Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) isn’t new to the gambling market. It has a strong army of followers who join different initiatives related to the game. CS:GO betting has become one of them.
Apart from classic betting, skin betting has become a real deal. The practice has become wildly popular during the formative days of CS:GO’s environment. In 2022, skins remain a big part of the game courtesy. Players can drop onto the Steam Marketplace instead of rolling the dice for the skin betting.
So what is skin betting? Why isn’t it as popular as it used to be?
It’s worth considering CS:GO skin betting, monitoring its historic background, and checking where things stand with it today.
What is Skin Betting?
Skins are virtual items to be accumulated inside a video game to determine weapons or characters. Skins offer a gaming benefit, but most skins are just cosmetic items that customize the character’s look.
A gamer can earn skins to reach new levels. It can buy skins from a store within the game, often by means of loot boxes. Some skins can be hard to get in a game, while others are more common.
Gaming has reached the world’s audience through esports, namely organized competitive video game tournaments that millions of people follow online.
Similar to other sports, people want to wager on the results of these matches. Some people will use real money while others can wager their skins on third-party websites. Other people decide to exchange their skins for cash. Thus, placing a bet with a virtual skin can be similar to betting with actual money.
How to Get Skins?
Skins don’t appear on your account just like that. They must be earned from a rare skin drop or purchased from special websites.
Similar to a classic casino chip, skins are worthless by nature. But they act like value holders. The opportunity to gamble with skins allows players to focus income on esports. Some players don’t invest any initial income but rather let their virtual winnings (skins) appear on their accounts.
Many players use the gambling feature of skins to obtain even more skins. Popular gambling options with skins include roulette, bets on professional matches, and stock market investing. Investments in the stock market can be manipulated. They don’t generate long-term value.
What Happened to CSGO Skin Betting?
Skin betting was incredibly popular. These days, the situation has changed drastically. A number of gambling sites offer action to CS:GO players. Bookies and tournament organizers have decreased the overall value of skins. Thus, things went out of control.
The Gambling Commission wants Valve to terminate the activities of third-party websites associated with skins. Instead, skins can be used through the Steam Platform only. Moreover, third-party websites must be stopped from using their accounts and “bots” to facilitate gambling operations.
Valve has already disabled many tools that kept these websites functioning. Though CS:GO players stats was not technically a skin-betting aspect, it is also caught in the crossfire. This almost totally removed skin betting overnight, with many skin betting resources shutting down or being forced to function in a totally different way.
Is CSGO Skin Betting Still Available?
Skin betting has been demonstrating low potential since 2016. Valve’s shutdown of the tools affected skin betting sites. Some of the sites made simply turned into traditional betting brands. Others became trading hubs for CS:GO skins that used to be available for betting activities.
Betting skins and winning skins are considered to be in the past. There are still a few different ways to use skins from CS:GO, though. Many betting sites still allow players to use CS:GO skins instead of real cash. This usually requires extra effort in using a separate trading hub resource. Instead of being exchanged for real money, the skins are then turned into a currency used on the particular betting site for a wide range of purposes.
Betting skins is definitely a fun form of entertainment. They still exist as a betting tool to a certain degree. But the best and safest way to bet on CS:GO. Doing so with more traditional currency isn’t always effective.
