My thoughts on the Valve vs. NYS lawsuit regarding unregulated gambling:
1.) Ignore the fear-mongering. In uncertain situations such as these, people will put themselves first (i.e., by pursuing views on Twitter) rather than the community (i.e., by fostering real discussion / facts). There is no point in listening nor engaging with these people. As I will mention later, I believe Valve will lose this lawsuit. Although I am not a lawyer, if this goes through trial and sets a precedent for other states, and then maybe even other countries, that "snowball effect" legal action will have a very long time frame. Valve has already been shifting away from cases in preparation for these inevitable issues—via the introduction of the Terminals and the Trade-Up update—and I believe they will have plenty of time to complete that shift in a manner that is well-planned and does not ruin the skin economy.
2.) This lawsuit is a positive good, and long overdue. As cited in the lawsuit via the American Psychiatric Association, "gambling disorder has been shown to carry the highest suicide risk out of any other... disorder. 1 in 2 gamblers [engage] in suicidal thoughts and 1 in 5 gamblers [attempt] suicide." We can clearly see the rampant issue of gambling addiction within our (the CS2) community, and I'm glad to see it being addressed legally. It's terrifying, and I'm surprised to see more people siding with Valve here than not.
3.) I am quite certain that NYS will win this lawsuit. The lawsuit hinges on the claim that items such as CS2 skins have real world value, and therefore opening cases is irrefutably a form of gambling within NYS. The only pathway that Valve could take to deny this claim in trial (if we get there) is to make their own claim that they don't place any value on those items themselves, and per their SSA actually prohibit off-platform sales. However, the internal E-Mails referenced within this lawsuit are extremely damning, as Valve employees referred to third-party marketplaces as "cash out services" and "real money out sites", and also un-banned or prevented the ban of accounts owned by these sites, and even helped CSFloat rebrand from CSGOFloat.
I don't know what will happen with this lawsuit, or what will come out of it. I do know that it is 100% justified, and that Valve has seen this coming (and deserved it) for a while now.
BREAKING: New York State Attorney General is suing Valve for promoting illegal gambling through video games