Bloomberg: Virtual Weapons Are Turning Teen Gamers Into Serious Gamblers

[Mmm_fish_tacos]

NeoGAF - View Single Post -  Bloomberg: Virtual Weapons Are Turning Teen Gamers Into Serious Gamblers

http://www.bloomberg.com/features/20...rike-gambling/
 Some excerpts:

The video game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, in which players form teams of terrorists and counterinsurgents and shoot at one another, is a favorite of the professional e-sports circuit. A tournament in early April sold out Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, where the NHL’s Blue Jackets play, and generated 71 million online views over four days. In May, TBS and WME/IMG will launch their own league for CS:GO, as the game is called, streaming games online and broadcasting them on TV on Friday nights.
 The game’s current success has made it easy to forget that CS:GO wasn’t an immediate hit for game maker Valve. It was the latest in the aging Counter-Strike series and came out at a time when there was no shortage of other shoot-’em-up games to choose from. Everything changed when Valve introduced something new: decorative virtual weapons, known as “skins,” that could be acquired in the game and sold for real money.

 

CS:GO’s popularity skyrocketed along with the skins gambling markets. Valve has sold 21 million copies of the game and made $567 million in total revenue from the title since it debuted almost four years ago, according to research firm SuperData, and a range of websites now let players trade or sell skins, or use them to gamble.
 This kind of betting is far from mainstream, but plenty of people are figuring it out. By one estimate, more than 3 million people wagered $2.3 billion worth of skins on the outcome of e-sports matches in 2015. This, too, has contributed to Valve’s bottom line. The gambling sites run on software built by Valve, and whenever CS:GO skins are sold, the game maker collects 15 percent of the money.

 

Unregulated gambling on sports is illegal almost everywhere in the world, and some lawyers say this qualifies. The highest levels of competition in pro gaming have already seen match fixing by people looking to profit from skins gambling.

 

Gambling on Counter-Strike appeals to the game’s biggest fans: teenage boys. Sven, a Dutch 16-year-old, is pretty typical. He and his friends play CS:GO and watch pros play online. Sven said he first tried skins betting after a friend told him that people were making tens of thousands of dollars doing it, and his interest in CS:GO has shifted. “Ever since I have been betting, I have been playing less,” he said. “You’re really hyped and hoping that your team will win. Every kill they get, every round they win, you get way more excited.”

 

For now, the unregulated guys are winning. CSGO Lounge is one of the 700 most popular sites in the world. (In March, 38 million people visited the site, almost five times the traffic of popular online sports book Bovada.lv.) Every day brings a new series of matches, some of which draw action from tens of thousands of accounts. The average match draws $134,000 in skins wagers, according to sports gambling watchdog SportIM, but some fetch much more. One of the most popular matches so far this year, a March contest between teams named Luminosity and Fnatic, drew almost $1.2 million in bets.

 

In a handful of cases, judges have ruled that activities carried out entirely with virtual goods within video games shouldn’t be considered gambling, because they have no connection to the real world. “Even in the Internet age, there is a crucial distinction between that which is pretend and that which is real and true,” U.S. District Judge James Bredar wrote in October, dismissing a suit against mobile gaming company Machine Zone. “The laws of California and Maryland do not trifle with play money.”

 

Ryan Morrison is a lawyer in New York who specializes in legal issues related to video games. Over the last four months, he says he has received more than two dozen inquiries from people who want to sue Valve after losing money gambling with skins. Many of them are underage, and the biggest losses extend into the thousands of dollars. Underage gamblers are often unwittingly subsidized by their parents, because the skins they’re purchasing to bet with show up as charges on the Steam accounts. None of them would agree to speak to a reporter.
 Morrison gets visibly worked up when discussing skins gambling. “Valve acts as if they’re a 10-person indie company,” he said. “I am shocked that they let this go on.”

 

What do you think GAF?  Should Valve crack down on skin betting?  Should skin betting be regulated by governments?
 

[Mmm_fish_tacos]

Its interesting what can happen when you add real money to the mix.

[Legend]

Hopefully regulating this will also lead to regulating mobile games in general.

[kitler53]

if i ruled the world "skin betting" would mean something entirely different.