ESports Gambling Site Has Taken $13.2m in July Bets

The fastest-growing form of online gambling is betting on professional video gaming. And the CSGOLounge has become the poster child for this era since they’ve taken over $13.2 million worth of bets in July.

This news comes shortly after Valve, developer of Counter Strike: Global Offense (CSGO), announced its commitment to curbing video game gambling.

Despite making this announcement in the middle of July, CSGOlounge – the world’s biggest eSports gambling hub – has been just as successful as ever. But gambling monitor Genius Sports does report that the average amount of money wagered per game has dropped by 25 percent.

According to Bloomberg, Valve sent a cease-and-desist letter to all sites that are violating CSGO’s of service by facilitating gambling. The letter states that these betting hubs must stop promoting CSGO gambling by today, July 29.

Unregulated video game betting has drawn an estimated $7.4 billion in wagers this year. Eilers & Krejcik Gaming reports that this is 12 times as much as eSports gambling at regulated sportsbooks.

While there are other sites besides CSGOLounge in operation, others have shut down or are in the process of trying to change. CSGOCasino and CSGOFast have closed, but CSGOBig and CSGOCrash will remain open until their operation meets Valve’s .

Aside from Valve, popular streaming sites have been working to stop video game betting. Twitch banned “PhantomL0rd,” one of the world’s biggest CSGO gamblers. PhantomL0rd has amassed over 1.4 Twitch followers, but it’s unclear if he’ll ever be reinstated.

Valve and Twitch have received increased pressure to moderate video game gambling, given how many teens are betting on the activity.

Gamblers wager with “skins” – virtual items that can be earned through CSGO or purchased through an online marketplace like Steam. Players can then trade skins to other sites to bet them on online casino games, or trade them for cash.

Valve was silent on CSGO betting, until July 13, when they released the aforementioned statement. Less than a week later, Valve’s lawyers sent the cease-and-desist letters to 23 sites about and conditions being violated.

Valve has plenty of motivation to act now since they’re dealing with two potential class-action lawsuits leveled by people who’ve lost money gambling with skins. Valve’s argument is that they have no business relationship with the sites that use their software for gambling.

Amazon’s Twitch is also distancing itself from third-party online gambling sites. The network announced that people can’t promote or play on the skins sites through their services. PhantomL0rd is one of the first causalities of this renewed effort to stop video game gambling through Twitch.