The ” Anti-Terrorism Elite ” boxing mechanism has been widely perceived as a gambling act, and as industry pressure on trophies has increased, as well as recent lawsuits in New York State, V has had to consider increasing the transparency of trophies. On 7 March, the V Society announced that it would launch an update of its policy for the German Anti-Terrorism Elite 2 player. Steam’s official blog announced that it would add “X-ray scanning” to CS2. This function allows the player to view all the items in the trophies before the key is opened, thereby eliminating the risk under the traditional blind box model, in compliance with German national trophies and youth protection regulations. The policy is limited to regional accounts in Germany and is not affected elsewhere.
However, this is also problematic. According to Steam’s official announcement, trophy boxes will lose their trade value after being scanned and cannot be traded on the Steam market. It is also not possible to view the contents of other boxes using scanning until the player has purchased the scanned trophies. This means that, while there is an additional option, the need to keep the box open is inevitable and not inherently different from the traditional draw-card mechanism. Thus, while it is true that the scanning function reduces the gambling component of the box opening, users may now be forced to spend more on a cheap prop than on a direct purchase. CS2 skin trading platform shows that Scar-20 skin valued at approximately $0.63 was found after scanning a box; to continue to open more boxes, the player had to purchase the key at $2.15, resulting in an additional loss of $1.50. Rather than a solution, it was to circumvent the loopholes in gambling regulations. When using the scan, the user knows what he/she bought, whereas previously it was completely random. In practice, however, the German boxing mechanism has not changed, as users still need to lose money to continue using the function and may get deeper and deeper in order to obtain hidden money or thin skin. In fact, such a scanning system was introduced in France as early as 2019, when the announcement was similarly described.
This time in Germany, it was linked to the country ‘ s increasingly stringent juvenile protection legislation. Since 2023, Germany has included the payment of digital content and the element of a card for age review and additional information. In November 2025, the Federal Senate of Germany adopted a resolution requiring the Federal Government to strengthen the regulation and age verification of trophies.
In addition, Stefanie Hubig, Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection of Germany, issued a statement on 10 February, “Internet Safety Day”, stating that the “trophysics box” in the game was at risk of addiction and should not appear in games for young people, even when it was for adults. The roll-out of the CS2 scanning system may be considered as a “necessary action” taken by the V Society to reduce the element of the card.
Last month, the Attorney General of the State of New York filed a lawsuit against V, claiming that the trophy boxes of the Anti-Terrorism Elite series were as dangerous as gambling. With similar discussions in various countries, it is not clear whether V Society plans to extend scanning to other regions, following France and Germany. However, as can be seen from this new mechanism and from the controversial “replacement system” introduced last year, which led to the overnight collapse of the CS2 jewelry economy, there is indeed growing pressure to reduce gambling in the CS2 market.