Why the CS:GO skin exchange market is ruining people's lives

Counter Strike: Global Offensive is a game that has been around for a few years and just recently, with the surge of the eSports community, has blown up and has become very popular for many gamers. In the game, there are unique weapon camos that can be acquired through the market, by opening crates, or by getting random drops in-game. These camos, which are largely referred to as "skins," are very popular throughout the game and many people have spent large amounts of money on certain skins. In the past year or so, many "skin-betting" websites have come to the forefront of the CS:GO world. These sites are basically gambling: users take their own skins, worth a certain dollar value, and they gamble them against other users in hopes of winning large pots of skins. In a very large string of recent discoveries, it has been announced that many popular streamers and YouTubers, including the likes of PhantomLord, TmarTn, ProSyndicate, and many others have owned these gambling websites and have been betting skins that the website has taken for tax revenue and using them to bet on their own website. Also, in a video released on July 16 by CS:GO journalist Richard Lewis, we have learned through leaked skype chat logs that PhantomLord has been talking with the coder of his website CSGOshuffle.com to ask for the percentages of the games, and he is using this information to guarantee a win for himself and scamming the people he's playing against. Valve has now sent out a notice saying all of these gambling sites must be shut down and no further games shall be played. There is now legitimate proof of very popular entertainers on the Internet using their platform to advertise their own website and then asking for the winning percentages to guarantee themselves a win. This community is largely immoral and these betting websites must be stopped. It is a shame to see these popular entertainers scam their own audiences who helped them get to where they are today.