Counter-Strike 2 and Global Offensive case openings are widely considered to be gambling, as purchasing a key in the hopes of a Covert drop to sell on the marketplace is often likened to inserting a coin in a slot machine in the hopes of winning big at the casino. However, with mounting pressure on loot boxes industry-wide, and amid pushback from the New York City Attorney General in a recent lawsuit, Valve has begun making moves to minimize the gambling of case openings, starting in Germany with the new x-ray scanner.
As outlined in a recent Steam Support blog post, the x-ray scanner allows you to see the contents of a case before buying a key to open it, thus removing the element of risk behind each purchase. However, there's a catch: once the x-ray scanner has been used to look inside a case, "the only way to scan another container is to purchase and claim the previously revealed item."
Scanned containers also lose their value, and cannot be traded or sold on the Steam Community Market.
So, while the x-ray scanner does reduce the gambling element of case openings, you are now forced to...
