{"id":37988,"date":"2016-08-03T13:01:04","date_gmt":"2016-08-03T20:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=37988"},"modified":"2016-10-12T15:28:02","modified_gmt":"2016-10-12T22:28:02","slug":"counter-strike-go-betting-site-to-pursue-gambling-license-as-skins-gambling-seeks-legitimacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/counter-strike-go-betting-site-to-pursue-gambling-license-as-skins-gambling-seeks-legitimacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Counter Strike: GO Betting Site to Pursue Gambling License as Skins Gambling Seeks Legitimacy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"CSGO
CSGO Lounge, the world\u2019s biggest skin-betting site, claims it wants to go legit, having become spooked by Valve\u2019s cease-and-desist letter. (Image: esports-focus.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CSGO Lounge, the largest skin-betting site in the world, has announced it wants to go legit. The site went down for \u201croutine maintenance\u201d around the time that the 10-day ultimatum to cease operations, issued by creator of the game Counter-Strike Global Offensive, Valve, expired, leading to speculation that the site\u2019s operators had pulled the plug.<\/p>\n

Valve<\/a> has moved to shut down the legally gray gambling industry that has grown up around its hit video game, and in particular through the trading of designer in-game weapons, known as \u201cskins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valve introduced the digital artifacts as part of an experiment in creating an in-game economy and permitted their trading via its Steam platform. But their ability to be transferred to third-party sites gave birth to a gambling industry that had operated under the radar of regulators, and of which CSGO Lounge is the market leader.<\/p>\n

The site is estimated to have processed over 90 million skins in the first half of 2016 alone, according to ESportsBettingReport.com.<\/p>\n

CSGO Lounge Statement<\/b><\/h2>\n

Enough was enough for Valve, which has vowed to delete the betting sites\u2019 accounts on the Steam Trading platform, restricting their access to skins.<\/p>\n

CSGO bounced back from its \u201croutine maintenance\u201d with a notice to its customers detailing its intention to acquire a gaming license in order to operate in countries where esports betting is legal.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cStarting from Monday, 1st August 2016, we will start limiting the access to the betting functionality for users visiting us from countries and regions, where online esports betting is forbidden,\u201d it said.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWe will add additional registration and verification process and we require you to comply with our new Terms of Service if you want to keep using our service. We also remind that our service is only for users who are at least 18 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skins have \u201cNo Monetary Value\u201d<\/b><\/h2>\n

Despite now presumably having restricted access to the Steam platform, CSGO Lounge has its own skins trading platform that will remain open for the time being.<\/p>\n

If it is successful in its pursuit of licensing, it looks very much like the site will gravitate towards real-money esports betting.<\/p>\n

CSGO Lounge\u2019s statement also claims that it has always been purely an entertainment site, \u201cwithout any profit interest\u201d and that virtual items in\u00a0CSGO<\/i><\/a>\u00a0\u201chave no monetary value.\u201d<\/p>\n

ESportsBettingReport.com, however, estimates the current average monetary value of a skin is $9.75, although they range in value from one cent to thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CSGO Lounge, the largest skin-betting site in the world, has announced it wants to go legit. The site went down for \u201croutine maintenance\u201d around the time that the 10-day ultimatum to cease operations, issued by creator of the game Counter-Strike Global Offensive, Valve, expired, leading to speculation that the site\u2019s operators had pulled the plug. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":37990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,13,16],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCounter Strike: GO Betting Site to Pursue Gambling License as Skins Gambling Seeks Legitimacy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Counter Strike GO Lounge, the world\u2019s biggest skins gambling site, announced it would apply for a gambling license this week.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/counter-strike-go-betting-site-to-pursue-gambling-license-as-skins-gambling-seeks-legitimacy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Counter Strike: GO Betting Site to Pursue Gambling License as Skins Gambling Seeks Legitimacy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Counter Strike GO Lounge, the world\u2019s biggest skins gambling site, announced it would apply for a gambling license this week.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/counter-strike-go-betting-site-to-pursue-gambling-license-as-skins-gambling-seeks-legitimacy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-08-03T20:01:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-10-12T22:28:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/myRevengeScandal.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1140\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/counter-strike-go-betting-site-to-pursue-gambling-license-as-skins-gambling-seeks-legitimacy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/counter-strike-go-betting-site-to-pursue-gambling-license-as-skins-gambling-seeks-legitimacy\/\",\"name\":\"Counter Strike: GO Betting Site to Pursue Gambling License as Skins Gambling Seeks Legitimacy\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/counter-strike-go-betting-site-to-pursue-gambling-license-as-skins-gambling-seeks-legitimacy\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/counter-strike-go-betting-site-to-pursue-gambling-license-as-skins-gambling-seeks-legitimacy\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/myRevengeScandal.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-03T20:01:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-10-12T22:28:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"Counter Strike GO Lounge, the world\u2019s biggest skins gambling site, announced it would apply for a gambling license this week.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/counter-strike-go-betting-site-to-pursue-gambling-license-as-skins-gambling-seeks-legitimacy\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/counter-strike-go-betting-site-to-pursue-gambling-license-as-skins-gambling-seeks-legitimacy\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/counter-strike-go-betting-site-to-pursue-gambling-license-as-skins-gambling-seeks-legitimacy\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/myRevengeScandal.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/myRevengeScandal.png\",\"width\":1140,\"height\":500,\"caption\":\"CSGO Lounge, the world\u2019s biggest skin-betting site, claims it wants to go legit, having become spooked by Valve\u2019s cease-and-desist letter. 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