Gambling in Video Games

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. 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. 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 designs, 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.