Valve has reportedly intervened in the CS: GO gambling market, sending out a letter to 23 sites requesting that they cease their business operations in the wake of the major scandal surrounding CSGOLotto.com.
The email, signed off by Valve’s general counsel lawyer Karl Quackenbush, reads:
“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”). 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.”
The authenticity of the letter was confirmed by Esports host Richard Lewis, who posted a video regarding Valve’s legal action, saying: “This is a real legal letter that’s been issued by Valve, and it really does spell doom for the businesses that are listed.”
A spotlight was placed on CS: GO gambling sites following the controversy surrounding CSGOLotto.com, a site which was advertised by prominent YouTubers TmarTn and Syndicate before it was revealed that both men were founders of the company. TmarTn later released an “apology” video for his actions, which was widely criticized. Following this scandal, many requested that Valve launch an official investigation into these sites, as a result of them profiting from both Valve’s game and its digital distribution platform, Steam. This has resulted in Valve now working towards shutting down the following sites, which were each referenced in the email:
- CSGOLounge.com
- CSGOStrong.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
It is uncertain why these particular sites have been singled out, and it is unclear whether or not Valve is looking to crack down on more of these companies in the near future. We’ve reached out to Valve and will update this story if we receive any further information.
