New York Sues Valve For Enabling 'Illegal Gambling' With Loot Boxes (arstechnica.com)
(Thursday February 26, 2026 @11:40AM (msmash)
from the drawing-the-line dept.)
- Reference: 0180863566
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/02/26/168257/new-york-sues-valve-for-enabling-illegal-gambling-with-loot-boxes
- Source link: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/02/new-york-sues-valve-for-enabling-illegal-gambling-with-loot-boxes/
New York state has filed a lawsuit against Valve alleging that randomized loot boxes in games like Counter-Strike 2, Team Fortress 2, and Dota 2 [1]amount to a form of unregulated gambling , letting users "pay for the chance to win a rare virtual item of significant monetary value." From a report:
> While many randomized video game loot boxes have drawn attention and regulation from various government bodies in recent years, the New York suit calls out Valve's system specifically for "enabl[ing] users to sell the virtual items they have won, either through its own virtual marketplace, the Steam Community Market, or through third-party marketplaces."
>
> The vast majority of Valve's in-game loot boxes contain skins that can only be resold for a few cents, the suit notes, while the rarest skins can be worth thousands of dollars through marketplaces on and off of Steam. That fits the statutory definition of gambling as "charging an individual for a chance to win something of value based on luck alone," according to the suit.
>
> The Steam Wallet funds that users get through directly reselling skins "have the equivalent purchasing power on the Steam platform as cash," the suit notes. But if a user wants to convert those Steam funds to real cash, they can do so relatively easily by purchasing a Steam Deck and reselling it to any interested party, as an investigator did while preparing the lawsuit.
[1] https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/02/new-york-sues-valve-for-enabling-illegal-gambling-with-loot-boxes/
> While many randomized video game loot boxes have drawn attention and regulation from various government bodies in recent years, the New York suit calls out Valve's system specifically for "enabl[ing] users to sell the virtual items they have won, either through its own virtual marketplace, the Steam Community Market, or through third-party marketplaces."
>
> The vast majority of Valve's in-game loot boxes contain skins that can only be resold for a few cents, the suit notes, while the rarest skins can be worth thousands of dollars through marketplaces on and off of Steam. That fits the statutory definition of gambling as "charging an individual for a chance to win something of value based on luck alone," according to the suit.
>
> The Steam Wallet funds that users get through directly reselling skins "have the equivalent purchasing power on the Steam platform as cash," the suit notes. But if a user wants to convert those Steam funds to real cash, they can do so relatively easily by purchasing a Steam Deck and reselling it to any interested party, as an investigator did while preparing the lawsuit.
[1] https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/02/new-york-sues-valve-for-enabling-illegal-gambling-with-loot-boxes/
Card Games (Score:2)
by Luthair ( 847766 )
Pokemon, Magic and other cards games also use this model.
Oh fuck me (Score:2)
Do something about the predictive markets. It is just as if not more illegal and 10 times the size of any gambling going on with steam. Meanwhile valve has taken several measures to try to stop the gambling but it's not really possible without shutting down how the games trading system works
Re: (Score:2)
Why not both?
Re: (Score:2)
News headlines now declared as random risk and are outlawed. Because, anyone outcome could happen, when a journalist spits out a headline. The journalist is now a "lootbox" of sorts. New York outlaws journalists. (And even commenters, why not.)
Re: (Score:2)
"valve has taken several measures to try to stop the gambling"
yeah, everything except removing the literal gambling mechanics
gaben bought a yacht, his company doesn't have real ethics anymore