Exclusive: Valve Ignored Emails from WA State Gambling Commission, Per Letter

The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive skin gambling controversy is officially the gaming industry's Deflategate. One side is accusing the other of wrong doing, but it doesn't look like either is quite in the right.

In a press release last week, the Washington State Gambling Commission said they sent a cease and desist letter to Valve Corporation regarding the facilitation of online gambling. While the press release was rather vague, and the commission chairman was unable to specifically say what they wanted done, it now appears that Valve spent the better part of eight months stonewalling the Commission.

RELATED: Interview With WA State Gambling Commission On Valve

In the letter sent to Valve, obtained exclusively by GameRevolution, The Washington State Gambling Commission claimed that Valve completely ignored repeated emails requesting more information for eight months before Valve sent the cease and desist letter. Valve's in-house counsel, Liam Lavery, met with the gambling commission in February.

"After this initial meeting with Mr. Lavery," the letter states. "Special Agent (SA) Terry Bach attempted to contact Mr. Lavery later in February and March through email to gather additional information … Mr Lavery never responded to SA Bach's inquiries."

See the letter below:

In fairness, emails from the Washington State Gambling Commission are not subpoenas, and Valve isn't under any legal obligation to respond to request for more information about the Steam platform and its use as a gambling facilitator. However, this flies in the face of Valve's assertions that it's being as cooperative as possible with the gambling commission.

We have reached out to Valve for comment and will update this story if and when they respond. But, then again, it the government couldn't get a response…