Washington state tells Valve to ‘stop facilitating gambling’

The government of the state of Washington isn’t down with gamers gambling virtual items, and it has asked one of the primary companies enabling this practice to do everything it can to stop it.

The Washington State Gambling Commission is telling Valve, the owner and operator of the Steam PC-gaming platform, to “stop facilitating gambling.” In a press release that went out today, the gaming board announced that it has notified Valve that the company needs to cut off any gambling-related transfers of cosmetic weapon skins. Betting these kinds of skins is a popular activity among people who play Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive military online shooter. They use third-party sites to put skins into a collective prize pool as part their ante to take part in matches. The winning team then collects those skins. But since these virtual goods often have real-world value — sometimes ranging in the thousands of dollars — regulators are starting to take notice.