Earlier this week Valve announced that they have begun “the process of blocking” Steam accounts used for gambling Team Fortress 2 in-game items.
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TheCS:GO skin gambling controversywas one of the biggest ongoing stories of last year – check our previous coverage if you missed it – and ultimately spurred Valve to block Steam accounts that were used by gambling websites. It seems that in the wake of that scandal, a number of sites sprung up offering similar services with Team Fortress 2 game items.
Valve have taken the initiative on this one. In a concise statement on the TF2 website, they say:
“In July of last year we outlined our position on gambling web sites, specifically noting that Valve has no business relationship with these sites. At that time we also began blocking many CS:GO gambling accounts. You can view the original post here.
“More recently, some gambling web sites started leveraging TF2 items. Today we began the process of blocking TF2 gambling accounts as well. We recommend you don’t trade with these sites.”
Valve were accused of dragging their feet in response to the CS:GO scandal, and indeed were criticised for having allowed the skin gambling business to develop in the first place, so it’s good to see them nipping this one in the bud.
There are many ways to gamble with in-game items, but one popular format had users place their in-game items in a pool with those donated by other players, with a randomly-selected player claiming the entire pool. You could increase your odds by putting more valuable items in the pool.