Video Games: The Gateway to Gambling

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Gaming and gambling have been linked forever, but now there is gambling within games.

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Valve, the video game publisher behind Counter-Strike, generated $980 million in 2023 by selling loot boxes – mystery boxes that, when opened, payout randomized prizes.

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The prizes are cosmetic, such as a colorful skin for your weapon, but hold a monetary value on secondary marketplaces. In April 2023, a player who won an AK-47 Counter-Strike skin & knife sold it to a Counter-Strike collector for $500,000.

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Young gamers are gambling for a chance to win rare items they can flip for a return.

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While in-game gambling is increasing, the scary thing is gambling activity around gaming is now more prevalent than ever, too:

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• Out of the top 300 Counter-Strike streamers ranked by watch time from January to May 2023, 226 were currently promoting a Counter-Strike gambling website
• Counter-Strike gambling websites generated 47 million visitors in 2023, nearly 2x the number of visitors as Stake, the largest online gambling website

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One way or another, you will be exposed to gambling if you play video games.