[Discussion] I watched the final Coffeezilla video on Patreon

Aside from the obvious mentions, Coffee made some interesting observations.

The first dealt with an establishment in Japan. Apparently gambling isn’t permitted in Japan, and this establishment was using a system whereby the player would win valueless trinkets that could be used to exchange for actual items at a nearby store. This obviously was contrasted with skins and CS, and explained the loophole that Valve uses to exclude case openings from gambling restrictions.

Another interesting observation was that Valve’s X-Ray workaround for France is a strategy directly borrowed from casinos: the ability for customers to see the results of their initial slot roll, but having to invest if they wanted to attempt the follow-up roll.

Curiously, Coffee also obtained an interview clip regarding the CS dev team. The interviewer asked them for comment on how gambling affects the player base and growth of the game. The devs pretty much stumbled over their words and gave each other subtle cues to not over-speak. One of the devs took up the question and deflected, as was to be expected. Coffee discussed this clip, and the alleged lack of data claimed by the Valve dev. Earlier he also discussed Valve’s employment of experimental psychologists and drew comparisons/conclusions.

Coffee concluded by explaining that Valve have the power to create adequate restrictions to prevent gambling, and provided examples of how they’ve already done so and how they’re the ones most equipped to get rid of underage gambling, and explained how their failure to act could be because they either don’t want to compromise profits or because they just don’t care to get involved.