In this nascent industry, CSGO Lounge is one of the oldest and most popular, allowing users to bet CS:GO items from their Steam inventories on CS:GO matches in leagues like the ESL and FACEIT. Users can bet up to $300 worth of items on a single match, although secondary Steam accounts can be used to bet beyond that limit. Winnings are based on odds, which change dynamically based on the ratio of bets between teams. “If odds are 75-25, that would mean three people would have had to bet on the 75 percent and one on the 25 percent,” a CSGO Lounge admin told me in 2014.
Anyone with a Steam account can use CSGO Lounge, and per the website’s rules, it’s your responsibility to figure out if that’s legal where you live: “By placing a bet on CSGO Lounge you are confirming that you are in abidance with your country's laws which allow you to participate in skin-betting,” the rules section of the website reads. “This is generally 18 years of age or older, but make sure to check.” If you don’t claim your winnings within 21 days, CSGO Lounge keeps them.
Like nearly all other skin gambling websites, CSGO Lounge uses Steam bot accounts they’ve created to receive bets and distribute winnings. Users receive an invitation to trade items from a Steam account controlled by CSGO Lounge’s automated system, which offers their winnings as a one-sided trade.
