Valve is now cracking down on Counter Strike and DOTA 2 gambling websites

Reading time icon 2 min. read


Readers help support Windows Report. When you make a purchase using links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Tooltip Icon

Read the affiliate disclosure page to find out how can you help Windows Report effortlessly and without spending any money. Read more

Counter Strike and DOTA are two of the biggest video games available for Windows PC today, so of course, they are not immune to controversy. However, things took a turn for the worst not too long ago after a gambling website, designed with Counter Strike in mind, was caught in a huge scandal.

Apparently, the owners of the website are popular YouTubers who tricked their viewers into thinking they were not the owners. These guys would take to YouTube, showing viewers how much money and other content they were making from the website while not being actual regular users.

This caused a huge storm, and now that storm has transformed into a hurricane because Valve is now cracking down on all gambling websites related to Counter Stroke and DOTA 2.

A cease and desist letter was released to 23 websites by Valve’s General Counsel, Karl Quakenbash. The following is a section of the letter, verified by Kotaku.

“We are aware that you are operating one of the gambling sites listed below. You are using Steam accounts to conduct this business. Your use of Steam is subject to the terms of the Steam Subscriber Agreement (“SSA”). Under the SSA Steam and Steam services are licensed for persona, non-commercial use only. Your commercial use of Steam accounts is unlicensed and in violation of the SSA. You should immediately cease and desist further use of your Steam accounts for any commercial purposes. If you fail to do this within ten (10) days Valve will pursue all available remedies including without limitation terminating your accounts.”

While this can be seen as a good move by Valve, some have viewed it as reactionary. They claim Valve is only acting right now because things have gotten out of hand. One can understand why some folks are not impressed, because these gambling sites have been in operational for a number of years, knowingly to Valve.

If you’re facing issues with Counter Strike Global Offensive on Windows 10, here’s a quick fix.

RELATED STORIES YOU NEED TO CHECK OUT:

More about the topics: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, dota 2, Steam games