Valve sends Cease and Desist letter to several CSGO gambling sotes - Polidicks

[QUOTE=Luxuria;50744801]Coming from someone with no knowledge of CS:GO or anything related to it, why were these sites an issue?[/QUOTE] the owners conspired over YouTube to increase the popularity of their own gambling sites (pretending they had "stumbled upon them") with people as young as 13, and probably even younger

[QUOTE=salty peanut v2;50744837]the owners conspired over YouTube to increase the popularity of their own gambling sites (pretending they had "stumbled upon them") with people as young as 13, and probably even younger[/QUOTE] And twitch (Phantoml0rd / csgoshuffle)

[QUOTE=Luxuria;50744801]Coming from someone with no knowledge of CS:GO or anything related to it, why were these sites an issue?[/QUOTE] think of casino owners who go around pretending they're tourists who just end up being so lucky that they're winning thousands of dollars every time they activate the slot machine except the slot machines rigged and it's a ruse to get people into gambling while the said casino owner basks in money from their bad gambling habits. to make this worse, is that gambling in the CSGO world is a grey zone, and adolescents are able to also gamble items for real money (and vice versa) some site owners only now started to "enforce" this rule that gambling is for 18 or older. youtubers who make these gambling videos and win hundreds in skins have exposed themselves as working along the websites they "win" weapons from as a sponsorship (without saying so beforehand), for money and views. all things considered, i'm glad this is happening and i can't wait to see these websites and their owners burn to the ground when their wells suddenly run dry.

[QUOTE=chipsnapper2;50744290]Note scrap.tf/tf2scrap.com isn't getting killed, relax geel9 CSGOLounge is though, they're a banking site, aren't they?[/QUOTE] There was never any reason to suspect it would impact scrap.tf

[QUOTE=Luxuria;50744801]Coming from someone with no knowledge of CS:GO or anything related to it, why were these sites an issue?[/QUOTE] These sites operated using CSGO's virtual items as currency. There are many items that hold significant value that can be bought and sold on the community market with Steam wallet, or can be bought and sold through other sites for real world cash. The items can be traded between users, and these sites took advantage of that by automating that process using bots. By depositing items (trading items to a bot), players can bet and gamble on the sites in various ways. Some streamers with significant followings that owned gambling sites advertised them by using them through their stream, most likely with frequent rigging. Most of them failed to clearly disclose their affiliation. This got brought to light, there was outcry from the community, so Valve began to act by sending C&D letters to unlicensed gambling sites that used CSGO's virtual economy. CSGO gambling has gotten huge, so it's in everyone's best interest that if gambling sites do continue, they will be fully licensed in the regions they operate in.

[QUOTE=Luxuria;50744801]Coming from someone with no knowledge of CS:GO or anything related to it, why were these sites an issue?[/QUOTE] Valve started realizing the general public was starting to lit a nightmare of a legal battle which they wanted no partakeing in, so they shutdown everyone associated with CS GO Gambling. Basically these sites are gambling sites with skins which could be aruged have no real base monetary value since then its' in a gray zone. Now, after a lawsuit and youtube stars showing off how the owners of these sites ended up with fat stacks of money by getting publicity from streamers and said streamers getting money from it. Well, you can see how far the rabbit hole guys. It also led to children gambling which is a big no no too.

What about sites that allow raffles with buy-ins? Isn't that technically gambling?

I feel a quote from half life 2 is relatable to valves speed on handling situations now adays. "The Combine can be slow to wake, but once they're up, you don't want to get in their way." -Alyx Vance

I also noticed sign in with steam on sites now has a huge NOT AFFILIATED stamp on it

[QUOTE=VenomousBeetle;50745231]I also noticed sign in with steam on sites now has a huge NOT AFFILIATED stamp on it[/QUOTE] The image for that has actually been around for about two months, but people didnt change to it.

Btw, shouldn't the people profiting off of the gambling websites (owners) get investigated by the IRS and such?

[QUOTE=VenomousBeetle;50745231]I also noticed sign in with steam on sites now has a huge NOT AFFILIATED stamp on it[/QUOTE] They actually changed that a month or so ago

[QUOTE=Rocâ„¢;50745266]Btw, shouldn't the people profiting off of the gambling websites (owners) get investigated by the IRS and such?[/QUOTE] Not unless they didn't pay their taxes.

[QUOTE=geel9;50745311]Not unless they didn't pay their taxes.[/QUOTE] I'd say some might not. I mean, heres people with shady gambling businesses that they own, that people didn't know that were theirs, among other factors in... Don't think the government wouldn't be too happy about it, so they'd probably need to hide what they do, and MAYBE not pay their taxes? Just speculation, don't really know exactly how everything would work with the laws.

[QUOTE=Rocâ„¢;50745346]I'd say some might not. I mean, heres people with shady gambling businesses that they own, that people didn't know that were theirs, among other factors in... Don't think the government wouldn't be too happy about it, so they'd probably need to hide what they do, and MAYBE not pay their taxes? Just speculation, don't really know exactly how everything would work with the laws.[/QUOTE] All the actual info about their LLC seems to be public, are there any signs they are hiding anything from the government?

[QUOTE=Rocâ„¢;50745346]I'd say some might not. I mean, heres people with shady gambling businesses that they own, that people didn't know that were theirs, among other factors in... Don't think the government wouldn't be too happy about it, so they'd probably need to hide what they do, and MAYBE not pay their taxes? Just speculation, don't really know exactly how everything would work with the laws.[/QUOTE]Actually, a lot of organizations of questionably legal nature or even outright illegal will still pay taxes just to avoid the IRS. Keep in mind tax evasion is a charge that was often levied against mob leaders and gangsters starting with Al Capone. If you are earning illegal income they don't necessarily need to get you with the illegal acts themselves because those can be harder to prove. But if they can just show you earned untaxed income, which the IRS is very good at, you're done.

[QUOTE=SoUl_ReApEr2;50744769]I wonder what Tmartn and psisyndicates responses are[/QUOTE] wasn't it prosyndicate or have i missed something

[QUOTE=Saphirx;50745851]wasn't it prosyndicate or have i missed something[/QUOTE] no it is prosyndicate but psisyndicate was (and may still be) involved in the csgo charade, he "exposed" himself as someone who knew that all the gambling was rigged and was all done as a sponsership for money.

upset csgolounge is being put down

So I found this new letter. [editline]oops[/editline] I was referencing Tmartn's "So I found this new site" line.

[QUOTE=fhASSA;50746283]So I found this new letter.[/QUOTE] it must be extra secret since I cant see shit.

[QUOTE=fhASSA;50746283]So I found this new letter.[/QUOTE] By all means, please share it with us.

I can see why Valve would need to do such a thing; when even down here, you've had countless complaints from parents finding out their kids have spent $2k on a CSGO betting website / coin-toss and the kid's not even 18 yet (18 = adult in australia), of course they're gonna have to do something. You do not want to face a litigation class action in the High Court not to forget permitting underage gambling, which is a big no-no. IN a country that's already got a gambling problem with the pokies and sports betting.

-snip-, rethought how it works

[QUOTE=.Vel;50747899]Valve makes literally no money from the steam market.[/QUOTE] uh, what makes you say that? everything ive seen shows that valve makes a metric shitload (like 10 million bucks in 6 months) just from the csgo steam market.

-snip-, rethought how it works

[QUOTE=.Vel;50747939]The money in your steam wallet isn't real money. It's a representation of money that you've given to valve. It's fake money only to be used within valve's market. Once you give your money to valve, they already have your money, no matter what you spend it on, even if you don't spend it at all.[/QUOTE] did you know you can transfer money to your steam wallet and then use it in the market woah

[QUOTE=.Vel;50747939]The money in your steam wallet isn't real money. It's a representation of money that you've given to valve. It's fake money only to be used within valve's market. Once you give your money to valve, they already have your money, no matter what you spend it on, even if you don't spend it at all.[/QUOTE] They pay developers of games that people buy using steam cash. If Valve makes no money from the steam market, then what's the point of the transaction tax?

[QUOTE=.Vel;50747939]The money in your steam wallet isn't real money. It's a representation of money that you've given to valve. It's fake money only to be used within valve's market. Once you give your money to valve, they already have your money, no matter what you spend it on, even if you don't spend it at all.[/QUOTE] Not sure why you replied to me before, but this is only partially true. When you add money to your Steam wallet, Valve is now in possession of that money. However, that doesn't mean it's theirs to keep. They take a percentage of every game and item sold through Steam using the wallet. The rest of this money goes to the seller of that game or item. So if you count all the transactions within the market, you can figure out how much Valve is able to keep from that. Any money goes between users is still up in the air as that money can still go to the purchasing of other games.

[QUOTE=SoUl_ReApEr2;50744769]I wonder what Tmartn and psisyndicates responses are[/QUOTE] Prosyndicate, not psisyndicate.