Valve has moved to dismiss the New York Attorney General’s lawsuit against the company, which claims loot boxes in its games such as Counter-Strike 2 promote illegal gambling and threaten to addict children.
I’m not a CS player but the lawsuit says that Valve charges money for keys to open the boxes, what’s in the boxes has monetary value, and the reason the items have value is because Valve allows them to be bought and sold. These three facts together constitute an illegal gambling scheme.
You could contrast this with the fact that Rocket League no longer charges for keys to open their loot drops and their items can no longer be traded.
Prize – Something of value is awarded
Chance – Winners are chosen randomly
Consideration – Entry requires payment or significant effort
Removing consideration (and clearly disclosing a free AMOE) keeps your sweepstakes on the right side of the law.
Now before you say “but how is this different from magic cards”, the fact that the only thing that WOTC or Topps or Nintendo are offering you is purchasing their cards to either play the game or commemorate your favorite players. You get the physical cards that you paid for with no further value.
I’m not a CS player but the lawsuit says that Valve charges money for keys to open the boxes, what’s in the boxes has monetary value, and the reason the items have value is because Valve allows them to be bought and sold. These three facts together constitute an illegal gambling scheme.
You could contrast this with the fact that Rocket League no longer charges for keys to open their loot drops and their items can no longer be traded.
I found a website that spells it out quite clearly: https://ussweeps.com/about-us/blog/articles/no-purchase-necessary-sweepstakes-guide/
A sweepstakes becomes an illegal lottery when all three of the following elements are present:
Removing consideration (and clearly disclosing a free AMOE) keeps your sweepstakes on the right side of the law.
Now before you say “but how is this different from magic cards”, the fact that the only thing that WOTC or Topps or Nintendo are offering you is purchasing their cards to either play the game or commemorate your favorite players. You get the physical cards that you paid for with no further value.