How does Skin Gambling Work?

Skin gambling is one of the newest forms of gambling on the market. You may not have heard of it if you’re not involved in the world of esports, but it is certainly growing in popularity, and it provides players with another way to get involved with, and feel attached to competition. So, what is skin gambling, and how does it work?

What is Skin Gambling?

Although skin gambling might have gambling in the title, it’s not the traditional form of gambling that players will be used to. It actually involves players purchasing skins for different video games, and then betting them on the outcome of a competitive game.

A skin is basically a graphical enhancement that can be applied to a game. So, if you’re playing Fortnite for example, you might purchase a skin to make your character look like Sonic the Hedgehog. The skins have different values which makes them desirable to players.

Over time, different skins have had fluctuating prices, which has made them worth significantly more than what was paid for them. This obviously provides players with a lot of reasons to wager skins, and to try and win some of the more valuable choices that are out there.

It is important to understand the difference between skin gambling and loot boxes also. Loot boxes are inside a game, and they can often provide players with different skins. These are a mechanic within the game. While some may claim the morality of loot boxes is negative, it’s still allowed, and it is not an illegal practice. This isn’t always the case with skin gambling.

Can Anyone Gamble with Skins?

To put it simply, yes they can. Skin gambling is generally unregulated, as it’s not a practice that many regulators condone. This does lead to sometimes people who are younger than the standard legal age being able to gamble with skins, which obviously brings up a large amount of problems.

You don’t have to be a contestant in the video game to bet with skins either. So, it means that people who are just viewing, can place these kinds of wagers. It is similar to how regular sports betting works, except with skins instead of real money.

There is just a single territory where skin gambling is regulated. The Isle of Man. While there are a lot of issues surrounding skin gambling, the Isle of Man at least attempts to remove some of the more unsavoury practices, such as children taking part.

However, something else that should be noted, is that the companies that make the skins themselves, also prohibit skin gambling in their terms and conditions. So, if you want to skin gamble, and the skin creators find out about this, there is a chance that the skin could be removed from your possession. This is obviously a large risk to take, as it could ensure that you lose the skin regardless of the result of the match you have wagered on.

Is Skin Gambling Lucrative?

The main reason that people take part in skin gambling, is because some skins can be very valuable. Over the years, both Counter Strike:GO and Fortnite have had skins that have increased in value significantly. It means that betting on these skins can actually award players with some big prizes.

However, part of the issue surrounding this, is that the value of skins is extremely volatile. Obviously, regular currency is also volatile, but it’s nothing compared to the volatility of skins. It means that the risk included here is a lot higher than with standard betting.

On top of that, skin gambling also provides a disconnect with value. Players often forget just how much has been spent on a skin, so it doesn’t truly register just how much money has been spent on the skins.

This disconnect can sometimes cause people to wager more than they want, and to wager for longer as well. As such, it has the potential to create much more harmful gambling problems than standard gambling.