Valve responds to requests to shut down 'Counter-Strike' weapon skin trading

By Brad Jones October 18, 2016

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Two weeks ago, the Washington State Gambling Commission demanded that Valve cease the transfer of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive weapon skins via Steam, citing links to illegal online gambling. Now, the company has responded with an outright denial of any wrongdoing in the matter.

Various third-party gambling sites offer Global Offensive players the chance to gamble real-world money for the opportunity to earn rare weapon skins. While these services are separate to the game itself, the Washington State Gambling Commission argues that Valve is aiding their operation, because the skins are transferred via Steam.

On October 5, the Commission claimed that Valve is enabling a “large, unregulated black market,” and gave the company until October 14 to come up with an explanation. Valve waited until October 17 to respond, submitting a letter to the commission and sharing it with the press.

Liam Lavery, the company’s legal counsel, states that the allegations have “no factual or legal support,” according to a report from Engadget. “As we have explained on multiple occasions, Valve is not engaged in gambling or the promotion of gambling, and we do not ‘facilitate’ gambling,” Lavery writes in the letter.

While Valve concedes that betting sites are using Steam to transfer prizes, the company has refused to shut down trading. The reasoning is that the platform itself is not at fault, and any misuse by a small proportion of users shouldn’t come at the detriment of the broader user base.

One potential headache is the thorny issue of transaction fees — Valve doesn’t make any money from like-for-like weapon transfers, but it take a small fee during monetary Marketplace transactions. “This means that Valve could feasibly be making money from transactions related to gambling, albeit without its knowledge,” writes Lavery.

However, Valve is making attempts to cut down on gambling related to its games. Cease-and-desist letters have been sent to over forty different betting sites, and efforts to stamp out bots related to this activity are ongoing. “We would be happy to cooperate with the Commission,” Lavery stresses in his letter to the organization.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Brad is an English-born writer currently splitting his time between Edinburgh and Pennsylvania. You can find him on Twitter…

Computing

Power up your tech game this summer with Dell’s top deals: Upgrade for a bargain

Dell Techfest and best tech on sale featured.

One of the best times to upgrade your tech stack, be it your desktop, a new laptop, or some high-resolution monitors, is when great deals are to be had. Well, I'm here to share that thanks to Dell's top deals, you can power up your tech game and have most of the summer to make it happen. Maybe you're happy with your current system or setup. That's excellent, but you're likely considering upgrading somewhere, and that's precisely what these deals are all about. Dell has a smorgasbord of deals on laptops, desktops, gaming desktops, monitors, accessories, and so much more. We'll call out a few of our favorite deals below, but for now, know that you should be shopping this sale if you're interested in anything tech-related.

What summer tech should you buy in Dell's top deals?

Computing

I love the MacBook Pro, but this Windows laptop came surprisingly close

Apple MacBook Pro 16 downward view showing keyboard and speaker.

There are some great machines in the 15-inch laptop category, which has recently been stretched to include the more common 16-inch laptop. The best among them is the Apple MacBook Pro 16, which offers fast performance for tasks like video editing and the longest battery life.

The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 is aimed not only at other 16-inch Windows laptops but also at the MacBook Pro 16. It offers many of the same benefits but at a lower price. Can it take a place at the top?
Specs and configurations

Computing

How to set an ‘Out of Office’ message in Microsoft Teams

Person using Windows 11 laptop on their lap by the window.

Many people use Microsoft Teams regularly to communicate with colleagues both inside of the office and remotely. It is considered one of the most efficient ways to ensure you can stay in contact with the people on your team, but what if you need to let people know you’re not readily available? Microsoft Teams has a method for you to set up an "Out of Office" status for your profile to let staff members know when you’ll be gone for the afternoon, for several days on vacation, or for an extended period.
Where do I go to set up my ‘Out of Office’ status for Teams?
It is important to note that your Microsoft Teams and Outlook calendars are synced. This includes your out-of-office status and automatic replies. So, whatever you set up in Microsoft Teams will reflect in Outlook. Similarly, you can set up your out-of-office status in Outlook, and it will be reflected in Teams; however, the former has a more straightforward instruction.

First, you can click on your profile icon in Teams and go directly to Schedule an out of office, as a shortcut. This will take you to the settings area where you can proceed. You can also click the three-dot icon next to your profile icon, then go to Settings > General, then scroll down to the bottom of the page. There, you'll find out-of-office settings and click Schedule.