Difference between revisions of "Gambling in Video Games"

Revision as of 20:21, 28 January 2022

A skin for a weapon in CS:GO from win.gg

Gambling has been a popular form of monetary sport for generations. In recent years, it has spread to the monetary side of gaming. Many modern video games have adopted a system where players can acquire cosmetic redesigns for in-game items called “skins.” Often through some form of loot box, players can randomly acquire skins to customize how various items in their chosen game appear. Some games like League of Legends or Valorant offer these skins at a flat price, which players can choose to purchase themselves. ^[1] After acquiring these skins, players can then choose to use these skins instead of the default textures that the game presents to them. How skins can change the appearance of the game can vary from changes in clothing, avatars, and as in popular first-person shooter game Counter-Strike Global Offense, even weapon camouflages. Acquiring these items is typically based on chance, instantiating the system as a form of gambling in modern games.

Virtual Currency and Marketplaces

Along with the rise of skins within game systems, game-centered markets have also been formed to further monetize how players can interact with skins. One of these marketplaces has been the Steam community market. In this marketplace, players can create listings for their cosmetic skins and also buy skins from other players. These transactions create value for each individual skin, often based on their popularity and variety. The values of these skins can range from pennies to thousands of dollars. To guide its own sales, Steam itself takes a 5% commission on every transaction. ^[2] In this form, skins are a form of virtual currency that players collect and exchange with each other.

Beginnings

In 2012, video company Valve introduced skins to their popular titles of Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike Global Offensive. These skins were added in an attempt to increase player engagement, and along with the addition of their community marketplace, they were immensely sought after by a variety of players. In Team Fortress 2, these skins took the form of cosmetic hats and clothing that the characters could wear, and in Counter-Strike Global Offensive, they were brightly colored weapon camouflages. Along with their unique designs that appealed to their player bases, Valve assigned specific rarity values to each skin added into the games. Some of the rarest of these skins were worth upwards of thousands of dollars. ^[3]

A rare cosmetic hat for a playable character in Team Fortress 2 from Rock Paper Shotgun

Loot Boxes

Loot boxes are another form of virtual item that can be opened by players to redeem a random selection of in-game items, which often include skins and other virtual cosmetics. Varying from game to game, these boxes can be opened after retrieving them or by forms of digital keys that players can purchase separately.a ^[4] After unlocking each box, there is a small probability that the player will retrieve a well sought-after rare item. Much similar to more conventional gambling methods, there is a chance that a player may win big or lose out on their investment.

Many games offer these loot boxes as free-to-play rewards for playing the game. However, players can also often purchase these loot boxes with in-game currencies or external funds. On the other hand, if the game requires keys to open the loot boxes, they are typically purchased separately. ^[5] Opening these loot boxes has also become a form of entertainment as well, with content creators uploading videos of themselves opening large amounts of boxes. One of them is YouTuber Prodigy, who opened 12,000 loot boxes from Counter-Strike Global Offensive. ^[6]

Esports Betting

Stemming from the popularity of competitive esports, esports betting became a popular form of digital gambling within video games in 2016. Changes in regulations over recent years have forced many websites to abandon skin gambling directly. ^[7] However, previously, on third-party websites like CS:GO Lounge, players could gamble their virtual skins on the outcomes between teams of professional esports games. ^[8] This brought to light many scandals around esports betting, including the iBUYPOWER match-fixing scandal where players on the team iBUYPOWER purposely lost a match to receive large sums of personal earnings from betting against themselves. ^[9]

Third-party gambling websites

Over the years, third-party gambling websites where players can gamble their in-game skins have also gained popularity among gamers. Players can deposit their skins and choose a variety of casino games to play in an attempt to gain winnings. Some of these games include roulette, coin flip, jackpot, and case opening. These websites gained massive popularity in 2015-2016, as an estimated $2.3 billion was spent on skin betting in 2015 and $5 billion was spent in 2016. ^[10] Controversy surrounding these third-party gambling websites also arose when streamer and former pro player Mohamed "m0E" Assad threatened his gambling website sponsor CS:GO Diamonds that he would expose their malicious fixing of gambling games for marketing and entertainment if he was not properly compensated for his sponsorship. In a separate case, YouTubers "TmarTn" and "ProSyndicate" were also exposed for marketing the gambling website of CSGO Lotto without being transparent of their ownership of the website. ^[11]

Ethical Implications

Underage Gamblings

As these games are marketed to younger generations, both in-game gambling methods like loot boxes as well as other third-party gambling websites bring out ethical concerns about underage gambling. As skins are not considered to be actual money being gambled, there are no government laws in place that prevent younger individuals from partaking in these gambling-like activities. ^[12] Underage minors can freely partake in these gambling activities without a complete understanding of the system. Experts state that this is even more concerning as peer pressure to obtain rare skins may influence younger individuals even more into partaking in these activities. However, over the years, certain measures have been established to control the digital gambling of skins such as blocking certain sites and establishing age requirements. ^[13] However, the presence of loot box gambling still remains prevalent within major games.

References

1. ↑ Stanton, L. (2021, March 23). How to Get Skins in Valorant. Alphr; Alphr. https://www.alphr.com/get-skins-valorant/
2. ↑ Banerjee, S. (2021, April 17). How to Calculate Steam Market Tax on CSGO Items. TalkEsport. https://www.talkesport.com/guides/how-is-the-csgo-steam-tax-calculated/#:~:text=Steam%20takes%20a%205%25%20tax,price%20by%20the%20tax%20instead.
3. ↑ Skin betting and video games. What are they and how does it work. (2019, May 2). Videogames.org.au. https://www.videogames.org.au/skin-betting/
4. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors. (2022, January 12). Loot box. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loot_box
5. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors. (2022, January 12). Loot box. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loot_box
6. ↑ Prodigy. (2021). 12,000x CSGO CASES!? WORLD RECORD OPENING (CRAZY KNIVES) [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvbqhoCQEZ0
7. ↑ Raven, J. (2016, October 4). CS:GO Lounge handled over $1 billion in bets this year. Dot Esports; Dot Esports. https://dotesports.com/counter-strike/news/csgo-lounge-billion-bets-3896
8. ↑ Yin-Poole, W. (2016, August 17). CS:GO Lounge drops skin gambling following Valve crackdown. Eurogamer.net; Eurogamer.net. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-08-17-cs-go-lounge-drops-skin-gambling-following-valve-crackdown
9. ↑ North American match fixing scandal. (2021). Liquipedia Counter-Strike Wiki. https://liquipedia.net/counterstrike/North_American_match_fixing_scandal
10. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors. (2022, January 15). Skin gambling. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_gambling
11. ↑ Leslie, C. (2016, July 26). The CS:GO gambling scandal: Everything you need to know. Dot Esports; Dot Esports. https://dotesports.com/counter-strike/news/csgo-gambling-scandal-explained-3545
12. ↑ Skin betting and video games. What are they and how does it work. (2019, May 2). Videogames.org.au. https://www.videogames.org.au/skin-betting/
13. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors. (2022, January 15). Skin gambling. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_gambling