CSGO and Dota 2 Lounge close cosmetic betting effective immediately

Of all the gambling sites who received a Cease and Desist letter from Valve, The Lounge was the one who more than likely did not deserve to close down. Unfortunately after the gambling sites were seen as children’s casinos, they were all painted with a broad brush – and the one site who actively aided the growth of eSports fell in the into the crossfire.

The Lounges held onto their dream and continued their operations introducing a change in operations which included certain regions being excluded and a new disclaimer only allowing people over the age of 18. It seemed for a short period of time The Lounge might be able to continue with operations if people adhered to the new rules, but unfortunately yesterday CS:GO Lounge released an a statement saying both Lounges will end their cosmetic skin betting effective immediately.

“Dear Community of csgolounge and dota2lounge,

Today we are announcing that we are closing our virtual items betting functionality with immediate effect. Depositing virtual skins and items in order to place a bet is not possible anymore.

At the moment we are working on a solution for items withdrawal, please stay tuned for an update on this topic.

Lounge will continue as an e-Sports entertainment and information platform with new features to be released very soon.”

This message was sent by Borewik, the founder of CS:GO Lounge and Dota 2 Lounge, on behalf of the entire team. It’s an unfortunate day for eSports, but I don’t think the Lounges will fade away that quickly as they will remain the number one spot for cosmetic trading.

CS:GO Lounge and Virtus.Pro

It’s unclear why this sudden cease of operations occurred, perhaps pressure from Valve was unbearable, or it had to do with the news uncovered by eSports Observer two days ago? On August 15th the rumours that the Parent company of Virtus.Pro had a 90% stake in CS:GO Lounge. ESforce Holding, a company under the Umbrella of Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov’s USM Holding’s, bought a majority share in CS:GO Lounge. The company ESforce also owns the media rights to Natus Vincere, a Ukrainian eSports organization among several other eSports studios, over 180 websites in the CIS region, and a tournament organizer. This leaves the company open to a number of conflicts of interest which may have led to the final decision by CS:GO and Dota 2 Lounge, according to eSports Observer.

Russian Billionaire Alisher Usmanov.

We cannot deny that both Lounges did great work in growing the eSports industry. They brought viewers to smaller regions and boosted international viewership for the bigger ones too. I feel it’s necessary to repeat this when mentioning that this will now cease to exist in the future, and that is a shame.

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Last Updated: August 17, 2016