eSPorts take a proactive and positive stance against illegal gambling.