Last summer, Valve tried to shut down several gambling sites by sending a letter notifying 23 different sites of misuse of the Steam API. The concerned had 10 days to cease their activities before being pursued by Gabe Newell's company. The initiative was hailed by part of the community, but as you know today, gambling is not dead. Sites continue to flourish and create partnerships with youtubers, streamers and even news sites, such as HLTV.org and CSGOfast.
In yesterday's update, amid the various minor bug fixes, we can find an interesting change:
CS: GO items received via an exchange can not be re-exchanged within 7 days.
This update, for the moment exclusive to CS: GO, strongly reduces the impact of the sites of chance and trade. Imagine in a casino where you could not replay your chips won (if you have won) a week later? The addictive aspect is more than reduced, since adrenaline is partly linked to instantaneity. In a post on the CS: GO blog, the parent company of the game explains that with this update, it wants to protect its users from fraudulent exchanges. But with this restriction, Valve seems, without saying so, to try again to put gambling sites to the fine.
"CS: GO items received via an exchange can not be re-exchanged within 7 days.
The latest CS: GO update will change the item exchange aspect negatively.
Valve has already canceled unpopular changes. Send your comments to CSGOTeamFeedback@valvesoftware.com "
The first reactions are already heard. The exchange site OPSkins.com uses its community to send complaints emails to Valve. At the rate of one tweet per hour, OPSkins hopes to convince Valve to reconsider his decision. The youtubers who live through this eco-system also call on their community to help them.
On top of that, Nuke, Dust2 and Canals undergo some changes during this update. Some color changes for Nuke elements and the door has been slightly moved to improve visibility to the tote. On the Dust2 side, the one-way wallbang from the CT spawn to the ledge has been fixed, and finally to Canals, the B-site lobby has been opened up the stairs.