Neither of these sources provides enough data to give us an accurate picture of the age makeup of Global Offensive's audience. I wouldn’t argue that this is a particularly kid-friendly game, nor one that Valve specifically targets toward teens.
Valve may ask players to confirm that they're of a certain age before using Steam or viewing the page for certain games. However, there’s no denying that people below the age of 21 (and even 18) play Global Offensive in large numbers. Hell, I started playing the original Counter-Strike when I was 15. Had I been born 15 years later, I would have been in the prime position to get heavily invested in Global Offensive. And as a teenager, I absolutely would have been stupid enough to be intrigued by the game’s gambling scene.
Whatever your stance on gambling generally, there’s little debate that gambling at an impressionable young age can lead to major problems as you grow up.
According to the New York Council on Problem Gambling, "children and teenagers aren’t prepared to balance emotion and logic to make healthy choices." In a very literal sense, the brain is still developing at this age, and it is difficult if not impossible to hone the capability to ignore your impulses and stop gambling once you’ve started.
Likewise, the National Council on Problem Gambling reports that somewhere around 5 percent of youth aged 12-17 have a gambling problem, while another 10-14 percent are at risk of developing an addiction.
Many gambling organizations have long held that video games in general can push younger players in the direction of gambling. I haven’t been convinced of that, but when a game that we already know is popular with teenagers has such an open, easy-to-jump-into gambling subculture? I have no doubt this is pulling some kids into a world they aren’t ready for.