Only Valve? I can name a few more companies.
this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2026
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I seem to remember a company that thought this sort of thing gave users “a sense of pride and accomplishment”
Ah yes, Saudi EAco. Because they weren't scummy enough already.
Maybe since they own Steam, they'd cascade the ruling to games sold on their platform.
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Ok, now sue the Stock Exchange.
Not all gambling is banned, and they are specifically calling out games targeting kids
Ha! All the points to you!!
Meanwhile people are probably betting on if Valve will lose or win this battle.
Hang on a sec I'm just putting some money on "Will NYC sue the stock exhange"... /s
...it's gotten so out of hand.
I am often in the comments of threads like this trying to explain how things people don't fully understand are in fact complicated.
Nope.
Not here.
Sue Valve over this, I hope they lose.
Yeah I dunno if currently existing law is or isn't sufficient to actually render a guilty verdict here...
... but I hope it is.
Lootboxes are bullshit, Valve does a lot of good, but this ain't that.
Stole mom's credit card to buy CS2 gun skins?
Yeah, if you wanna make the argument that a credit card is sufficient to screen if somebody is an adult or not, might be a good idea to, you know, not allow kids to gamble with mom's credit card.
Full NY AG press release:
The actual lawsuit filing:
https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/court-filings/new-york-v-valve-corporation-complaint-2026.pdf
I'm the first guy to go to bat to point out why someone's bullshit issue with valve is bullshit.
But this ain't one of those times. Valve is as guilty as all the others on this. Loot boxes should be illegal. And valve should be ashamed.
On one hand: I just want my Steam Frame so I can put a real, actual computer on my face and escape into it and dev on it, dammit. I bet the gambling allows them to take risks like that.
... On the other hand... illegalizing loot boxes might directly put us on the path to Half-Life 3 or even Left 4 Dead 3? And it's morally upstanding so...
It's actually a bummer that if they lose it'll probably just make them cut access to loot boxes SPECIFICALLY in NYC IP address ranges and nothing else.
Well, if you read the lawsuit, NY is seeking:
-
Well of course, the court to determine Valves lootbox + key paradigm is illegal
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Pay a fine to the state
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Resitution to all NY residents
So, even if it did only apply to NY... you would at least be due to have all your key purchases refunded, as welp as the amount that Valve shaves off of every item transaction in the marketplace.
I am also not so sure that Valve actually makes like, the bulk of their money off of keys and marketplace fees. We don't know, because those numbers are not public, though more will likely come out as a result of this case doing discovery...
But based off of the estimates and info that is out there, my guess would be that key+marketplace txn fees is roughly between 5% and 10% of their yearly revenue.
My guess would be that the vast majority of their money comes from the generally 30% cut they take from 3rd party game sales.
So... I would think the primary problem with getting a Steam Frame is still the... RAM price crisis caused by AI, and more generally, the fact that we're doing the Second Great Depression.
HECK YEAH
I hope Valve loses.
If they called them prediction boxes would it be ok then? Seems to work great for kalshi and other prediction market platforms.
Isn't there gambling everywhere now? (Roblox, sport betting on the Internet, millions of phone apps, blind box subscriptions, Pokemon) Why does it matter with Valve? I'm not supporting crappy loot boxes or gambling, just didn't really get the lawsuit.
So because it's everywhere it's good?
These arguments just maintain the status quo. Yeah its everywhere and it's almost normalized but it's not in anyway a good thing. There should be laws against gambling and especially when you target children.
Pokemon cards is basically lootboxes i think pokemon is more horrendous on that front than the other TGCs, because they refuse to change the pullrates to negate scalpers.
That's the sad thing about trading card games. I think they're neat, and like how the rules and strategy work, but the defining business model of "rarities" and blind packs making it a wallet war seem almost built in to the game itself.
I guess the alternative is simply to have collectible sets with known cards in them maybe? I guess like how miniature warfare games use point-buy systems so you have to weigh which units you want instead of just fielding a ton of the most expensive / powerful ones.
Clearly gambling so good luck NY.
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