In the last couple months there has been much controversy over in game items having real value and the ability to be gambled on websites without ID or consent. The already controversial topic became big news after 2 huge Youtubers (Tom Syndicate & TmarTn) were exposed by another Youtuber (h3h3 Productions) who is well known for mocking Scammers in comedy sketches after he did some research and found out that these two had been telling their subscribers that they “found this new site CSGO Lotto” and that they should go on and gamble on it where in fact they were the owners and Presidents of the sites. Together they made videos showing them winning huge unrealistic jackpots on the site (being the owners of the site they can rig pots in their favour to trick fans into thinking they have a good chance of winning). The site they created was one of many that lets you use in game items from the huge game called Counter Strike: Global Offensive. These are worth real value and can be valued to up to thousands of dollars. The PC platform Steam has trading between friends where you can trade your gun skins with your friends. These websites send you a simple friend request and trade offer and you can gamble real money in the form of stickers or gun skins. This means you don’t have to be over 21 or have ID to gamble as it is not technically speaking gambling. I will be researching all the details on these sites and the great scam these two highly respected and loved internet stars pulled on their fans.
Syndicate and TmarTn who have over 10 million subscribers between them both regularly streamed themselves on the most popular game steaming service Twitch, betting on their website drawing in more people to scam. They both claimed they were in the terms and conditions of YouTube as they weren’t the getting paid to promote it because they owned the website which means they were in trouble with the law as the Federal Trade Commission says
“Required disclosures must be clear and conspicuous.
Repeat disclosures, as needed, on lengthy websites and in connection with repeated claims. Disclosures may also have to be repeated if consumers have multiple routes through a website.”
The huge success of these websites created lots more which let thousands of underage gamers get scammed and lose money. Many Youtubers were sponsored by these websites, for example ChaboyyHD was sponsored by CSGO Diamonds only a few weeks before all of these websites were shut down by Steam for disobeying the Terms and Conditions of Steam. These websites were just growing and growing with popularity and so many Youtubers were getting sponsored it was encouraging all ages and gender to start gambling. There have been reports of many people some legal and some not losing hundreds of dollars.
However, not all games let you trade in game items with shady sites or lose your whole wallet in 30 minutes. The recent critically acclaimed game Overwatch has a loot box system where every time you level up you get a loot box with a mixture of 6 items, fake currency coins, wall sprays, Victory Poses, Voice Lines, Player Skins and Emotes. These items have no real value and you can only get them by buying loot boxes off the store like lives on candy crush or gems in Clash of Clans or playing the game and levelling up with your friends. Steam have done all they can to close these gambling sites as it is not only illegal, it causes them to lose money as the way the make money is by taking off just 5% of the value of skins and stickers of all their games to keep the market balanced and in their control. If steam trading stopped being the largest trader of these in game items and these sites became the biggest the items would rapidly increase in price as they have no tax and the items just get replaced onto the market making these sites an insane amount of money.
Professional CSGO brings in millions of teenage gamers who support a team such as Cloud9 or MLG like how football fans support a club like Hibs or Hearts. A recent Bloomberg Article states that the boom in pro video gaming is fuelled by $2.3 billion in online bets. Luminosity, a Brazilian pro team won MLG Columbus 2016 which is one of three annual Pro CSGO Majors, their team which consists of 5 players, one backup player, a coach and a manger won $500,000 and over $1,000,000 in sponsorship. These games of CSGO get really intense for fans as they can last for hours and go into sudden death which gets fans hyped and advertises gambling sites so they can vote for their team. The money involved in Pro Gaming doesn’t only sell out the Seoul World Cup Stadium that has a capacity of over 66,000 it also appears that ESL (Electronic Sports League) are now going to be testing competitors for PED’s. Darren Rovell, an ESPN Reporter said that ESPN and ESL new that drug use would be a problem in the time to come. ESPN 2 now broadcast Pro Gaming from League of Legends to CSGO. In Rovells report it said that Pro Player Kory "Semphis" Friesen, who played Counter-Strike, with $250,000 in prizes on the line, claimed during an interview that he and his team had taken Adderall when they played at an event in Poland. The drug is used for ADHD, but in small doses has been found to increase stamina and alertness. The drug is banned by the major sports leagues for this reason. People taking Pro Gaming as serious as real sports which I believe it should does cause people to gamble on their teams whether they are doing it illegally or underage.
Overwatch, the game I previously mentioned has a fixed priced and no DLC (Downloadable Content) will cost additional money. Also the game is more light hearted but draws in all types of gamers form 12 year olds to people in their 40s. This cartoony styled game with diverse characters may not have such a big gambling community in Pro Games because of this reason. The game developers have no intention of adding anything gambling or pay to win to the game as they feel it would ruin they great community Overwatch has created.
After viewing both sides of the argument, it is clear that underage and illegal gambling is a big issue in the gaming industry and that something needs to be done. I do not however the games themselves are to blame as there are games such as Overwatch which has a huge Pro League and a massive community without any trading or gambling ability but it is the selfish owners and creators of these gambling sites who lie to people especial CSGO lotto as they didn’t disclaim anything at all. The huge pro leagues do encourage gambling but that type is nowhere near as illegal or corrupt as in game item gambling sites. Overall I have to say that in game items that can be traded to websites do encourage underage and illegal gambling but the games and items that cannot be traded are only trying to boost their community and make a profit.
Sources Used Throughout This:
H3h3 Productions
BBC News
ESPN
Bloomberg
ESL
HyperX
thx mark