In the latest patch to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players from Belgium and the Netherlands are being prevented from even being able to open loot boxes in the game. Valve has made this decision due to the Netherlands legal statues regarding gambling. Valve is also working to comply with the Dutch Gaming Authority. So players in the Netherlands and Belgium “will be restricted from opening containers” following the latest patch.
The “Miscellaneous” section of the patch notes reads:
Updated Steam and CS:GO account restrictions for users in Netherlands and Belgium:
Steam Trading and Steam Market features are now re-enabled for Steam accounts in Netherlands.
Customers in Netherlands and Belgium will be restricted from opening containers.
Disabling loot boxes for these players definitely puts them at a disadvantage, especially considering they will accumulate loot boxes, but not be able to open them.
