When gambling goes gaming

When Counter-Strike: Global Offense released skins for their weapons, the gaming community turned to gambling as a way to obtain skins for in-game weapons and as a quick way to make some money. CSGO is a first-person shooter game similar to Call of Duty. Nearly 26 million copies of the game have been sold worldwide as the game rose to popularity when well-known gamers began streaming gameplay on Twitch. After the release of weapon skins in August of 2013, multiple websites have appeared online that allow gamers to gamble, trade, and sell the in-game skins.

A major issue that has been brought to the public eye is the gambling aspect involved with the game. As the gambling websites are online, anyone can gamble on the in-game skins, including children. The websites allow the children to link their parent’s credit cards and bank accounts to their online gaming accounts, which can leave parents in the hole when their child goes on a gambling spree. Many people have argued that the website can lead children to become addicted to gambling. The concerns about child gambling has even led to several lawsuits against Valve, the company that controls the skin market. While various people have issues with children being able to gamble on these websites, Senior Brandon Weaver is rather indifferent about children being able to gamble as he believes “It’s their choice. As someone who is underage, I don’t care.” 

These easily-accessible gambling websites come in many forms, which is one of the reasons why nearly $5 billion dollars were spent on the skin market in 2016 alone. Popular forms of gambling include coin flips in which users will bet money on a side and can win or lose money. Another form of this gambling includes betting money in a pot and a random user is selected to win the jackpot. Users can bet ten cents or even thousands of dollars on these games. If a user doesn’t want to gamble on these websites, they buy skin packs which guarantee the user skins.

The skin market saw an increase when YouTubers began uploading videos relating to skin betting. YouTubers will go on gambling websites and can lose or win thousands of dollars in a span of ten minutes. These YouTube videos attract large amounts of viewers which allow gamers to make thousands of dollars. Opening skin cases is another way YouTubers can attract viewers. Rather than gambling on the skins, packages guarantee specific areas of items can be purchased. Skins found on the market have different values based on the exclusivity of the skin. Sometimes millions of an item can be found on the market making the item less valuable. Common items like the MP7 weapon sell for about thirty-five cents while rare CSGO items can be sold at a price of up to $400.

As a way to expand the skin market other items including knives, in game weapons, and even skins for gloves were added to the market. The expansive market and the mass attention surrounding CSGO has made the game especially interesting to teen gamers and even younger children. With all the controversy surrounding the online gaming community’s gambling, many game streaming websites have banned users from streaming gambling activity. One of the most popular streaming websites, Twitch has even banned gambling following lawsuits claiming the streaming of CSGO gambling on the website promotes youth to gamble. Valve has even had to crack down on users as the agreements specifically state that these gamers should not promote gambling to underage individuals.