This article does well at dispersing the rhetoric of “Valve brought gambling to the gaming scene”.
Gambling and gatcha have been there for quite a while. Valve just spread it all over the world, before the Japanese gatcha companies could capture other markets and Valve made it much more convenient for people to lose their money on it.

Transferability is a right we believe should not be taken away

That’s the real BS here.
This is the same language other “normal” companies use, to continue their evils. Guess the Valve PR people graduated from the same school.
If Valve wanted to let people transfer their NFTs, they would let them do so over other platforms. But they really just want the transaction fee profits. While that part may bring them NYAG points, it’s not getting “me” points.

Lootboxes are gambling though, even if those exist IRL and are not required for playing.

Transferability is a right we believe should not be taken away, and we refuse to do that

Valve takes a cut of every ‘transfer’ between users involving money, and they don’t allow transferability of games, the main thing people would want to transfer. If you’re going to pretend like you’re trying to help consumers by giving them control over their digital content, don’t just do it for the type of content that makes you money.

With that said, I’m definitely on Valve’s side with this. Age verification and anti-VPN spyware is all bullshit. Too bad I’m not a NY resident.

“disappointed to see the NYAG make that claim after working to educate them”.

Isn’t that just lobbying?