Valve moves to dismiss New York gambling lawsuit: "People enjoy surprises"

Roughly three months after the initial suit was filed, Valve has filed a memo in support of its motion to dismiss the ongoing case. In the memo, Valve asserts that the suit should be dismissed because its case system does not count as gambling under New York Law. They add that the system used in Counter-Strike is more comparable to collectibles, "from baseball cards to cereal box prizes."

The initial suit was brought forth by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who claimed that Valve's system of unboxing was a form of illegal gambling that had the potential to be harmful for its users, especially younger ones. They argued that because the items could be exchanged for real money and a few items are worth far more than others, the system was comparable to gambling.

While Valve's immediate public response made broad comparisons between their unboxing system and things like baseball card packs, their recent memo goes into far more detail.

Valve argues that a key feature of New York's gambling definition, "A person engages in gambling when he stakes or risks something of value upon the outcome of a contest of chance," is not applicable because cases have no risk. "Every player always receives exactly what he paid for—one skin per mystery box."

Another part of the legal definition involves "understanding that he will receive something of value in the event of a certain outcome." Valve claims that, "while users enjoy and subjectively value skins... they are not 'something of value' as that term is defined."

Valve argues that these differences make their system distinct from gambling, making the lawsuit unjust. As their memo was filed recently, there has been no official response from the office of the New York Attorney General.