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YouTubers escape fine for promoting CSGO Lotto site they secretly owned

K

Kenzodielocke

Banned
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TmarTn and Syndicate both encouraged their audience to plough money into gambling website CSGOLoto.com, while failing to disclose they were in fact the site's owners.

The pair paid other YouTube influencers between $2500 and $55,000 to do the same, under instruction they not say anything negative about the site. (The FTC did not disclose which influencers were paid this money.)

The case sparked outrage last summer when CS:GO Lotto's true ownership was uncovered. It's taken until now for the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to make its judgement.

And what a judgement. TmarTn and Syndicate do not need to admit any culpability and will face no penalty for their past actions.

Looking to the future, however, the FTC will require proper disclosure from the pair and will enforce violations. These will come with a hefty fine - of $40,654 (about £31k) for each infraction.

"The goal of the FTC isn't to be a punitive or draconian agency," FTC spokesperson Mitchell J. Katz told Rolling Stone. "We are here to educate consumers about new markets."
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Eurogamer

This is fucked.
 
N

Nanashrew

Banned
They deserved jail time for running an illegal multi-national gambling site while targeting minors.

All they got was a slap on the wrist and the FTC will be giving a "sterner warning" to YouTubers and social media influences to be more clear about affiliation. It's so stupid and frustrating and feels like nothing will be done about illegal gambling in gaming and having better regulations.
 
L

leng jai

Member
Nanashrew said:
They deserved jail time for running an illegal multi-national gambling site while targeting minors.

All they got was a slap on the wrist and the FTC will be giving a "sterner warning" to YouTubers and social media influences to be more clear about affiliation. It's so stupid and frustrating and feels like nothing will be done about illegal gambling in gaming and having better regulations.
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They didn't even get a slap on the wrist by the looks of it.
 
B

BGBW

Maturity, bitches.
Well thanks to this educational lesson by the FTC I've learnt it's OK to scam kids. This new market is exciting!

Thanks!
 
B

Blobbers

Member
what happened to "FTC are gonna go hard on these motherfuckers", "FTC does NOT play around with stuff like this", "they crossed the FTC. they are well and truly FUCKED"
 
A

Asd202

Member
Haha what a fucking joke.

Blobbers said:
what happened to "FTC are gonna go hard on these motherfuckers", "FTC does NOT play around with stuff like this", "they crossed the FTC. they are well and truly FUCKED"
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Both are wealthy enough to get "good" lawyers and defend themselves. The truth of the times we live in.
 
F

Foxxsoxx

Member
Hey guys I randomly found this site its called gafgo lotto wow lots of cool stuff there be sure to check it out maybe support it please, especially kids.
 
U

UserDoesNotExist

Member
Since we're all collectively OK with multinational corporations promoting gambling a la loot boxes, why not let the little guys get in on the action? It's just for cosmetics, right?
 
F

Fred-87

Member
What i hate the most is people who hurt other people when they themselves are well off. Criminals who have had a rough upbringing i can sympathize with. But these fuckers look like they had it easy and still scam people. Shame on FTC.
 
W

Waddle Dee

Member
UserDoesNotExist said:
Since we're all collectively OK with multinational corporations promoting gambling a la loot boxes, why not let the little guys get in on the action? It's just for cosmetics, right?
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Yeah, the judge must have been one of those braindead fanboys defending Destiny 2 in that thread about it's lootboxes.
 
F

FinalAres

Member
Obviously they should have been punished, but to me this looks like them not being able to punish them properly but acknowledging the system needs tweaking to be watertight.

Obviously not great for justice in this case, but great in terms of making things better for the future.
 
T

Tecnniqe

Banned
The FTC did not make reference to the age of TmarTn and Syndicate's YouTube audience in its judgement.

Nor was there any reference to the fact that other gambling sites had rigged bets to ensure high profile YouTubers' would win while playing - so as to dupe others into thinking they would also be as lucky.


...


..............
 
C

Crzy1

Member
Not surprised in the least. White collar crimes don't get punished unless they're looking for a scapegoat.
 
T

True Fire

Member
Tecnniqe said:
The FTC did not make reference to the age of TmarTn and Syndicate's YouTube audience in its judgement.

Nor was there any reference to the fact that other gambling sites had rigged bets to ensure high profile YouTubers' would win while playing - so as to dupe others into thinking they would also be as lucky.


...



..............
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It's easy to forget about details like that when the accused are rich white men.
 
C

ChazGW7

Member
Man... thats disappointing.

Tecnniqe said:
The FTC did not make reference to the age of TmarTn and Syndicate's YouTube audience in its judgement.

Nor was there any reference to the fact that other gambling sites had rigged bets to ensure high profile YouTubers' would win while playing - so as to dupe others into thinking they would also be as lucky.
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Un fucking believable.
 
U

UrbanRats

Member
Imagine if every game with LootBoxes (acquirable with real money), was considered gambling, and automatically slapped with an AO rating.
 
M

Morat

Banned
That's pathetic. At a minimum they should have faced fines equal to the money they made in their scam
 
S

SomTervo

Member
Damn.

I guess it would take the children themselves or their parents suing or implicating a crime to do more damage?
 
V

vazel

Banned
UrbanRats said:
Imagine if every game with LootBoxes (acquirable with real money), was considered gambling, and automatically slapped with an AO rating.
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I just want similar regulations to what China has where companies have to disclose the drop rates of items in loot boxes.
 
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