From Loot to Luck: How CS:GO Skin Gambling and In-Game Economies Impact Players

The gaming community over the years has seen a significant transformation, with in-game economies becoming a staple in most games. Players can gamble, sell, and even exchange in-game items, and in most cases, gaming and real-life financial markets have become one and the same.

There is no platform where such is truer than in “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” (CS: GO), whose weapon skins have become a virtual form of currency. Perhaps one of the most disputed aspects of such a virtual economy is gambling with skins, an activity that has seen a multi-billion-dollar economy in a relatively unregulated environment.

The Rise of Virtual Economies in Gaming

Video games have long enjoyed in-game items and tradable, but a full-fledged virtual economy developed in a big way over the past decade. “Dota 2,” “Fortnite,” and “CS: GO” have become a norm for virtual goods such as weapon cosmetics, character cosmetics, and the like, and such virtual goods can be acquired, purchased, and traded and in a couple of cases, become real-money items through player economies.

CS: GO, in particular, included a lucrative economy with a weapon skin theme—cosmetic items that change in-game weapon appearances but not performance. Meant initially for cosmetic use, these skins soon developed high demand, with less frequent and nicer ones having a price range in the thousands of dollars.

This rise in electronic trading has witnessed a heightened development of CS Gambling, through which in-game items are traded and bet for real money on third-party websites. Unlike traditional gaming economies, in which trading and purchases are conducted in an official marketplace, in such a secondary economy, virtual items can be bet in chance games such as roulette, coin tosses, and jackpot bets.

Trading platforms allow in-game items to be exchanged for real money, which has boosted gambling, and with it, ethical and regulative concerns have been generated.

CS: GO Skin Gambling: A New Era of Betting

CS: GO skin gambling is not subjected to conventional gaming supervision, with real-money gambling inserted in a form not regulated by gambling entities. Players can bet their skins through third-party websites and gamble them in a range of games of chance, with an opportunity to win items with a value larger than theirs.

One of the most significant appeals of skin gambling is that, in many eyes, no real money is being bet. Because skins can be earned through in-game activity, trading, or purchases, for many, use in gambling is seen not as a financial gamble but as an integral part of gaming activity. Yet, in that skins can sell for real cash at third-party platforms, in practice, they act as a form of currency, and therefore, skin gambling is not much different from real-money gambling.

The scale of such a marketplace is tremendous. In 2016, ESPN pegged an estimate at roughly $5 billion in skins bet over a single year alone.

Not all such bets, naturally, were placed in actual esports events, but many did go towards unregulated gambling platforms in which players, even underage ones, could bet with no age restrictions and no legal overwatch.

In response to mounting criticism, Valve, a maker of one of the most played games involved, took a stand in 2016 and sent cease-and-desist orders to many such gambling platforms to slow down illicit activity. Yet new platforms have arisen, and it has proven difficult to effectively enact laws in such a virtual marketplace.

Risks and Rewards: The Player Perspective

While some view skin gambling as an exciting and immersive activity for connecting with the economy in CS: GO, its dangers cannot be overlooked. Perhaps one of its largest concerns is its availability to underage participants. Traditional casinos, in contrast, have age restrictions, and one must verify one’s identity to access them, but many gambling websites for skins have no such strong age restrictions, and underage participants can join with little supervision.

A 2017 survey conducted by the Gambling Commission of Great Britain revealed that 11% of 11–16-year-old teens have engaged in any kind of skin gambling and most have been males. In its report, one of its greatest concerns regarding youth gambling is that adolescents, in general, have no full awareness of financial repercussions and, thus, cannot appreciate and comprehend them when gambling. On a similar basis, gambling being included in a social gaming environment can make it even harder for them to identify problem gambling behavior.

The potential for loss of value is yet another important issue. Unlike traditional gambling, in which one simply stands to lose cash, with skin gambling, an illusion of value maintenance through virtual items is produced. With price fluctuations in skins, a valuable one can overnight become valueless, and a player can stand to lose a lot. Compounding these issues is a lack of governance, with a player victimized through a rogue site or a scam having no recourse in terms of laws and legislation.

Despite these concerns, some argue that skin gambling adds an extra layer of excitement to the CS: GO experience. The potential to win rare and valuable skins can make gameplay more engaging, and for some, it is a legitimate way to monetize their in-game assets. However, without clear regulations and safeguards, the risks currently outweigh the rewards for many players.

The integration of gambling and virtual economies in games like CS: GO has seen a new era in gaming arrive. In-game items have become valuable assets with the development of skin gambling, and a new divide between financial speculation and leisure has become indistinguishable.

As a new and exciting source of enjoyment for players, it has also represented enormous peril, most particularly for youth. Regulation remains a key challenge in addressing these concerns. Despite an attempt to shut down illicit gambling activity, the virtual marketplace environment, in constant flux, proves a challenging one for enforcement.

In the future, regulators, developers, and players will have to work together to make virtual economies a healthy and safe part of gaming and not an entrance to financial peril.