Online gambling and sports betting both have now become the most lucrative businesses for both players and operators hence more and more operators having specialization in one of them are trying to expand their arms to cover the another one and CSGO Lounge is one such sports betting operator who is a well-known name in online betting marketplace but after their name is dragged into illegally using the Valve’s Software API to provide the online gambling services, they decided to apply for the authenticated gambling license. However, they as well never accepted the allegations leveled against them by Valve who reportedly issued a cease and desist letter to CSGO Lounge and other websites, barring them from using Valve’s API within 10 days. In defense of their claim, CSGO Lounge has stated to be complying with gambling laws in various countries by limiting access in places where betting with unlicensed sites is forbidden, which means, they will be officially acquiring the permission from all the gambling operators whose APIs they have recently been using.
Although, they further added to refuse anything wrong in offering virtual items in games CS:GO and Dota2 since they have no monetary value attached and any community interaction with the virtual items “is strictly meant only for entertainment, without any profit interest.” It issued a statement saying, “We have decided to acquire a license to legally operate in most of the countries and be able to accept the esports bets by our community, as if it would be real money.
“After all the recent events around virtual items and the official letter by Valve, which we have received as well, we were left out alone without any additional information or communication by Valve on this matter. We had to make a decision on how to proceed with Lounges as community place and entertainment service. The situation is highly confusing – we are not offering games of luck, we are not offering any transactions with real money or equivalents. Despite those facts, in order to avoid or reduce the confusion, we have decided to acquire a license to legally operate in most of the countries and be able to accept the esports bets by our community, as if it would be real money.”
