CS:GO Update Prevents Opening Loot Boxes in the Netherlands and Belgium

Opening Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s loot boxes in the Netherlands and Belgium is no [...]

By Tanner Dedmon

Opening Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's loot boxes in the Netherlands and Belgium is no longer possible after the game's latest patch restricted access to the feature.

Legislation against the randomized items that loot box opponents call predatory have been going on for some time now with Belgium declaring back in April that loot boxes were officially categorized as a form of gambling. This ruling led to the loot boxes being deemed illegal with three games in particular – Overwatch, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and FIFA 18 – found to be in violation of the law.

Days before that, Netherlands officials took similar actions against loot boxes while examining 10 games and ruling that four of them were in violation of the country's gambling laws. CS:GO wasn't among the ones listed at the time, but the loot box pushback now affects the tactical shooter as well with the game's latest patch notes adding that the loot boxes can no longer be opened by players in those countries.

The full patch notes can be seen below to take in everything that's changed in the CS:GO update with the note about the loot box restrictions listed under the "miscellaneous" section.

[PANORAMA]

  • Users on Linux and OSX can now also opt in to Panorama UI by adding "-panorama" to their launch options.
  • Adding broadcast stream panel for CS:GO Minors and Majors in the main menu.
  • Adding link to Steam Market for items in containers.
  • Added ability to use gift packages.
  • End of match scoreboard now reveals other players' skill groups.
  • End of match scoreboard now has Wingman skill group models in personal skill group display
  • Dead players are more distinct from living ones on the scoreboard.
  • Scoreboard now has per-player voice volume control.
  • End of match mouse control is delayed to avoid clicking out of window and losing focus.
  • Adding ability to enter numerical values for certain settings.
  • Updated grenade icon size
  • Fixed not showing all grenades owned by a player in their overhead UI during freezetime.
  • Fixed friendly decoys showing up on the radar with an odd color and a random number/letter.
  • Fixed friendly decoys showing up as enemy ghosts when they detonated.
  • Fixed wiggly countdown timer while defusing bomb
  • Fixed an issue that caused death notices to attempt to translate player names

[GAMEPLAY]

  • The functional change to the decoy that shipped with the last update will not be reverted: from here on decoys will be radar-visible by the team that threw it and not radar-visible to the enemy team.

[MISC]

  • Updated Steam and CS:GO account restrictions for users in Netherlands and Belgium:
  • Steam Trading and Steam Market features are now re-enabled for Steam accounts in Netherlands.
  • Customers in Netherlands and Belgium will be restricted from opening containers.
  • Various crash fixes
  • Fixed a regression in reliable avatars for tournament game servers.
  • Set max value for the zoom_sensitivity_ratio_mouse slider to 1.5 in the options screen.
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