New York’s attorney general filed a lawsuit alleging Valve’s loot boxes amount to illegal gambling, targeting both adults and minors who buy keys for real money to open boxes with chance-based, sellable items.

Players purchase keys around $2.49 to open boxes that yield randomly selected items, with rarer items sometimes worth thousands on the Steam Community Market or third-party sites.

The complaint characterizes loot boxes as quintessence gambling and notes Valve lacks a gambling license in New York.

Research cited by the filing links early exposure to gambling to later problem gambling, underscoring concerns about youth involvement.

The suit references a report about a young Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player who developed gambling-like behaviors, highlighting youth exposure risks.

Industry implications include potential effects on the Counter-Strike skins market and Valve’s skin trading economics amid volatility and the system trading lower-quality skins for rare items.

A City University of Hong Kong study is cited to show spending on loot boxes associates with problem gambling tendencies, though it stops short of proving mental health impacts.

The case’s outcome will hinge on New York Supreme Court decisions and how they align or diverge from Austrian rulings on loot boxes.

One game mechanic is likened to a slot machine, featuring a wheel that spins and employs near-miss effects before landing on an item.

The Counter-Strike item market is described as massive—worth billions—highlighting the scale of potential financial impact.

Context includes an Austrian Supreme Court ruling that loot boxes aren’t gambling when skill is involved, noting a large purchase and broader game context matters.

The complaint flags the model’s appeal to children and adolescents as particularly pernicious.