For most players, opening a CS2 case means buying a key and watching the reel spin. In Belgium, the Netherlands and France the rules have been different since 2018 and 2019, because regulators there treated paid loot boxes with tradable contents as gambling. Here is what each regulator found, what Valve changed and when, and what has happened since, including Germany in 2026.
This article reports what regulators, courts and Valve said. It isn't legal advice.
April 2018: two regulators, two reports
The Netherlands. On April 19, 2018, the Netherlands Gaming Authority (Kansspelautoriteit, or KSA) published a study of ten loot boxes. It found that four broke the Betting and Gaming Act, because their contents were decided by chance and the prizes "can be traded outside of the game: the prizes have a market value". Such games of chance can't be offered without a licence, and the law gave no way to license them. The KSA didn't publish the names of the four games, and it told the industry it could take enforcement action from June 20, 2018.
Belgium. A week later, on April 25, the Belgian Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie) published a report requested by justice minister Koen Geens. It examined four games: Overwatch, Star Wars Battlefront II, FIFA 18 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The commission concluded that the paid loot boxes in Overwatch, FIFA 18 and CS:GO met every element of a game of chance under Belgian law: a game, a wager, chance, and a win or loss. Battlefront II passed only because EA had changed its system after launch. The BBC reported that such loot boxes now had to be removed in Belgium.
June and July 2018: Valve's response
Valve's first move was aimed at trading. In June 2018 it switched off trading and Market transfers of CS:GO and Dota 2 items for Dutch accounts. Tweakers reported that Valve's message to users said it had received two letters from the KSA in May, and PC Gamer quoted Valve saying it didn't "understand or agree with" the authority's conclusion.
The lasting fix came in Valve's release notes of July 11, 2018:
- Steam trading and the Steam Community Market were re-enabled for accounts in the Netherlands.
- Customers in the Netherlands and Belgium "will be restricted from opening containers".
In practice, players in both countries could still receive cases, trade them and sell them, but not open them.
September 2019: France gets the X-Ray Scanner
France got a different system. Valve's notes of September 30, 2019 introduced the X-Ray Scanner for users in France:
- Every container has to go into the scanner before you buy a key, and the scanner shows the item inside.
- Scanning uses up the container. You can't scan another one until you have claimed the revealed item, which means buying the key for it.
- Each scanner came preloaded with a one-time, non-tradable P250 | X-Ray, which had to be claimed before the scanner could be used on anything else.
- Players in France can no longer buy containers on the Steam Community Market, though they can still sell them.
The idea is that you always know what you're paying for before you pay. Two days later, on October 2, Valve put the X-Ray P250 Package on sale for everyone and converted the French version of the P250 | X-Ray to Genuine quality. Valve's notes didn't say why France was treated differently.
March 2022: a Dutch court rules on FIFA
Dutch courts later took a narrower view than the KSA. On March 9, 2022, the Council of State (Raad van State), the country's highest administrative court, ruled that the KSA should not have imposed a penalty on EA over FIFA's player packs. The court found that the packs were part of a game of skill rather than a separate game of chance, partly because most packs are earned by playing. The KSA said it would review what the ruling meant for its approach to loot boxes. The case was about FIFA, not about Counter-Strike's cases.
2025 and 2026: terminals and the scanner's return
Two later changes in Valve's notes matter for these countries.
Terminals. CS2's terminals don't use keys; they offer you items from a collection to buy. On September 17, 2025, the day after the first one launched, Valve's notes said "customers in Belgium, Netherlands, and France can now unseal their Sealed Genesis Terminal items". Our Genesis Terminal article explains how terminals work.
Germany and the Netherlands. From March 16, 2026, players in Germany and the Netherlands got an X-Ray Scanner tab in their inventory, and for them "containers can only be opened via X-ray Scanner". As in France, the scanner comes with a non-tradable Genuine P250 | X-Ray that must be claimed first. Keyless containers such as Souvenir Packages can be opened without the scanner. For Dutch players, that replaced the 2018 block with the French model: cases can be opened again, but only after the scanner has shown the item. Belgium wasn't part of the change.
| Country | First change | What Valve's notes say |
|---|---|---|
| Belgium | July 2018 | Containers can't be opened; Genesis Terminal items can be unsealed since September 2025 |
| Netherlands | June 2018 | Since March 16, 2026, containers open only through the X-Ray Scanner |
| France | September 2019 | X-Ray Scanner required; containers can be sold on the Market but not bought there |
| Germany | March 2026 | X-Ray Scanner required, except for keyless containers |
What this means if you trade from these countries
Nothing in Valve's notes stops players in these countries from owning, trading or selling cases, so a case you can't open, or don't want to scan, still has a market. The restrictions apply to opening, and in France to buying containers on the Market.
Outside Europe, the debate has reached the courts too. In February 2026 New York's attorney general sued Valve over CS2's loot boxes; our article on the 2016 skin gambling crackdown covers that case and the earlier fight over third-party sites. For how cases themselves developed, see the history of CS2 weapon cases.
Sources
- Study into loot boxes: a treasure or a burden? — Netherlands Gaming Authority
- Research Report on Loot Boxes — Belgian Gaming Commission
- Release Notes for 7/11/2018 — Counter-Strike blog
- CS:GO players in Belgium and the Netherlands can no longer open loot cases — PC Gamer
- Release Notes for 9/30/2019 — Counter-Strike blog
- Dwangsom onterecht opgelegd: loot boxes in computerspel FIFA22 zijn geen kansspel — Raad van State
- Counter-Strike 2 patches/September 17, 2025 — Counter-Strike Wiki
- Counter-Strike 2 patches/March 16, 2026 — Counter-Strike Wiki
