Valve Tells Washington State Regulators it Does Not Engage in Gambling

Following a stern warning issued by the Washington State Gaming Commission, game developer Valve, which is based in the state, dismissed the allegations that claim it engages in illegal gambling.

The Washington State Gambling Commission has ordered Bellevue game maker Valve to stop allowing black market online gambling on its respective skins.

“In Washington, and everywhere in the United States, skins betting on sports remains a large, unregulated black market for gambling,” Commissioner Chris Stearns said in a statement. “And that carries great risk for the players who remain wholly unprotected in an unregulated environment.”

Valve responded this week.

From Kotaku:

In a letter sent to the WSGC seen by PC Gamer, Valve states that it does not "facilitate" gambling through Steam, and that "there is no factual or legal support for these accusations".

Valve points out that it does not have relationships with the gambling sites, nor does it promote them. The gambling sites exist by making use of the same information Valve makes available through two steam services that are also used for sites other non-gambling sites.

The gambling sites use Valve's systems that support buying and trading skins, and the OpenID system, which "allows a Steam customer to identify himself on a third-party website by association with his Steam account, without having to give his Steam credentials to the third party site". Two systems Valve has no intention of closing.

"We do not want to turn off the Steam services, described above, that skin gambling sites have taken advantage of," Valve's says. "In-game items, Steam trading, and OpenID have substantial benefits for Steam customers and Steam game-making partners. We do not believe it is the Commission’s intention, nor is it within the Commission's authority, to turn off lawful commercial and communication services that are not directed to gambling in Washington."

- Gilbert Horowitz, Gambling911.com