Back in the days when Counter-Strike was still new-ish, stuff like spray paints were simply a way to taunt your enemies or to declare your victory, nothing more, nothing less. These days Valve has found a way to make it more attractive by creating skins for guns and sprays that are actually worth quite a bit, unfortunately it seems that it has recently landed them in some hot water.A Counter-Strike player by the name of Michael John McLeod has recently filed a lawsuit against Valve, alleging that the company has knowingly fostered a gambling market through its skins, which led to the creation of trading and gambling markets. While McLeod did not specify how much he is seeking, he is after punitive damages and compensation.
McLeod also quotes a developer from 2014 whose statement basically confirmed that Valve knew about it, but did nothing to stop it. In fact if anything, the company seemed to celebrate its success. According to the employee at that time, “This is not an accident. This is by design. We see more blogs popping up and more and more emails from our players saying, ‘I’m not really sure what happened but I’ve been playing DotA for the last week or two, and I made $100 selling these items that I got.’ This is hugely successful for us.”
It is unclear as to how Valve plans on responding to this lawsuit, but what do you guys think? Does McLeod’s case have any merit?
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