On July 20, 2016, Valve sent cease and desist letters to a number of Counter Strike: Global Offensive skin lottery websites. These websites, which include but are not limited to CSGO Lounge, CSGO Lotto, and CSGO Wild, were accused of violating Valves Steam Subscriber Agreement by creating and using Steam accounts for commercial use. The CS:GO sites named by Valve in their letter had ten days to cease commercial activity before Valve would begin pursuing legal action. Readers can refresh themselves on the situation with our articles.
Today, TechRaptor staff were alerted to the fact that CSGO Lounge had posted a notice to their community on their website. In this notice, CSGO Lounge staff denied any wrongdoing on the part of the website, claiming that they did not consider their activities to be illegal as virtual items "[in CS:GO and Dota2] have no monetary value and any community interaction with the virtual items is meant only for entertainment, without any profit interest".
CSGO Lounge staff has said that effective August 1, 2016, the site will limit access to players who reside in countries where online e-sports betting is illegal. They will also be seeking gambling licenses in order to operate in countries where this kind of betting is authorized. Players who live in the affected countries listed in this notice (which includes but is not limited to the United States of America, France, Spain, Ireland, and the United Kingdom) will not be able to place bets until CSGO Lounge updates its Terms of Services, but will be able to withdraw any winnings or deposits that they obtained before this policy went into effect.
While CSGO Lounge updates its Terms of Services and obtains gambling licenses, its non-lottery features such as community trading will remain open. CSGO Lounge promises to keep its community informed on any updates.
At the time of writing this article, there has been no word if other CS:GO gambling websites will also seek to obtain gambling licenses, or will shut down as was the case with CSGO Big after the cease and desist letter from Valve was sent out (as well as CSGO Shuffle, after accusations that a promoter for the website was involved in its ownership).
Stay tuned to TechRaptor for further information on the status of CSGO Lounge, as well as other CS:GO lottery websites.
What are your thoughts on CSGO Lounge seeking gambling licenses? Do you think other CS:GO lottery websites will follow? Let us know in the comment section below.
