[montibbalt]

Indeed you can't take money out of them, and the various app stores have pretty strict policies about this. Honestly, if Valve gets worried about gambling laws they could learn a few things from casino apps here. There are a few of them out there where you can "buy" something like a hotel comp using an in-game currency. This is actually ok for a number of reasons but two big ones are that: - The currency you use to get these IRL items is not the currency you play with and is not necessarily directly related to real money. It's more akin to frequent flyer miles getting you a free flight. That is to say, it's more "how much you play" and less "how much you pay". - There simply is no secondary market for these IRL items because they're tied to you personally, are non-transferrable, and can't be traded for cash. So while they have real-world value, they're worthless to anyone but you specifically