Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2 are at the center of a proposed bill in the Australian parliament, which would define the titles as gambling and could potentially see them banned from sale in the country.
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Stick to just playing the best FPS games, rather than gambling their cosmetics away.
Senator Xenophon called the games “insidious” and said they’re “morphing into full-on gambling, and that itself is incredibly misleading and deceptive”.
The article notes that Xenophon explained that the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 is “15 years old but may as well be 150 years old in terms of dealing with these issues”, but exactly what changes Xenophon will be spearheading are unclear at this stage.
Children are being groomed for gambling through hugely popular multiplayer first-person shooter games, says an Australian politician.
Senator Xenophon says he’s concerned about “poker machine-type features with spinning wheels” and the way some games offer credits that are linked to gambling sites.
In many online-based video games, players are able to purchase skins – clothing and other decorations for characters – or other decorative items to be used in-game using real-world currency.
ESports gambling has been the subject of intense recent controversy after revelations in the United States that famous gamers known as “streamers” either secretly owned or were being secretly paid to promote betting sites to the online audiences of millions who tune in to watch them play video games.
These skins can then be sold for real money on Steam – the game developer Valve’s in-game marketplace.
Xenophon’s bill hopes to redefine gambling to include such games.
According to the report, the legislation could make it illegal for Valve to solicit payments in exchange for items with different, or random, value.
Senior research fellow with the Australian Gambling Research Centre, Anna Thomas, said the speed and growth of online gambling made it hard for legislators to keep up.
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In June, gaming research firm Eilers & Krejcik Gaming estimated that skin gambling had an annual turnover of around $US 9.74billion, with almost 26 per cent of this sum spent on lottery-style jackpot games.
