CSGOLounge and Dota2Lounge Offer Refund Program Following Scandal

Some site users of eSports gaming sites CSGOLounge and Dota2Lounge were to receive a refund following a scandal that rocked the industry this past summer. 

Both companies were involved in a scandal wherby popular YouTubers failed to disclose their ties to an online gambling site.  Valve is the company responsible for the development of the popular video game Counterstrike: Global Offensive.  It demanded the companies stop offering online gambling through the trade of virtual items.  Both complied this past summer.

SBC provided a glimpse into the company structures Tuesday:

Robert Borewik is the founder whilst ESForce Holding is an investor which came in last spring. Each of the sites allowed the trading and gambling of in-game items, and ESForce Holding is said to own as much as 90% of the company behind CSGOLounge.

Alisher Usmanov is the man behind ESForce Holding which is but one of his vast umbrella of companies. According to a Forbes report in 2015 Usmanov is the wealthiest man in Russia and the 58th richest in the world with a wealth estimated at $14.7bn (£11.9bn).

A statement on the site claimed that some affected players would be paid in the coming weeks, noting that CSGOLounge and Dota2Lounge ‘never had any tools for money input and output and never made profit as a betting platform’.

“The only way to receive income was advertising. In the summer of 2016, after our Steam bots had been hacked, our platforms had to implement a small fee for a 3 month period in order to defend our bots and recover lost items. After Valve had banned our bots with in-game items which belonged to the CSGOLounge and DOTA2Lounge users, ESforce and Borewik made a decision to refund the items with their own means.”

Borewik and those behind the Lounges sites have always maintained that they are ‘entertainment platforms’ and have not profited from any gambling.