One of Valve's head honchos, Erik Johnson, has publicly condemned sites that allow players to gamble with Steam items.

The controversy surrounding the Counter Strike: Global Offensive betting scene has been steadily gathering momentum over the past week, and has finally provoked a response from the gaming giant.

The storm was first unleashed when two famous YouTubers, Trevor "TmarTn" Martin and Tom "Syndicate" Cassell, were discovered as the owners of a betting site that the pair had been promoting for months. It has been alleged that the pair deliberately withheld this information in order to mislead their audience.

However, they have since denied any wrongdoing and apologised to their 13 million strong audience, whilst also suggesting that their ownership of CS:GO Lotto was not a secret and has long been on public record.

"I love those who are supporting me thru this, but understand those who are upset/hurt," said Martin in a tweet.

This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

As pressure on Cassell and Martin grew, the internet's scrutinising gaze expanded to other YouTubers, as well as the practice of CS:GO gambling itself.

Over $2 billion was made by the Counter Strike item betting industry last year, but there are now extreme concerns about the legitimacy and ethics of such a business.

Some promotional videos which show players winning large amounts of items (worth vast sums) have been revealed to be rigged, with vloggers paid the equivalent of thousands of dollars in valuable items for their participation.

Though such worries about honesty and transparency are only one half of the greater concern. As players on CS:GO betting sites are not risking bets with currency, but in-game items, the practice isn't legally categorised as gambling.

This means that all the regulation surrounding traditional gambling does not apply, allowing those under the age of 18 to participate legally.

This content is imported from Giphy. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Valve is now the subject of a lawsuit in the US which accuses the company of complicity in the facilitation of under-age gambling. Up until now, Gabe et al have remained silent, but in a post on the Steam website, the company has finally responded.

Erik Johnson wrote: "Since [we added trading] a number of gambling sites started leveraging the Steam trading system, and there's been some false assumptions about our involvement with these sites.

"We'd like to clarify that we have no business relationships with any of these sites. We have never received any revenue from them. And Steam does not have a system for turning in-game items into real world currency.

"Using the OpenID API and making the same web calls as Steam users to run a gambling business is not allowed by our API nor our user agreements. We are going to start sending notices to these sites requesting they cease operations through Steam, and further pursue the matter as necessary.

"Users should probably consider this information as they manage their in-game item inventory and trade activity."

This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

The riposte is unequivocal with regards to Valve's stance in the matter, but its claims of non-involvement could run the risk of falling on deaf ears. Said betting sites have been running for years, Valve's own platform has allowed them to integrate for years, and by creating a marketplace where in-game items develop real monetary value, the company has created a pseudo currency which is currently subject to no legal framework.

Critics suggest that the only reason the Steam operator is taking action now is because of an impending class-action lawsuit and an accelerating cycle of negative press. That's before considering whether any federal organisation might take interest in Valve's affairs.

The wording of the statement is clear: "This is gambling, and it stops now." But for an organisation as big as Valve, there are few places to hide from public ire, and even if the company changes the course of its marketplace going forward, it may still find itself in an exceedingly sticky situation.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io