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Three parents say their teenage sons were illegally lured into online gambling by Valve Corp., the creator of widely popular video games including Counter Strike: Global Offensive.
Plaintiffs G.G., A.L. and B.S. are parents of minor children who they say gambled away thousands of dollars on defendant Valve Corp.’s online gaming platforms. The parents allege Valve Corp. is in violation of the Washington Consumer Protection Act and specific state statutes that outlaw gambling.
According to the plaintiffs, Valve Corp. has set up an illegal online gambling ecosystem. This ecosystem is based on the company’s Steam Marketplace platform and incorporates online video games like Counter Strike: Global Offensive.
In these online video games, players can use real money to buy virtual weapons called “skins” that they can use while playing Counter Strike. Through Valve Corp.’s Steam platform, players can buy, sell and trade skins, and Valve Corp. takes a 15 percent fee for each skin sale.
But skins, as the plaintiffs tell it, also work like gambling chips. After purchasing skins for real money, players can use those skins to place online bets on professional Counter Strike matches.
Plaintiff G.G. says her son J.P. has lost more than $6,000 in skins since he started buying and gambling them at the age of 14. She alleges J.P. spent hundreds of dollars on skins, only to gamble them away on websites like Wild, Lotto, Big, CSGO Strong, and CSGO Sweep.
G.G. says the money J.P. lost was her own, because she gave J.P. money to purchase skins but had no idea he was using those skins for gambling.
Plaintiff E.B. was playing Steam Marketplace games as early as age 11 and began gambling with skins a couple years later. His mother, plaintiff B.S., says she had no idea E.B. was gambling online and would never have knowingly allowed him to do so. To date, E.B. has allegedly lost more than $3,000.
Plaintiff A.L. says his son C.L. entered the Steam Marketplace at age 14 and started playing Counter Strike about a year later. A.L. says he gave his son money to purchase skins and keys to cases that would provide access to other skins. A.L. says he would never have let C.L. participate in online gambling had he known that was what was going on.
The plaintiffs are proposing to represent a Class consisting of all persons in the U.S. who either purchased skins or are parents of children who purchased skins.
They seek restitution of all money wrongfully obtained by Valve Corp. through the alleged online gambling and a court order barring Valve Corp. from continuing to engage in the unlawful, unfair or deceptive practices complained of. They also seek awards of damages, court costs and attorneys’ fees, with pre- and post-judgment interest.
The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Kim D. Stephens and Jason T. Dennett of Tousley Brain Stephens PLLC, Jasper D. Ward IV, Alex C. Davis and Patrick Walsh of Jones Ward PLC, and Paul C. Whalen of the Law Office of Paul C. Whalen PC.
The Counter Strike Underage Gambling Class Action Lawsuit is G.G., et al. v. Valve Corp., Case No. 2:16-cv-01941, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
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13 thoughts onCounter Strike Class Action Says Teens Lured into Online Gambling
this is the dumbest thing ive ever read….
No its actually really well thought out. And its basically true, anyone under the age of 18 can play counter strike and gamble on cases, then gamble the skins they got on espirst torments and lastly resell the skins for profit on bit skins. After that the prosses repeats. That’s exactly how gambling works.
Right on, Love this comment here. (haha what sore losers they are! lol !!!!)
Classic rich busybody parent shit here. What kind of a parent gives their 12 YEAR OLD kid 6,000$ for in-game cosmetic skins? How do you not start questioning where your preteen child spent the first 1,000 or 5,000? It’s been clarified by Valve that they don’t associate with any gambling sites and the marketplace is merely a tool to facilitate gambling. Also may I remind the super responsible parents that Counter-Strike is ESRB Rated M for mature. As in it is only allowed for persons aged 17 and up, so this is kind of an obvious verdict.
ESRB ratings are an industry adopted measure that have no legal force, at least in the US. It’s not prohibited for a minor to play an M-rated game or for a parent to allow it — the label is there to simply help inform parents and to discourage retailers from selling those games to minors.
And the fact is that CSGO gambling is an unregulated Wild West where underage gambling DOES occur which Valve both facilitates and indirectly profits from. Even if the person filing this claim is a terrible parent, the issue at the heart of the case go beyond the particulars of their case and the personal qualities of those involved. Parents don’t need to be rich or negligent for their kid to take an interest in CSGO gambling to the point where they start spending lunch money and allowance on what turns into a habit.
So as far as I’m concerned this lawsuit is completely appropriate. You have unregulated gambling sites that can easily fly under parental radars because it all looks like more innocuous video game stuff that is opaque to many parents, and it’s only reasonable for Valve to assume at least partial responsibility for the harm that results from the gambling ecosystem whose creation they facilitated.
99% Sure the parents ( with kids convincing) thought they could get rich quick and gave their kids the money. People are saying bad parenting, but I think it’s really them just trying to make some $$$. Then they lost and are now trying sue valve. Did the lawyer not do his homework and read anything about these websites? All of them ARE NOT AFFILIATED WITH VALVE.Valve has nothing to do with gambling so they CANT sue valve. I feel bad for the lawyer and his guaranteed loss. Even if they were to sue the correct company ( the gambling website), there’s no laws in place for these types of situations. Cheers to idiots.
Valve owns Steam, Steam is where the marketplace is. Without the marketplace there is no gambling. The illegal gambling complaint is 100% accurate. Valve even shut down all aspects of gambling about 5 months ago (funny how you said valve has nothing to do with this yet they are clearly at the epicenter of it all). Was this a gambling operation? Yes. Is that illegal? Yes. Guaranteed that she wins this lawsuit.
P.S. Valve is the creator and owner of Counter Strike.
Valve runs their own marketplace, where you can exchange skins for virtual currency that cannot be taken out of the steam platform. They do not set prices or facilitate the pricing of in-game skins, the community does that. You cannot gamble on these websites with steam currency, only with skins, which valve does not officially support the real world sale of. Not to mention that the different plaintiff’s children were 11, and two 14 year olds. The minimum age required to sign up for the steam platform is 13, and csgo is rated M by the ESRB, which will certainly not garner up any credibility for the plaintiffs, for being negligent towards their children and letting them play a game they are underage for.
The bad parenting is definitely there BECAUSE of the lawsuit. They may not have always been incompetent parents, but they have been for while, the lawsuit is the flashing light and siren; a cry for help, professional help. Hopefully this ridiculous lawsuit will be thrown out so the real problem can be addressed, before it’s too late for these three parents to learn even a single parental skill. I only hope I’m wrong, but I fear it’s too late, and these kids, having no knowledge of what it means to be a parent, are thus doomed to repeat the idiocy of they’re own wannabes… the would be parents who wanted Valve to pay, and got burned instead, as any real parent knows, you can’t burn Steam, it burns YOU!
I did not know shitty parenting was a reason to sue people.
lol seriously. These awful parents are just giving their -14 y.o kids access to their money and not even asking where it’s going, then they get mad when it’s all gone? Why are you just giving your kids money for doing nothing in the first place? How dumb can these parents possibly be? They’re about to lose more in legal fees than they are to their kids gambling addictions that they facilitated themselves.
Although I agree with the shitty parenting, as an avid counter strike player with over 3000 hours in the game all of the accusations the plaintiff has made are entirely accurate. She has a winning case.