Lootboxes have become such a normal thing in the world of gaming that you see them just about anywhere, including in games from Valve, but some view them as gambling, and that’s precisely what has earned Valve a lawsuit from the New York Attorney General.
Whether or not lootboxes are considered gambling is up in the air. Officially, regulators don’t seem to lump lootboxes in with it because you generally can’t trade in your received items for real-world money. That is, except for in Valve’s case. Kind of. Valve’s lootbox system for games like Counter-Strike 2 does have a profitable market. You can potentially open a lootbox and get an item that could be worth thousands on the game’s secondary market. It’s this possibility that Attorney General James is going after.
Gambling lawsuit says Valve is breaking the law
While the jury is still out on whether Valve is actually doing anything illegal, Attorney General James, in her lawsuit, makes the claim that Valve is doing just that. The lawsuit alleges that Valve is breaking New York’s gambling laws.
The lawsuit states that what causes Valve’s system to cross that line is tied to its account-linking process. With Counter-Strike 2’s loot system, it’s possible to make real-world money from items you get by selling them on a secondary market. You can link your Steam account to these websites to do so. This particular step is what James is going after. Stating that it’s “one step too far.”
It’s not clear if Valve will end up losing this case or if it will even get to court at this point. It’s a little too early to tell. However, if Valve loses, it could change things. It could shift how lootboxes are dealt with by developers. However, that remains to be seen.
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