Valve restricts trade in CS: GO keys because they are used to launder money

[Tomcat]

Valve announced this week that Counter-Strike Global Offensive (CS: GO) loot box keys cannot be traded or sold through the Steam Marketplace. In fact, they can only be used to open cases in the inventory. This restriction applies only to those keys that were purchased in the official store after this change in the rules, keys that were previously in circulation can still be sold and exchanged.

The problem is that over the years, CS: GO keys were real currency, they were sold for real money, cryptocurrency, or other in-game items. But even if you do not take into account the huge market for trading in-game items (which is far from always transparent and legal), there are people who have directly laundered money in this way.

Valve writes that at present, almost all keys in circulation for CS: GO loot boxes are somehow connected with fraudulent operations, and large fraudulent networks have recently been actively laundering their proceeds in this way. For example, criminals use funds stolen from users to buy CS: GO keys and then resell them to their partners. As a result, the money trail is lost in the CS: GO in-game economy, which greatly complicates the work of law enforcement agencies.

The gaming community reacted to Valve's decision with a sharp increase in key prices (see illustration above), however, this is most likely a temporary phenomenon. On specialized trading forums and Reddit (for example, GlobalOffensiveTrade and csgomarketforum) there are already discussions about what will be able to notice keys as currency, and the most obvious solutions are in-game items and TF2 keys, Dota 2 and so on. However, users fear that the next step Valve will prohibit the sale and exchange of these items too (currently many of them are already subject to a seven-day sale ban after purchase). How the market can react to this, and what will then be used as currency, only time will tell.

Let me remind you that money laundering through games and various forms of fraud associated with in-game currencies and items are not news at all. So, back in 2016, Trend Micro presented a report on cybercriminal activity in games through which huge cash flows pass. According to the company, most often attackers used Minecraft, FIFA, World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy, Star Wars Online, GTA 5, Madden NFL, NBA, Diablo and so on for these purposes. Against this background, Valve also repeatedly faced problems, for example, the company was accused of "facilitating" the activities of illegal gambling sites, where the root of the problem was skins for weapons from CS: GO.