{"id":44183,"date":"2017-01-24T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T02:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=44183"},"modified":"2017-01-25T07:35:35","modified_gmt":"2017-01-25T15:35:35","slug":"5-billion-skins-wagered-2016-despite-valve-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/5-billion-skins-wagered-2016-despite-valve-shutdown\/","title":{"rendered":"$5 Billion in Skins Wagered in 2016 Despite Valve Shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Skins gambling is still alive and well, despite the Valve Corporation clamping down on the third-party websites that allow players to bet with the virtual in-game items.<\/p>\n

\"$5
Counter Strike: Global Offensive is the game that inadvertently spawned a multi-billion-dollar gambling industry, but Valve\u2019s efforts to dismantle it is proving to be unsuccessful. (Image: Valve Corporation)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to new research by Eilers and Krejcik Gaming and Narus Advisors, some $5 billion-worth of skins were gambled throughout 2015, despite Valve\u2019s efforts to dismantle the industry.<\/p>\n

Skins are designer weapons found in Valve\u2019s hit video game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive<\/a> (CS:GO), which can be traded among players via the company\u2019s Steam games distribution platform.<\/p>\n

Because they have varying degrees of rarity, they can be ascribed a real-world value, and that means they can be used to gamble with. Their ability to be transferred to third-party sites, meanwhile, via a loophole in Steam\u2019s OpenID API, has created a billion-dollar gambling industry around the colorful virtual weapons.<\/p>\n

Valve Slow to Act<\/b><\/h2>\n

Valve<\/a> was slow to denounce the industry it had inadvertently spawned, leaving it open to claims that it was facilitating underage gambling. Lawsuits followed, forcing the company to act.<\/p>\n

In July 2016, it wrote cease and desist letters to dozens of skin-gambling sites informing them that by transferring skins they were exploiting the company\u2019s API in violation of Steam\u2019s terms and conditions. Failure to comply would result in deletion of their Steam accounts, warned Valve.<\/p>\n

\n

Eilers and Krejcik initially predicted that skins gambling would drop by around 75 percent in 2017 as a result of the crackdown, but, as the analyst told ESPN this week, now it isn\u2019t so sure.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Around half the sites targeted by Valve are still open, while new ones are springing up every day, it said.<\/p>\n

Steam Feels the Heat<\/b><\/h2>\n

Of the $5 billion wagered in skins last year, around 40 percent were bet on esports matches, while around $3 billion flowed through websites offering casino-style games. These often disappear, only to be reopened shortly afterwards under different domain names, making them impossible to police.<\/p>\n

Valve says it can\u2019t completely dismantle the industry without disrupting its API and its services to its customer-base. And that\u2019s potentially a lot of people; at the end of 2015 there were 125 million registered accounts on the Steam platform.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But as long as skins gambling continues, Valve is likely to receive increasing pressure to do something about it. Last fall, the Washington State Gambling Commission ordered the Bellevue, Washington-based company to stop the transfer of skins to third-party sits or risk civil or criminal prosecution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Skins gambling is still alive and well, despite the Valve Corporation clamping down on the third-party websites that allow players to bet with the virtual in-game items. According to new research by Eilers and Krejcik Gaming and Narus Advisors, some $5 billion-worth of skins were gambled throughout 2015, despite Valve\u2019s efforts to dismantle the industry. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":44186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,10],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n$5 Billion in Skins Wagered in 2016 Despite Valve Shutdown<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Valve\u2019s measures are failing to combat Counter-Strike: Global Offensive skin gambling, according to analysts that reviewed the data.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/5-billion-skins-wagered-2016-despite-valve-shutdown\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"$5 Billion in Skins Wagered in 2016 Despite Valve Shutdown\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Valve\u2019s measures are failing to combat Counter-Strike: Global Offensive skin gambling, according to analysts that reviewed the data.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/5-billion-skins-wagered-2016-despite-valve-shutdown\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-01-25T02:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-01-25T15:35:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/587593.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/5-billion-skins-wagered-2016-despite-valve-shutdown\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/5-billion-skins-wagered-2016-despite-valve-shutdown\/\",\"name\":\"$5 Billion in Skins Wagered in 2016 Despite Valve Shutdown\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/5-billion-skins-wagered-2016-despite-valve-shutdown\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/5-billion-skins-wagered-2016-despite-valve-shutdown\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/587593.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-25T02:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-01-25T15:35:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"Valve\u2019s measures are failing to combat Counter-Strike: Global Offensive skin gambling, according to analysts that reviewed the data.\u00a0\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/5-billion-skins-wagered-2016-despite-valve-shutdown\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/5-billion-skins-wagered-2016-despite-valve-shutdown\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/5-billion-skins-wagered-2016-despite-valve-shutdown\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/587593.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/587593.png\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1600,\"caption\":\"Counter Strike: Global Offensive is the game that inadvertently spawned a multi-billion-dollar gambling industry, but Valve\u2019s efforts to dismantle it is proving to be unsuccessful. 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