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Large Youtubers Hide Ownership of CSGO Lottery Site

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Not open for further replies.
A

Arkeband

Banned
OrionsNebula said:
I'm not sure that this was supposed to be hidden information that they owned this lotto...

Go to TmarTn's twitter page and you'll see that in his info, right up front, it says "Co-owner @CSGOLotto"

... So is this guy at h3h3 trying to make fluff out of nothing really?

Edit: To go further, the guy in the h3h3 video says "it's illegal to not disclose that you work for a company or have been paid to promote or review their product"
It really didn't take much digging at all though to find this info. If it is publicly available information then they are fine. Even if it were to be buried in a load of legal papers that you would have to sort through.

To me, it isn't scummy that they haven't come out and said that they don't own the website at the very start of all their videos.
Click to expand...

Well luckily it doesn't matter if slides by Random Guy on the Internet's Faulty Scum Detector, because it's fucking against the law.

I hope this hits the fan in a big way, because even logging into Dota2 today, I was inundated with spam about buying crates, and now they even make sure you know that the odds of certain items in crates go up with subsequent purchases. The game is becoming secondary to the fucking casino it's hidden beneath.
 
S

sunshine and gasoline

Banned
Had no clue that this kind of gambling was going on in CS:GO. Not too pleased that Valve even allowed it to progress this far.

As for what Tmartn and ProSyndicate did...
EoCcRdi.gif
 
F

Fat4all

Banned
OrionsNebula said:
To go further, the guy in the h3h3 video says "it's illegal to not disclose that you work for a company or have been paid to promote or review their product"
It really didn't take much digging at all though to find this info. If it is publicly available information then they are fine. Even if it were to be buried in a load of legal papers that you would have to sort through.

To me, it isn't scummy that they haven't come out and said that they don't own the website at the very start of all their videos.
Click to expand...

The info being able to be found in general is in no way the same as disclaiming and displaying ownership.
 
T

TheLostBigBoss

Banned
OrionsNebula said:
I'm not sure that this was supposed to be hidden information that they owned this lotto...

Go to TmarTn's twitter page and you'll see that in his info, right up front, it says "Co-owner @CSGOLotto"

... So is this guy at h3h3 trying to make fluff out of nothing really?

Edit: To go further, the guy in the h3h3 video says "it's illegal to not disclose that you work for a company or have been paid to promote or review their product"
It really didn't take much digging at all though to find this info. If it is publicly available information then they are fine. Even if it were to be buried in a load of legal papers that you would have to sort through.

To me, it isn't scummy that they haven't come out and said that they don't own the website at the very start of all their videos.
Click to expand...

hi tom
 
S

Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew

Banned
OrionsNebula said:
I'm not sure that this was supposed to be hidden information that they owned this lotto...

Go to TmarTn's twitter page and you'll see that in his info, right up front, it says "Co-owner @CSGOLotto"

... So is this guy at h3h3 trying to make fluff out of nothing really?

Edit: To go further, the guy in the h3h3 video says "it's illegal to not disclose that you work for a company or have been paid to promote or review their product"
It really didn't take much digging at all though to find this info. If it is publicly available information then they are fine. Even if it were to be buried in a load of legal papers that you would have to sort through.

To me, it isn't scummy that they haven't come out and said that they don't own the website at the very start of all their videos.
Click to expand...

Nope.

1. https://web.archive.org/web/20160511061357/https:/twitter.com/TmarTn ; Shows that as of last month, he didn't disclose shit.

QfsnYte.png


2. This is HIGHLY illegal and a big Conflict of Interest. Yes, the info is easy to find but that doesn't mean they are innocent here. They pretended they came across "CSGO Lotto", and that they made nice money, and others should do so too. These guys pretended CSGO Lotto folks contacted them for some promotion, when it's them controlling this shit. They are promoting a scam as if they don't own the scam. Then he backtracked saying he wasn't the owner up until recently.
 
T

Tinfoilhatsron

Banned
OrionsNebula said:
I'm not sure that this was supposed to be hidden information that they owned this lotto...

Go to TmarTn's twitter page and you'll see that in his info, right up front, it says "Co-owner @CSGOLotto"

... So is this guy at h3h3 trying to make fluff out of nothing really?

Edit: To go further, the guy in the h3h3 video says "it's illegal to not disclose that you work for a company or have been paid to promote or review their product"
It really didn't take much digging at all though to find this info. If it is publicly available information then they are fine. Even if it were to be buried in a load of legal papers that you would have to sort through.

To me, it isn't scummy that they haven't come out and said that they don't own the website at the very start of all their videos.
Click to expand...
So are you new to the internet or what. Use Waybackmachine.
 
styl3s

styl3s

Member
Gorillaz said:
Not surprised with Tmart but syndicate? come on dude

this was the ultimate come up tho
Click to expand...
Really? Every time i hear Syndicate even come up is because of some backdoor shady deal shit. TmarTN surprises me but i haven't watched any of his stuff in a long, long time.

Tmar should really hire a PR person because he just keeps on burying himself.
 
Z

Zaptruder

Banned
Watching the video...

Setting aside the whole dodginess of running a site and then promoting it to your audience as though you weren't its creators...

So... what's the difference between things like collectible card games or gashapons and CS:GO and other similar digital equivalents that essentially share the same mechanism - insert money (or time), get a toy... that toy can then be sold to other collectors for money.

Like... this is the same loophole that pachinko parlours in Japan use to circumvent the no gambling laws there...

And unless we're ready to clamp down on all of it, other than the convenience and ease by which trading occurs (finding buyers and sellers for digital goods is easier than physical goods given the way in which things can be transferred so conveniently)... how's it different from stuff that's existed for a number of decades at this point?
 
F

Fat4all

Banned
Zaptruder said:
Watching the video...

Setting aside the whole dodginess of running a site and then promoting it to your audience as though you weren't its creators...

So... what's the difference between things like collectible card games or gashapons and CS:GO and other similar digital equivalents that essentially share the same mechanism - insert money (or time), get a toy... that toy can then be sold to other collectors for money.

Like... this is the same loophole that pachinko parlours in Japan use to circumvent the no gambling laws there...

And unless we're ready to clamp down on all of it, other than the convenience and ease by which trading occurs (finding buyers and sellers for digital goods is easier than physical goods given the way in which things can be transferred so conveniently)... how's it different from stuff that's existed for a number of decades at this point?
Click to expand...

Later in the video it gets to the lotto site, which is separate from the system in CSGO.

It's about the owners making videos of them making tons of money on a gambling site they own without a hint of a disclaimer, more than the current nature of how CSGO crates work.
 
S

Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew

Banned
ScientificPizza said:
This is gross. Doesn't the US already have pretty restrictive rules around gambling? Could they be formally charged with anything?
Click to expand...

Yes. He could definitely be charged. Usually these gambling sites are not run in US, and if they are then the owners will try to stay hidden. That and there are very strict gambling guidelines of promoting this shit to kids.
 
O

OrionsNebula

Member
To all those that responded to me, thanks for the info. I did look over that small detail that he may have updated it. My mistake.

I was however just sharing my two cents. If these guys are however doing scummy and illegal things, then I absolutely agree that they should be outed like this.

In addition to this, I want to mention that I am not informed on American law, as I am not from USA.
 
Herbspiceguy

Herbspiceguy

Member
Arkeband said:
I hope this hits the fan in a big way, because even logging into Dota2 today, I was inundated with spam about buying crates, and now they even make sure you know that the odds of certain items in crates go up with subsequent purchases. The game is becoming secondary to the fucking casino it's hidden beneath.
Click to expand...

The DOTA2 stuff has been bothering me as well. It feels like Valve is promoting gambling.
But this CSGO stuff is on another level. Makes me wonder just what the hell is up with Valve?
 
5

5taquitos

Member
OrionsNebula said:
To all those that responded to me, thanks for the info. I did look over that small detail that he may have updated it. My mistake.

I was however just sharing my two cents. If these guys are however doing scummy and illegal things, then I absolutely agree that they should be outed like this.

In addition to this, I want to mention that I am not informed on American law, as I am not from USA.
Click to expand...
Regardless of the law, this is scummy from a moral standpoint.
 
G

GamingOblivion

Banned
OrionsNebula said:
I'm not sure that this was supposed to be hidden information that they owned this lotto...

Go to TmarTn's twitter page and you'll see that in his info, right up front, it says "Co-owner @CSGOLotto"

... So is this guy at h3h3 trying to make fluff out of nothing really?

Edit: To go further, the guy in the h3h3 video says "it's illegal to not disclose that you work for a company or have been paid to promote or review their product"
It really didn't take much digging at all though to find this info. If it is publicly available information then they are fine. Even if it were to be buried in a load of legal papers that you would have to sort through.

To me, it isn't scummy that they haven't come out and said that they don't own the website at the very start of all their videos.
Click to expand...

He added it after he came clean

Rich YouTube defense force coming in quick. Stay classy GAF
 
F

Fat4all

Banned
Herbspiceguy said:
The DOTA2 stuff has been bothering me as well. It feels like Valve is promoting gambling.
But this CSGO is on another level. What the hell is up with Valve?
Click to expand...

There's just no reason for them to get involved in second party sites when they are still making bank off of those keys.

Not until the government gets involved, at least :/
 
N

Nzyme32

Member
Fat4all said:
Hopefully the class action suit will make them take it more seriously.

They either need to better self police, or they are gonna start getting regulated under the gambling restrictions they are trying to avoid.
Click to expand...

I don't see how Valve are "trying to avoid gambling restrictions", if anything they have made no attempt to do anything either way. Their APIs are open and allow for anything, the trading system is like any other where people can do whatever they want for whatever reason, but there is no way to actually get money out of Steam unless you do something externally. I suspect that would be the brunt of their argument. Valve having to police PayPal for example, when people want to trade things, doesn't seem to feasible. Valve policing or at least attempting to show they have tried to cut down gambling by enforcing their own terms of their APIs, is the most likely point they'll be caught out on. They could easily see what has happened with gambling, but made no attempt to prevent the usage of their property for those purposes, essentially validating them; most likely for the profits it brings. This should be how they fail and hopefully gets some proper policing whether from them or some kind of external body. Without a doubt any gambling should be regulated anyway, but I doubt that will rest on Valve
 
Z

Zaptruder

Banned
Fat4all said:
Later in the video it gets to the lotto site, which is separate from the system in CSGO.

It's about the owners making videos of them making tons of money on a gambling site they own without a hint of a disclaimer, more than the current nature of how CSGO crates work.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't dispute that part is dodgy.
 
S

ScientificPizza

Banned
shagg_187 said:
Yes. He could definitely be charged. Usually these gambling sites are not run in US, and if they are then the owners will try to stay hidden. That and there are very strict gambling guidelines of promoting this shit to kids.
Click to expand...
Yikes. I understand that the revenue from those sites is probably astronomical but it really doesn't seem worth the risk, even when done legitimately (not to say that this site was not run legitimately, I honestly don't know, but advertising it in this way is like pyramid scheme levels of gross).
 
N° 2048

N° 2048

Member
Just posted on https://twitter.com/TmarTn

Response to the H3 vid: always had a lot of respect for Ethan, never seen a one-sided video from him. Weirdly enough, he never reached out to Tom or I. Just very odd not to see both sides of the field portrayed.

I've admitted to wishing I was more upfront about owning the site. It was always public info but I was never very outspoken about it. My idea was to keep business business, while the focus of YouTube was simply making entertaining content. Obviously that was misleading to viewers and something I very much regret. I've never been perfect and I 100% own up to that mistake.

That being said, everything we've done up until this point has been legal, that has been a #1 priority of ours. The day it becomes illegal is the day we cease activity.

Either way, love you guys and the support. If you're upset with me I understand! Thanks dudes.
Click to expand...
 
F

Fat4all

Banned
Nzyme32 said:
Without a doubt any gambling should be regulated anyway, but I doubt that will rest on Valve
Click to expand...

But they might just in some way, considering the currency involved in these gambling sites, the chips so to speak, are purchased from and distributed by Valve.
 
M

Mr Cola

Brothas With Attitude / The Wrong Brotha to Fuck Wit / Die Brotha Die / Brothas in Paris
But will anything happen? I always am a bit skeptical of things like this going anywhere.
 
D

Dennis

Banned
Is it just me or have the last few months been revelation after revelation of well-known YouTube personalities turning out to be grade-A assholes?
 
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