Case-Opening Sites Deceive Users, Says Esports Journalist
Gambling skin market sites in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive are deceiving users through biased winrates, fake winners, and heavily-favored sponsors, according to a recent report by veteran esports journalist Richard Lewis.
The introduction of weapon skins in 2013 led to the evolution of a gambling skin market in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Viewers could bet on matches using skins that held virtual and real-world value. However, the skins economy was unregulated, leading to many underage gamblers using the sites.
Related: Valve sends cease and desist letter to 23 skin gambling sites
Valve, the creators of Counter-Strike, took legal action against betting sites in July 2016, leading to their shutdown. But case-opening sites continued to operate. These sites allowed users to deposit money with hopes of getting better skin returns than Valve’s in-game case openings.
A former coder for several case-opening sites has recently made shocking accusations about these sites. The coder revealed to Lewis that the sites engaged in “inherently dishonest and deceptive” business practices.
According to the coder, many of these sites manually control users’ chances of winning big. This means that the winnings can be predetermined by the site itself. Additionally, some sites have a feature called “Rape mode” that guarantees the two cheapest skins from any case every time.
The coder explained, “On the front of the site it says you can win a knife or an expensive item. Meanwhile, the site has it set to zero, so you literally can’t. Every site I’ve worked on does it this way and requests these features.”
Furthermore, the display feed that shows the recently won skins is also deceptive. The coder revealed that some sites intentionally remove the lower value items from the recent wins, giving the illusion that the site only awards premium items.
Content creators on YouTube who sponsor and promote these sites are also allegedly part of the scam. These creators are given favorable winrates and skin values based on their status and the discretion of the site’s back-end administrator. The sites can also manually set up a creator for a win within a specific time frame to deceive their own sponsors.
The sites also employ a tactic called item stocking, which delays users from receiving their winnings. If the payout takes 30 days or more, it’s likely a scam. Time frames between a week and a month are considered legitimate. The coder warned that if the site claims it can’t find the item or it has disappeared, they are lying.
Additionally, the “Provably Fair” algorithm advertised by these sites is allegedly biased towards the site owners and sponsors. Although the weights and chances for different spins are evaluated for fairness, the site can manually manipulate these values and erase any traces over time. The Provably Fair system also cleans itself of records after about two weeks, making it difficult to regulate externally.
Neither Valve nor the YouTube creators have responded to Lewis’ report. However, the implications for the future of case-opening sites in CS:GO could be significant.
Case-opening sites, skins, gambling, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, esports, Richard Lewis, Valve, YouTube, scams