How long before money launderers pick another virtual currency and the cycle begins anew?
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CS:GO container keys can no longer be resold because they were being used for money laundering
- Thread starter Gentlemen
- Start date
How long before money launderers pick another virtual currency and the cycle begins anew?
yeah this seems years too late
wonder if some government started to give them shit for it
OP
OP
this reeks of an attempt to appease government (likely european) regulators on the matter, while doing the absolute bare minimum since it only affects one game.
If anything it's not Governments but the Credit Card and Payment Processor companies.
This was a similar line of reasoning to why Jagex had killed non-equivalent exchange trading (according to Grand Exchange values) in Runescape back in the day - A significant amount of Runescape RMT was being ran with stolen credit cards that were prone to Chargebacks (Either on the buyer's side or the seller's side to fund their subs) and when the Card Companies and Payment Processors caught wind they gave Jagex the ultimatum of "Fixing It" or they'd cut off service to Jagex.
That's what I bet happened here. Some payment-processors are putting the screws to Valve and they chose not risking the loss of a Payment Processor over the Player Economy, just like Jagex had to a decade ago.
This was a similar line of reasoning to why Jagex had killed non-equivalent exchange trading (according to Grand Exchange values) in Runescape back in the day - A significant amount of Runescape RMT was being ran with stolen credit cards that were prone to Chargebacks (Either on the buyer's side or the seller's side to fund their subs) and when the Card Companies and Payment Processors caught wind they gave Jagex the ultimatum of "Fixing It" or they'd cut off service to Jagex.
That's what I bet happened here. Some payment-processors are putting the screws to Valve and they chose not risking the loss of a Payment Processor over the Player Economy, just like Jagex had to a decade ago.
Given events worldwide, going after lowhanging fruit like this to stop the practice seems a slam dunk.
Governments do get quite upset over money laundering but the post about payment processors sounds pretty credible too. Could be either (or both).
Surprised that game currencies are being used, I'd assumed most illegal money flows would have switched to bitcoin. Maybe it's still too illiquid for cashing out big sums easily ).
Surprised that game currencies are being used, I'd assumed most illegal money flows would have switched to bitcoin. Maybe it's still too illiquid for cashing out big sums easily ).
Every bitcoin transaction is public, that's how crypto works. It's not impossible to track a transaction through various wallets, even if it is split up. It might be even easier for government agencies to track cryptocurrency than it is to track game currencies, given their resources.
I'm a bit ignorant of what the market is used for beyond money laundering. Is this suggesting people buy keys in their region, flip them to higher priced regions and use the profits as a way in order to effectively buy games at a more affordable rate? I'm aware more and more publishers are ignoring regional pricing guidelines.
No, that cannot be done anymore. Keys are region locked now but there are some region free - ROW keys but they are expensive.
Basically people in other countries buy off csgo case keys with real money and trade them with online traders for Digital PC game codes. The number of case keys required to trade in, is calculated in accordance to the key price rate at that point in time.
They basically perfected the art of lootboxes and pioneered them, but then ended up getting away with it without much bad PR.
Always amazes me how people ignore Valve's disgusting MTX policies with this, Dota and TF
Considering they effectively removed lootboxes in Rocket League and Fortnite StW, I doubt it.
Valve's response to upcoming legislation was fucking laughable, and their practices are still fucking scummy.
Good headline
I wonder if any terror cells are using some obscure game's voice chat to communicate lol
I wonder if any terror cells are using some obscure game's voice chat to communicate lol
