Valve Opens Up About Gambling and is about to Drop the Ban Hammer

Today, Valve announced that they intend to do something about their relationship with gambling sites. It looks like the API ban hammer is about to start dropping.

Using the OpenID API and making the same web calls as Steam users to run a gambling business is not allowed by our API nor our user agreements. We are going to start sending notices to these sites requesting they cease operations through Steam, and further pursue the matter as necessary.

As previously reported, they may also be facing a class action lawsuit.

A Connecticut resident named Michael John McLeod has recently filed a lawsuit against Valve claiming that the company is guilty of allowing an “illegal online gambling market” to function, and taking a share of the profits for themselves. McLeod states that he purchased skins directly from Valve and lost money gambling with them over the course of a few years.

We will keep you updated as things unfold. I expect to see reports of API bans in the next few days. We’ll have to see if this starts an arms race or stops the gambling.