Counter-Strike 2 and Global Offensive case openings are widely considered to be gambling, as purchasing a key in the hopes of a Covert drop to sell on the marketplace is often likened to inserting a coin in a slot machine in the hopes of winning big at the casino. However, with mounting pressure on loot boxes industry-wide, and amid pushback from the New York City Attorney General in a recent lawsuit, Valve has begun making moves to minimize the gambling of case openings, starting in Germany with the new x-ray scanner.
As outlined in a recent Steam Support blog post, the x-ray scanner allows you to see the contents of a case before buying a key to open it, thus removing the element of risk behind each purchase. However, there’s a catch: once the x-ray scanner has been used to look inside a case, “the only way to scan another container is to purchase and claim the previously revealed item.”
Scanned containers also lose their value, and cannot be traded or sold on the Steam Community Market.
So, while the x-ray scanner does reduce the gambling element of case openings, you are now forced to potentially spend more on a cheap skin than if you were to buy them outright, just to continue opening containers. For instance, in a video shared to X by skin trading marketplace CS2 white.market, it scanned a container and found a Scar-20 Poultrygeist inside, which is worth roughly $0.63 USD; to continue opening more cases, they would have to spend $2.15 on a Dreams & Nightmares key, costing them an additional $1.50.
Is Valve Putting An End To CS2 Gambling, Or Is This Just A Loophole?
It’s less of a solution and more of a loophole around gambling legislation, since you know what you’re paying for when using the x-ray scanner, whereas before, it was entirely up to chance. But in actuality, nothing is changing with case openings in Germany, as you still must lose money to continue using the sytem, digging a deeper hole with every Consumer Grade skin in the hopes of eventually landing Covert and Contraband skins.
Right now, it’s unclear if Valve plans to roll the x-ray scanner out elsewhere, or if it will remain limited to Germany. However, between this new mechanic and the controversial Trade-Up system introduced last year, which crashed the economy overnight, it’s clear that — even if this is a loophole, rather than a solution — the pressure is on to reduce the gambling elements in the CS2 marketplace.
- Released
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September 27, 2023
- ESRB
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m
- Engine
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Source 2 Engine
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer
