Valve Putting the Breaks on TF2 Gambling

A few months back, you might recall there was a lot of people going after CS:GO and it’s underground gambling rings, where people could gamble skins (which have real-world value) over professional and spectated matches. Given that eSports are on the rise, it’s only natural we’d see gambling introduced as a way for fans go add some extra excitement into the mix, but when you’ve got illicit websites that use lies to make money, well… someone has to step in. And step in, Valve did, actually doing something for a change and cracking down on CS:GO gambling accounts to stop their shenanigans.

And now they’re at it again. But this time, not for CS:GO... now, they're cracking down on TF2 gambling accounts. Here’s a short statement they just released, in its entirety:

“In July of last year we outlined our position on gambling web sites, specifically noting that Valve has no business relationship with these sites. At that time we also began blocking many CSGO gambling accounts. You can view the original post here.

More recently, some gambling web sites started leveraging TF2 items. Today we began the process of blocking TF2 gambling accounts as well. We recommend you don’t trade with these sites.”

It seems Valve has started a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to gambling with their games. And I, for one, am actually kind of cool with that. It’s a dangerous practice, and the folks who run these sites don’t have the best reputation.

We’ll have to see if fans ever decide when enough is enough, though. If there’s one thing gamers don’t like, it’s when too many toys are taken away.