Image courtesy of Helena Kristiansson/ESL Flickr
With the CS:GO betting giant's betting platform gone, what does the future of professional CS:GO hold??
As with all other betting websites since the TmarTn scandal, CS:GO Lounge has announced their betting service will *partially* go down. While their website won't be going 100% offline, their betting service will be going offline for all of the major world countries.
In the official statement on their website, Lounge have stated that "Starting from Monday, 1st August 2016, [they] will start limiting the access to the betting functionality for users visiting us from countries and regions, where online esports betting is forbidden. We will add additional registration and verification process and we require you to comply with our new Terms of Service if you want to keep using our service. We also remind that our service is only for users who are at least 18 years old."
Presumably the "additional registration and verification process" wil be a means of preventing users from using VPNs to make it seem as if they were in a different country. This could very well mean that the viewership for Valve-sponsored professional events will take a significant plunge. Could this mean the end of professional CS:GO? Probably not, but it will certainly never be the same.
People from the following countries and regions will not be able to use the betting feature, but will still be able to withdraw their previous winnings and deposits before the 10 days deadline given by Valve: Belgium, France, French Guiana, Guernsey, Gibraltar, Ireland, Isle of Man, Jersey, Martinique, French Polynesia, Reunion, Mayotte, Turkey, Spain, Scotland, Israel, United Kingdom and United States.
