A new Steam update and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive for Dutch and Belgian players have been released. Gamers are not allowed to open loot boxes on their own, but you are welcome to buy their contents in the Steam market.
Recall that in the Netherlands and Belgium, loot boxes are equated to gambling. Valve recently disabled the ability for Dutch players to sell and exchange game items in CS:GO and Dota 2.
But in the new CS update:GO for Dutch players, this opportunity was returned, but it became impossible for them to open loot boxes: “Trading on Steam and using the Steam Market are again allowed for account holders in the Netherlands… Users in the Netherlands and Belgium are prohibited from opening containers,” the update says.
This means that players from these countries will be able to buy items that can be obtained in loot boxes directly from foreign gamers or from fellow citizens who accumulated loot before the ban was imposed. For most skins, direct purchases will become commonplace, but only those who are not at all concerned about the contents of their wallet will be able to get expensive and rare ones.
Loot boxes and skins for weapons in CS:GO
The logic of the authorities is clear here.
By gambling, they mean money bets, the result of which is not obvious. Loot boxes in CS:GO works like this – players buy keys for $ 2 (this is a bet), and in an open container they can wait for both a very cool loot and complete nonsense (this is not an obvious result, simply gambling).
Other Valve games with the loot box system, Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2, have not received similar updates yet.
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