The war on digital gambling has skyrocketed these past few years, and it is starting to become really bad. CS: GO and Dota 2 players from the Netherlands will no longer be able to trade items from these games for certain reasons, most notably because the Dutch Gaming Authority can prosecute Valve if the trading system remains unchanged. This is all connected to the global war on loot boxes that have been a problem in gaming for a while now. But this is an extreme move by the Dutch Gaming Authority, and it doesn’t seem like it’s a good one.
In a PCGamesN article, we found out that the Dutch Kansspelautoriteit sent two letters to Valve that basically said that they need to do something with the trading system in Dota 2 and CS: GO, as they supposedly contain loot boxes which go against the Dutch Betting and Gaming Act. The Dutch Gaming Authority says
“Loot boxes contravene the law if the in-game goods from the loot boxes are transferable. Loot boxes do not contravene the law if the in-game goods from the loot boxes are not transferable.”
This basically means that if you’re able to trade anything with other players, it is a bad thing. Naturally, CS: GO and Dota 2 both have a system where you can get cosmetic items, and you can trade them with other players. Valve was forced to stop trading in the Netherlands, because if they didn’t, they would get prosecuted.
