Valve Responds to Gambling Commission’s Allegations: “We do not ‘facilitate’ gambling”
Valve’s delayed response to the Washington State Gambling Commission’s legal notice puts forth the argument that the game developer is not responsible for unregulated gambling done with it’s in-game items.
TechRaptor’s Robbert Grosso obtained a copy of Valve Corporation’s strongly worded letter sent to the Washington State Gambling Commission in response to the public legal notice concerning the unregulated betting culture that sprung up around in-game items for CS:GO and Dota 2.
In the letter, Valve argued that it does not facilitate nor profit from gambling and that third-party sites are mostly to blame for violating the Steam platform’s terms of service.
“As we have explained on multiple occasions, Valve is not engaged in gambling or the promotion of gambling, and we do not ‘facilitate’ gambling,” the company wrote.
Public outcry
In the same letter, Valve expressed disappointment at the public nature of the commission’s notice, noting that there are “no factual or legal support for these accusations.”
Last October 5, 2016, the Washington Gambling Commission sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Valve Corporation. The statement was posted publicly and compelled the Bellevue-based company to stop all forms of skin betting or risk criminal action. The commission initally gave Valve until October 14 to reply. Valve’s reply came three days later, on October 17.
“We do not understand the legal or factual reasoning supporting this position, from the Commission’s letter or from our conversations with the Commission,” the company wrote. “specific criminal statute or regulation” that it is violating.
“We were surprised and disappointed that the Commission chose to publicly accuse Valve of illegal activity and threaten our employees with criminal charges,” the company wrote. “There is no factual or legal support for these accusations.”
To the detriment of fans
Valve’s letter recognized that the company could technically turn off all skins and in-game item drops, effectively cutting off the lifeblood of the illegal betting communities that have popped up around these titles. But Valve argued that doing so would be to the detriment of their user-base — a vast majority of whom enjoy these features without breaking the law.
Valve then went on to say that the company has done their due diligence in curbing skin gambling. In July, Valve posted a public shutdown notice to all sites who violated the ToS agreement by setting up gambling sites. It later sent cease-and-desist orders to some 40 websites involved in illegal gambling.
The software developer ended its letter with an invitation for collaboration with the gambling commission, saying that the company is more than willing to work together to shut down gambling operators.
“Valve can enforce its user agreements against the Steam accounts of skins gambling sites, where we can identify the site and identify the corresponding account,” the company said. “In fact, we would be happy to cooperate with the Commission, if it is able to identify more skin gambling sites that are illegal in Washington and the Steam accounts through which [they] operate.”
“We welcome the chance for further communication with the Commission, if it would like to clarify the legal allegations against Valve, or alternatively to work with Valve to identify offending Steam accounts of gambling sites,” Valve wrote.
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