Valve’s Lionel Hutzes have been summoned to slide down the fireman’s pole and deal with yet more legal wranglings involving the behemoth behind Steam. New York state attorney general Letitia James has filed a lawsuit against the company for allegedly violating gambling laws via the use of loot boxes in games like Counter-Strike 2 and Team Fortress 2.
“Illegal gambling can be harmful and lead to serious addiction problems, especially for our young people,” attorney general James writes in a press release announcing the suit’s filing. “Valve has made billions of dollars by letting children and adults alike illegally gamble for the chance to win valuable virtual prizes. These features are addictive, harmful, and illegal, and my office is suing to stop Valve’s illegal conduct and protect New Yorkers.”
Counter-Strike 2, Team Fortress 2, and Dota 2 are named directly in the release as games which, in the office of the attorney general’s estimation following an investigation, “enable gambling by enticing users to pay for the chance to win a rare virtual item of significant monetary value”.
“In Valve’s most popular game, the process resembles a slot machine, with an animated spinning wheel that eventually rests on a selected item,” the release continues. “The randomly selected virtual items have no in-game functionality but can be sold online for money, with one item reportedly being sold for more than $1 million.”
Counter-Strike gun and knife skins selling for bananas real money sums via third-party marketplaces is specifically mentioned further on, with the attorney general’s office asserting the Valve “facilitates and even assists these third-party marketplaces in their operations”. In addition to emphasising that she sees Valve’s loot boxes of being “especially harmful to children”, James also dips into the very, very, very long-running talking point that is whether games with violent gunning in them are a factor in causing real life violent gunning.
“It is important to note that Valve’s promotion of games that glorify violence and guns helps fuel the dangerous epidemic of gun violence, particularly among young gamers who can become numbed to grave violence before their brains are fully developed,” the attorney general alleges.
Overall, James’ lawsuit seeks to “permanently stop Valve from promoting gambling features in its games, disgorge all ill-gotten gains, and pay fines for violating New York’s laws”.
I’ve reached out to Valve for comment.
The lawyers of the company behind Steam certainly haven’t been allowed to sit around and twiddle their thumbs in recent years. Just last month, a tribunal ruled that a £656 million UK lawsuit accusing them of using Steam’s dominance over the PC market to act “anti-competitively”, resulting in customers being overcharged, will go ahead to the next stages of the legal process.
