FTC sternly warns CS:GO gambling fraudsters not to do it again

News
By published

That'll show 'em.

The FTC has finalized its settlement with Trevor "TmarTn" Martin and Tom "ProSyndicate" Cassell, the streamers who used their YouTube channels and other platforms to enthusiastically promote the skin gambling site CSGO Lotto without any indication that they happened to own 42.5% of CSGO Lotto. Some of Martin and Cassell's videos showed them achieving extraordinary wins on the site, and worked with other popular YouTuber friends to produce similar videos with titles like "1% CHANCE?! (CSGO Lotto)."

The initial settlement, reached in September, set new standards of disclosure on the two and the site, forbidding them "from misrepresenting that any endorser is an independent user or ordinary consumer of a product or service." 

Per the settlement, Martin and Cassell are forbidden from misrepresenting endorsers as independent consumers, must "clearly and conspicuously" disclose their endorsements and connections with other endorsers, submit a compliance report to the FTC in one year, and maintain a variety of records relating to their accounting, consumer complaints, marketing material, and personnel for the next 10 years.

No actual penalties were imposed, however, which didn't sit well with a few members of the public who took advantage of the commission's invitation to submit comments on the decision. "I am appalled and disgusted with this ruling. These two deserve a hefty fine, if not jail time, for knowingly misleading their largely adolescent fanbase into using a gambling website that they owned," Jack Thorpe wrote. "The items that were being traded on CSGO Lotto had real money value, and these two were pocketing millions from rigging a system that they owned." 

Another, using the name Maloney, noted that Martin and Cassell had "purposelessly deceived their audiences by pretending to have found CSGO Lotto and recommend to use it when in fact they owned it from the beginning." 

"I believe this deliberate action deserves a larger punishment than just warnings to not do it again," they wrote. "A precedent needs to be set in order to stop these malicious acts from further occurring." 

A third respondent, Christopher Jahn, acknowledged that the CSGO Lotto site had a clause in its TOS stating that users must be at least 18 years old, but then moved on to the obvious: "Let's be honest here, what teenager is actually going to abide by that, let alone even read it? Can you imagine a modern day teenager saying, 'Well, I'm not quite 18 yet, guess I'll be a law abiding citizen and go do something else'? No teenager is going to do that." 

These were the only three to comment, and their words were not enough to have an impact on the ruling. 

The full text of the FTC's CSGO Lotto settlement is available here, and you can get a closer look at what caused all the trouble in the first place in our explanation of CSGO skin gambling. A photo of clearly chastened TmarTn participating in a recent Call of Duty: WWII promotion is below.

TOPICS
Andy Chalk
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.