The FTC also updated its social media disclosure guidance as a result of the case. This eventually resulted in a settlement with the FTC, and warnings to over 20 other influencers for similar infringements. There was the infamous case that made mainstream news of influencers Trevor "TmarTn" Martin and Thomas "Syndicate" Cassell advertising a CS:GO gambling site, which it later transpired they were part owners of, by making videos showing off the money they had made gambling, without disclosing their ownership role or the fact they were given free skins to gamble with. "The big turning point was went the first jackpot site turned up-it had nothing to do with CS:GO matches or anything else, just relatively instant gratification with user against user, hoping the site would not steal the better skins in the pot or rig the thing entirely, which of course, was inevitable in an unregulated space."Īs you would expect with a completely unregulated gambling space it created a lot of issues, from match fixing in the pro scene, to underage gambling, scams and money laundering. "Skin gambling started out for some as a relatively innocent way to get rid of cheapo skins by staking them on matches-for others it was a profit-making exercise," says Bardolph. From simply using them to bet on pro matches through to fully fledged casinos and everything you can think of in-between, skin betting became a massive business with some reports stating that billions of dollars worth of skins were going through these unregulated businesses every year. The dark side of the addition of tradable skins to CS:GO was the third party gambling sites that were built on them, cleverly using the Steam API to facilitate trading of skins while bypassing the limitations of the Steam Marketplace. "Skin gambling was a blessing and a curse for CS:GO." MiGHTYMAX (Image credit: Snail Juice) Skin gambling I think the growth of the game would have been massively hurt without the introduction of skins, all you have to do is look at the trend of other games implementing the same or similar cosmetics." "It introduced cosmetics to the game which attracted lots of new players, as well as creating sponsorships for tournaments and teams. "The addition of skins was fundamental to the growth of the game," says Max "MiGHTYMAX" Heath, a pro player for Team Endpoint who has been at the top level for over seven years. Without the money that third party skin trading and gambling sites made through taking commissions on trades, or just being a straight-up casino, as well as the sticker money directly made by pro teams through in game sales, it’s likely the pro scene would be considerably smaller than it is today, as skin-related sites funded a significant amount of teams and tournaments for many years, even to this day, the current number one ranked team in the world, NAVI, are sponsored by trading site CS.Money. Skins allowed the community to be collectors and allowed a form of self-expression we had not seen before."Īs skins grew in popularity an economy grew around trading them and, while there were a lot of issues (more on that soon), the money they brought in helped the game’s pro scene significantly. "Counter-Strike is one of those titles that comes along very few times in a generation that spawns a grassroots community of contributors to the game and has its own culture-the maps people make, the timeless moments the game has made (door stuck, anyone?) and many other things. "The skins ecosystem for CS:GO was very important it set a lot of benchmarks beyond just the game itself for what items can mean to this generation of games, but it also expanded the ecosystem of Counter-Strike for users in a very important way," says James Bardolph, a top CS:GO caster. Over the years to come CS:GO would popularise the practice by showing how skins created their own mini-economy that both brought more eyes to the game and more money to the scene in general. Without them it’s likely the game wouldn’t be anywhere near as popular as it is today, even though skins were nowhere near as prevalent as they are today. The addition of skins a year after CS:GO launched was the most important update the game has ever seen. "Skins allowed the community to be collectors and allowed a form of self-expression we had not seen before." James Bardolph
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