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Some Points:

this is the beginning of the end of csgo if lounge will close down.

who will be watching the trash tier 3-4 teams if not people who bet on them?
A LOT of sponsors gonna pull out because drop in viewer numbers gonna be huge.
first pro players of tier3-4 teams gonna lose their salary and their job because of all above.
a lot of casters etc and people that work for companies around csgo gonna lose their job cause all that above.
i really dont believe that people know csgo would be nowhere close to how big it is now without csgolounge. if lounge closes people like sirscoots will realize that just the existence of csgolounge had a 100 times more positive influence than anything what he has done for the game.

7 years ago*

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both links go same place

7 years ago
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7 years ago
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I guess they're gonna have to find jobs that don't rely on illegally ran gambling sites opened to children.
rip this videogame

7 years ago
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I totally agree with all your statement man

7 years ago
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+1 to that, sir! I think tge arguement that people gonna lose their jobs is bullshit.

7 years ago
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I don't know… at least last time I checked, "member of organised criminal group" was not an officially recognised job title. (Although I recall something about Italy wanting to count mob income to their official GDP.)

7 years ago
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Yes, you recalled it right!
And we would even be among the top 3 world economies if we did that!

7 years ago
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Top 3… you'd need to add in Berlusconi's private fortune to reach that, no? :)
(Plus I think you'd drop if China and Russia decided to include illegal income into their official economic strength. :D)

7 years ago
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Although I recall something about Italy wanting to count mob income to their official GDP.

Why not? Aside from the fact that there is no tangible means to track that information I see no reason not to use it... sarcasm laid on thickly

7 years ago
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Wait a second, gambling is not illegal per se (depending on where you live, etc. ). So were those sites actually illegal? I'm not sure..

We have gambling and betting in many other professional sports, for example, so why should one be legal and the other not?

7 years ago
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If the gambling isn't sanctioned, it's illegal to gain proceeds (house cut) from it. Especially if you are utilizing someone else's intellectual property. Not to mention, the process was devoid of any screening of minors.

7 years ago
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Well, but gambling is pretty much legal everywhere in Europe. Lots of different regulations, true, but it's a thing. Why should it be any different with CSGO?

That our friends in the US of A have some fucked up laws in some regards is nothing new..

And I don't know where you see a problem with intellectual property. The skins? (Models, textures, etc). Originally, it is the property of the artists, but they sell their work to Valve, for good money. From now on, it's not much different then Jetons, for example.

Screening of minors is a thing, I'll give you that, but I seriously doubt that this was actually an issue. You just need something to put the blame on, as usual.

7 years ago*
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Following regulations, laws, often a country requires the site to hold a gambling license to allow its citizens to bet on it. I think allowing people under X years to gamble is illegal in the entire civilized world.

Often I checked profiles of people spamming the referral links to these sites and found they are 12, 13 years old.

7 years ago*
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Well, if that is stated on some Steam community profile, it is obviously the truth, right?

7 years ago
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It doesn't really matter if all of them lied. Not verifying users' age by demanding a government-supplied identification paperwork is by itself a reason that a 'real' gambling place can get raided, shutdown and owners prosecuted for so I see no reason for these sites to have some sort of an exception.

7 years ago
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This.

7 years ago
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oh noez, actual jobs, i hope they can deal with that!

7 years ago
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I barely play CS:GO (it is kinda boring, watching more so). So I don't really care.

7 years ago
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it is kinda boring, watching more so

I think this of all gaming. I'll use walkthrough vids from time to time, but I've never been able to understand how things like Twitch even came into existence.

That being said, I think most sports are boring as hell if you are watching them rather than playing them...

7 years ago
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^ This

I dont undertstand how these youtubers get payed for it.
I watched a gameplay video of a game I was interested in, and didnt know who pewdiepie was, after a minute of watching he annoyed the fuk outta me with his constant squeeling (it was a horror game) I turned if off.

Plus I hate hearing someone jabbering on whilst playing.....STFU

7 years ago
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And I don't understand how, for example, Journalists get payed for their crap. I mean, just look at the so called Yellow Press. It's completely laughable. But I guess it's neither your nor my job to decide who gets payed for what..

7 years ago
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As if people aren't allowed to have different preferences and tastes, right?

7 years ago
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7 years ago
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I really like that answer..

7 years ago
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So, why would I care about gambling sites, trash tier teams, casters, etc.? o.O Ok, it's not nice to see people losing their jobs, but still, gambling sites are a plague that needed to get wiped out.

7 years ago
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I think this is a doomsday scenario. Sure, the gambling sites will be shut out, and their sponsorship money will decrease, but I think plenty of viewers will still watch. Most people don't "only" watch because of gambling; for a lot of people, gambling makes it more entertaining, but they'd watch anyway. Only the degenerates will abandon it. So yes, viewership will decrease, but it won't disappear.

There will be less money, and so prize money and sponsorships will decrease, but it'll still exist. Basically, there'll be a market contraction, and there will be some casualties, but the game will keep being played (esports in general is doing quite well). It's not the end of the world. unless you're a gambling site, then it is the end of the world

7 years ago
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+1 If you think people only watch it do bet, you're pretty stupid. Following that logic, the other sports (football, baseball etc) are also only watched by people that bet...

7 years ago
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No, but betting is part of these professional sports, so it is part of the overall equation. You can't just discount that.

7 years ago
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True, but it won't just die when the betting stops...

7 years ago
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Wait... wat? people gambled on this shit? how about any other game if it floats your boat, personally, not a gambler - and glad to see Valve do the responsible thing... But a new web address and a new steam account with a $15 purchase of CS:GO would be all that's needed to start up again.

7 years ago
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Steam API's is updated, you can't just start it all over again, its illegal to use Steam API to run a gambling site now.

You can still do it without the API but hey, Valve is just trying to get clean on this shit

7 years ago
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"Took them long enough."

7 years ago
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^ exactly this.

7 years ago
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i can say just one thing... fuck gambling sites, i really dont care if scamers lose their job, fame etc....

7 years ago
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"Job"...
It's more like they actually have to find a real one now...

7 years ago
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Sounds harsh, but so true. People are trying to do a drama out of anything.

7 years ago
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Yeah, it's like thieves arguing they're innocent after being arrested...
No pity for them!

7 years ago
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Precisely! They knew from the start that this was not "100% legal" (like people who cross the line sometimes say). And now they just want to get the "community" startled.
Ha :) "CS:GO community"

7 years ago
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Whoever wrote that is a drama queen, CS has been a thing long before these bs sites and it will outlive them with ease.

7 years ago
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Not really, I'm into cs go since closed beta, when CSGO had no skins, the game barely had 40k players peak. Skins and trades make this game this huge. betting made this game in top 2.

7 years ago
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CS GO is just the newest iteration of Counter Strike, this won't make or break the series.

7 years ago
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Maybe it did help it grow, but do you honestly believe that the game will die if you can't bet anymore? That's just bullshit. There are so many people playing now that have not even heard about this gambling. The game will keep on going like it is now, maybe a bit less players, but nothing major.

7 years ago
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No, It will drop a good chunk of players and also wont gain as many new people either because the exposure of it will be down a lot. CS:GO Gambling videos on Youtube give it A LOT of exposure to new people. You don't have to believe me but if the sites end up staying down watch the steady decrease of players.

7 years ago
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There are still a ton of people that just play it without even knowing about this gambling thing. The player count might decrease, but the game definitly won't die because of it...

7 years ago
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Seems like i was wrong. Gambling didn't hurt the game :D

2 years ago
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No, you were wrong necroing a 4 yo thread for no reason.

2 years ago
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No big deal :D

2 years ago
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About time

7 years ago
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7 years ago
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I honestly don't get the appeal of the whole competitive scene in games, e-sports and all that, so I don't really care if this has a negative consequence. I find it way more enjoyable to watch someone playing casually and having fun, the whole high stakes thing is kinda boring.
Also, if csgo (or any game for this case) needs to die in order to end with those unregulated gambling sites so be it.

7 years ago
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I gamble on sports but not videogames. I don't really care about this, I rather play csgo then watch it. Betting has been around since the roman times, so I don't really get the commotion about this. Same with prostitution, drugs, etc. to each his own.

7 years ago
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7 years ago
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this is the beginning of the end of csgo if lounge will close down.

CS did just fine before it started having skins that you could gamble with.

7 years ago
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I wouldn't bet on that, honestly..

7 years ago
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CS tournaments, big & small, have been around for a long time now. CS was one of the first really big esport titles, and it was even big enough of a "sport" to get coverage on national TV over here before Steam even existed. It gets even more coverage these days on national TV.

7 years ago
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Yes, it's pretty big right now. But would the growth still be the same without the items (skins), the market, and the the economy that came with it? As far as I remember, that was a big part of the success in the last years. I still recall the old days, I even played the first alpha of CS back then, and I have fond memories of the first big craze, with Beta 5.x I think..
But back then it never was as big as it's today.

7 years ago
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Well, no, it was not as big back then, but it was still really big. There's been one very important development in the last 4 years, and that's dedicated and easy to use streaming websites. Twitch.tv was launched in 2011, but it was not until late 2012 to early 2013 that it really started gaining traction. And this has been a great boon to esports. It's also around this time that we really start seeing the number of CS tournaments explode. I would say that the rise of streaming, rather than betting, is what helped the growth of CSGO, because in 2013 you see a big increase in the number of tournaments. This strong rise also started happening before skins were introduced in CSGO (which happened in late 2013).

7 years ago
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I see what you did there XD

7 years ago
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That's simply not true, it had a average release and it was dropping alot. After skins we're introduced it grew.

7 years ago
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I can only speak from what I've seen, but at least over here, CS was, since it started getting into esport territory (early 2000's) always big enough to get some national media attention during larger tournaments, and being a mainstay during most big computer-game related events (like Dreamhack). It was never not one of the big ones, and the media attention it got was growing, despite there being more competition on the market. I'm not a CS player, I don't even particularly like the game, and even I was aware of the tournaments and some of the bigger teams.

7 years ago
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Yeah it wasn't dead so to say, but it was decreasing. At the beginning of CS:GO there wasn't a competitive mode either, this was also a cause of this. Valve did a good job though with their tournaments and later skins (eventhough they're not needed for me). After the skins were released the game started growing and it didn't stop until a few months ago, since then it has stabilized and I think it has bit decreased the last few months.

7 years ago
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There's hard to find any good metrics on the health of CS, but if you go by the number of major tournaments, it seems CS had a period growth between 2006-2009, stayed roughly the same up until 2012, which was a bad year for CS tournaments, then after that, it looks like the number of major tournaments have just gone up again. It looks like the strong growth in number of major tournaments started before betting became a thing.
If I were to make a guess, and that's what it is, a guess, there's a stronger correlation between the rise of game streaming and ease of access to those and the growth of CSGO tournaments, rather than just gambling. Because there has been a large growth in the number of tournaments since Twitch got big.

Right at the beginning, when CS:GO was released, there was a transitional phase, where people were moving over from CS to CS:GO, and that is where you would expect to see a bit of a slump in the professional scene, as people need to get used to the new game.
The timeline I could find for CS tournaments did by the way not differentiate between the different versions of CS.

7 years ago*
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This isn't true before skins were added to the game the max players was like 50k, now since the skins had been added its 600k+

7 years ago
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That's an interesting interpretation of the data. Yes, it's true that the playerbase before skins was lower than it has been after. But between June & July 2013 we had just under a 33% increase of the players/day, and this was before skins were introduced. Then we had another ~25% in August, which was when skins were introduced, and then there's been a steady growth until August 2015 (with a slump just before it, that can likely be attributed to summer. We see the same thing this year).

You can't just take a data point way back and compare it to now, and not look at the in-between part. Also, did anything else happen that might have influenced the growth? 2013 is the year where the tournament scene was really getting started, and it was also here where streaming got big. There's also a 3rd factor to consider, and that's people moving to CSGO from CS & CS: Source. Both games have seen a steady loss of players. While the change has not been as dramatic as the rise of CSGO, it's entirely possible that at least a portion of the growth comes from people switching game.

7 years ago*
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Around Early 2015. I don't remember the exact date but CSGOJackpot is the site that really started it all with big streamers such as Summit1G streaming it.

7 years ago
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The growth in 2015 just follows the trend of the previous year, up until the mid point of the year, so I would find it really hard to attribute that to any specific new outside source.

And the growth of CSGO stops in 2015, the same year gambling is introduced. Coincidence? ( I think so. There are other factors to consider here, like the available player base, gambling is unlikely to have had any statistically significant impact on it)

7 years ago
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7 years ago*
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Good good, let them panic sell their stuff so i can profit from it ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

7 years ago
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I'm not happy, less people pay me for coding steam bots ;_;

7 years ago
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7 years ago
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7 years ago
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What I think? That it is sad, pathetic, and a little maddening that it took Valve international publicity and a court case to finally crack down on something they have known about for years. But, oh, it earned them money. So it was okay until the media blew it.

As for the game, Counter-Strike was a world-wide phenomena years before most of its current players, 99% of their betters (and most likely a large portion of the posters here) were born. Saying that the removal of betting will kill it it a big fat lie that tries to gamble on the fact that nobody will have the three brain cells to look up the game's history. You know what may die instead? Its market. sadly, there is no chance that it would completely collapse. Would help the game a lot.

7 years ago
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It wont kill it, Major tournaments will stuck to the scene. But random low key leagues that featured not so known teams will die for sure. No one that is a fan of the game wants to watch bad teams compete and even watch it on streaming sites like Dingit or azubu. Those games had around 5k-10k viewers simply because people had put a bet on them.
I'm actually curious to see the viewership on the next major, it'll drop for sure

7 years ago
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Fuck valve.

People will continue to play csgo. Even if it gameplays sucks. And scam or betting sites will follow another path.

7 years ago
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7 years ago
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An "internet friend" of mine left csgo when he lost (almost) all his skins (betting), so no, I guess a lot of people play csgo just for that and tbh I can't understand why.

7 years ago
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Wait till people start going after Valve and CS:GO crates themselves ^_^

7 years ago
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Well it's normal for csgo gambling sites to cry 'cause they get they revenue cut. The game will still be popular as well as skins, all the bullshit and fake gambling will be cut out.

7 years ago
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7 years ago
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Closed 2 years ago by DeltaBladeX.