A former coder for online skins betting sites has blown the whistle on scams by “case opening” skins betting sites.
The unidentified coder spoke to eSports journalist Richard Lewis, at RLewisReports.com, on condition of anonymity.
The report focused on case-opening sites that offer a catalog of variously priced virtual cases to choose from. The cases are guaranteed to contain a “skin”—a virtual tool or weapon used in games such as Counter Strike: Global Offensive made by game maker Valve.
The value of these skins has led to betting and gambling operations estimated to be valued at about $5 billion.
Valve has tried to close down skins betting sites, but has not targeted the case-opening sites. The source told Miller that these sites regularly skew win rates, concoct fake winners, and engineer wins for sponsors so that they can be broadcast on YouTube.
The sites also make it so that only the least expensive skins are won by players.
“On the front of the site it says you can win a knife, or an expensive item,” the source told Lewis. “Meanwhile the site has it set to zero so you literally can’t. Every site I’ve worked on does it this way and requests these features.”
The source also told Lewis that he expects case-opening sites won’t last long once word gets out about their practices.
