Gambling Is Now Banned On Steam

gameranx.com:

Valve has now updated their Online Code of Conduct to ban gambling on Steam.

The line is added under the conduct rules, as follows:

“Engage in commercial activity

Examples of such prohibited behavior include: posting advertisements; running contests; gambling; buying or selling Steam accounts; selling content, gift cards, or other items; and begging.”

As reported by Insider Gaming, this is the culmination of a growing issue on the platform, involving a franchise Valve itself makes and owns, Counter-Strike.

In 2013, Valve introduced skins and cosmetics for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. They did not actually add gambling to the game itself. Instead, an entire black market emerged for those cosmetics, entirely out of Valve’s control and completely against the company’s wishes.

In 2016, Valve started suing the different illicit marketplaces and storefront owners that offered gambling for these Counter-Strike: Global Offensive skins and cosmetics. Interestingly enough, Valve has recently finished winning their last such case.

That seems to have been the reason that Valve has finally put down the banhammer that they clearly wanted to put onto gambling from a long time ago. The whole practice was not profitable for them, and it stained their game’s and company’s reputation. It is also consistent with Valve not approving video games with real life gambling onto Steam.

It does also conveniently match up to the now upcoming release of Counter-Strike 2. A month ago, we had reported on datamining revealing entirely new skins that are in development for Counter-Strike 2.

We had speculated at the time that Valve might not support skins made for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive from carrying over to Counter-Strike 2.

While this