NY Attorney General sues Valve, names Dota 2, CS2, for “illegal gambling”

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New York Attorney General Letitia James is taking legal action against Valve, claiming the company allows illegal gambling on its platform. The lawsuit also references content creator Ohnepixel and accusations of misleading information.

New York Attorney General Letitia James is taking legal action against Valve, claiming the company allowed illegal gambling to happen through its popular video games, including Dota 2, Counter-Strike 2, and Team Fortress 2. Here’s a summary of the lawsuit and the response from gamers.

AG James says Valve games “resemble a slot machine” in lawsuit

On February 25, 2026, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against Valve after an investigation conducted by her office.

A recent investigation by the Attorney General’s Office revealed that Valve’s games – like Counter-Strike 2, Team Fortress 2, and Dota 2 – allow players to gamble by paying for a chance to win valuable virtual items. The way these items are awarded in Valve’s most popular game is similar to how a slot machine works, featuring a spinning wheel that lands on a random item.

New York State Office of the Attorney General

This likely discusses Counter-Strike 2 and the game’s weapon cases. You’ve probably witnessed people trying to get rare golden weapons, either by opening cases yourself or by watching streamers like Mark “Ohnepixel” Zimmermann. Interestingly, Zimmermann is actually involved in the lawsuit – we’ll cover that in more detail later.

New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing Valve, claiming the company has profited greatly from selling cosmetic items for its games – items that don’t affect gameplay. The lawsuit aims to halt what James considers illegal gambling practices within Valve’s games, and seeks financial penalties and the return of any unfairly earned profits, in addition to a permanent injunction against these practices.

Illegal gambling can be dangerous and lead to serious addiction, particularly among young people. Valve has profited greatly by allowing both adults and children to gamble illegally for valuable virtual items. These features are designed to be addictive and are both harmful and against the law. Therefore, my office is taking legal action against Valve to stop these illegal practices and safeguard the people of New York.

New York Attorney General Letitia James

The lawsuit also asks the court to permanently stop Valve from using features that resemble gambling. Additionally, it requests a penalty of three times the profits Valve made from these features, as allowed under the law.

Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and Team Fortress 2 in the NY lawsuit

These three games were named in the suit, with a particular focus on CS2.

All three games are free to play, with Valve making money through the sale of random in-game cosmetic items. The lawsuit focuses heavily on the actual worth of these items when bought and sold on platforms like the Steam Community Market and other websites.

The report points to research connecting loot boxes to problem gambling, and highlights a serious consequence: the American Psychiatric Association has found that gambling disorder carries a higher suicide risk than any other addiction. (Section 132, page 39)

The research also points out that children and teenagers are particularly vulnerable to the risks associated with loot boxes, and early exposure could increase their chances of developing gambling problems. Interestingly, all three games studied are rated for mature audiences – 17+ by the ESRB, and even 18+ in certain countries.

The lawsuit specifically mentioned a 2017 ESPN article about a young boy who started playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive when he was in middle school.

Community reacts to Valve gambling lawsuit, misleading contexts

The New York State Attorney General’s recent post about Valve on X (formerly Twitter) received a lot of criticism from gamers. Many questioned why Valve was being targeted specifically, pointing out that other game companies use similar, and sometimes worse, practices in their games.

Many of these other titles do not have a marketplace for trading skins from loot boxes, however.

Gamers also reacted negatively to a part of the press release that discussed gun violence in video games.

While this case focuses on illegal gambling, it’s important to recognize that Valve’s promotion of violent and gun-filled games may contribute to the growing problem of gun violence, especially among young players whose brains are still developing and who may become desensitized to serious violence.

New York State Office of the Attorney General

Sharp-eyed players also noticed potentially misleading information within the lawsuit. Specifically, sections 65 and Figure J detail how CS2 cases are similar to slot machines, and mention the “near miss” effect.

The game describes how the spinning wheel can stop right on the icon for the most valuable item – in this instance, gold. Figure J shows a screenshot from the game with the pointer positioned over the blue gun skin.

Looking closely at the top-left corner of Figure J, we’ve found something that isn’t part of the standard CS2 game. It appears to be a screenshot taken from a stream and video by Ohnepixel, originally posted seven months ago, as players have noted.

At the 5:54 mark in the linked video, you can see the same image. In this instance, the spin stopped on the gold section, and the player received a Case Hardened M9 Bayonet knife, which typically sells for around $450 on the Steam Community Market.

These days, video games – especially competitive esports – and betting are increasingly connected. You can now bet on esports matches at many online casinos, and dedicated esports betting websites are becoming more common and influential within the gaming community.

As a fan, I really believe keeping young people safe is the most important thing. But it’s not enough to just say ‘protect the kids!’ We also need to actually understand esports, the games themselves, and everything that’s happening inside them. That way, we can have a really smart and well-rounded approach to keeping everyone safe and having fun.

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2026-02-26 09:12