(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); YouTube has been hit by a scandal recently which has been around disclosure. For some time now YouTubers have started diversifying revenue streams. Key problem here is disclosure many YouTubers are one man operations. Recent scandal small group failing to disclose financial links to promoted content they owned. Any sponsorship on content created must be displayed clearly. YouTubers must disclose any relationships financial or otherwise on content created.

Example:

Game studio pays for your hotel, coverage, even sends you free gifts. Required to disclose that information if impacts any content created. Review copies are something else required to disclose. Any monetary benefit they have received anything at all which indicates any biases must be disclosed. Often companies send you review copies which you then make content based on that product. Sponsored content has become new revenue source for Youtubers.

Todays scandal nothing like that…..

Couple YouTubers have been found to be owners of products promoted on the main channels. Failed to disclose the relationship they had with that company.
Not simple case they had equity but turned out to be the main management. Simply put these people have broken the law. One or two behind the scandal have gone back added further 'disclosure' on the video descriptions. Which is not enough when comes to the law.

YouTubers promoted CSGO skin gambling site called CSGOLotto and created content based on gambling. Questions over if the content was rigged or not. Stream group has been edited to remove any talks about gambling.

Simply put these people have broken the law. Legal standpoint people have to disclose this information and have broken the law. Failing to make it clear they owned and operated the site. Advertising without making it clear that one big no no.

Another problem is product promoted comes under gambling. Many of these YouTubers claim they done nothing wrong. Demographics of audiences who watch these videos makes it even worse from moral standpoint. Questionable moral behaviour frankly illegal actions help damage Youtube. Amazing no argument here time come clean about anything you done in the past. Along with much greater transparency for your audience. Failure to do so not only breaks the law but also ruin your relationship with the audience. Moral of the story here is always question people intent when they make content. Likely more scandals like this are going to happen given the structure of Youtube. Youtube should take action on this problem issuing new guidelines. Legal system is taking time to catch up on this grey market area.

Trevor martin/Tom Cassell have public relations nightmare currently. Trevor made two videos saying sorry edited descriptions later removed the videos.

Ryan Morrison known as Video Game Attorney talking about the subject on espn podcast You must login or register to view this content.

Reddit You must login or register to view this content. with three attorneys who work within esports industry.

Likely both looking at jail time/fines and maybe case action lawsuits.

Laws broken?

Operating a gambling site not following the correct legal requirements
Failing to disclose business relationships and advertising
Possible fraud / rigging odds

Online personalities involved around CSGOLotto

TmarTn - Trevor martin

Prosyndicate - Tom Cassell

Edit* Both have failed to disclose sponsorship content in the past correctly.

News site coverage

Arstechnica
You must login or register to view this content.

BBC news
You must login or register to view this content.

PC Gamer
You must login or register to view this content.

Bloomberg
You must login or register to view this content.

Youtube videos

H3h3Productions video - Deception, Lies, and CSGO



John Bain aka Totalbiscuit view on the subject

Tmartn has been a total dick about it, he posts an 'apology' video then removes it a few hours later, probably because he didn't lie enough in it to cover his ass. He didn't even redeem himself in that video, he blamed his viewers for not knowing information he intentionally disclosed. This video was so fucking scripted, as if he was reading a letter his lawyer wrote lmao.

He was caught logged in on an admin account (it's filmed) on his website, so his 'OMG I WON 5000$ IN 3 MINUTES' videos are probably all rigged. I mean he's an admin on this site, he can fake it all.

What a dick he is, I hope he gets in deep trouble for manipulating kids...

Slimy F--ks!!! They should get what they have coming to them. FTC doesn't mess around!!1

That said, time for some fun facts.

Tmartn uploaded a (what most are calling a shitty) apology video last night. The video wasn't up for more than a few hours then he took it down.

It was re-uploaded and you can view it here:


Notice his somewhat forced exhale. Notice how he includes the bit with his dog to entice you into thinking he's a caring person.

It should also be noted that WebArchive has documented quick changes to the TOS and user policies of CSGOLotto to reflect that only those over the age of 18 are to use the site.

Tmartn was deleting comments and banning people from his channel during the short time that, one such noted comment that Tmartn deleted was that of TotalBiscut who has been an absolute savage during all of this...




Tmartn claims that ownership of CSGOLotto has always been public record, and he is correct. In the United States you can look at public records of any US based company and see exactly who the owner is. No one bothered to look because no one cared.

The FTC specifically states that people need to explicitly state that they have some kind of finical relationship with a company (IE how Linus thanks Intel or Nvidia for sponsoring their videos when he reviews new CPUs/GPUs) to their audience. It does NOT requrie that people disclose that they own a company, like many are saying. If I recall correctly Tmartn always said he was sponsored by CSGOLotto.

Tmartn fucked up badly, because on his first video about CSGOLotto he's logged in as one of the fucking trade bots, and the video showed that he used the bots account to list items on OPSkins. At the time no one really caught this. This still doesn't not constitute any proof of wrong doing in the sense that Tmartn rigged anything on the site to his favor.



JoshOG also apologized to his fans in a long tweet.



Syndicate also issued a small statement on the issue:





A lot of people are calling for the heads of these three on a silver platter, and honestly this call is extremely outrageous. They're calling for Valve to step in and take action against the three along with shutting down skin gambling...another stupid outrageous call.

Valve's stance on skins is the following: Items on steam (dota 2, csgo skins, h1z1, unturned, etc) do not belong to any user. They're owned by Valve. End users lease the items from Valve, which Valve reserves the right to take back at any point. Items hold no monetary value.

This removes Valve from any responsibility or wrong doing. Valve won't do anything about skin gambling. While they advise against it, they are not against it. People who are calling for an end of skin gambling are just salty fucking crybabies who lost money they couldn't afford to lose.

As for the trio of owners...

I personally don't feel they did anything wrong. Especially Josh. He got caught up into some shit he didn't really know much about, and in all honestly was just having fun. When I first started watching him he only had an inventory of like a few grand. He won big on CSGOJackpot and his inventory has been taking off from there with successful (and most times unsuccessful) bets and case openings.

People...no not people...salty fucking social justice warriors/keyboard warriors looking for drama to entertain them, are screaming that children were exploited. I disagree. It's the parents responsibility to monitor their children. How many children are guilty of lieing about their age on the Internet? Just about every child that uses the Internet. So an 'age gate' wouldn't have stopped this.

Children shouldn't be gambling, but parents should be watching their kids. Its not Trevor's, Tom's, or Josh's fault that kids lost money. Unfortunately for them, the US has become a sissified liberal ran country, which means that if these three see a day in court over this they'll raked over the coals for something that is honestly nothing.

Out of the three, I think Tmartn is the worst. He made all his videos private, deleted his apologies, banning users who comment on his video (in Trevor's defense, the users are being hateful as fuck and I would too), etc. He's making things worse for himself. Because Trevor is acting the way that he is, and since the was the original founder he's getting most of the hate.

With good lawyers (all 3 of which can afford) they should be just fine. I do expect CSGOLotto to follow suit the same way Fanobet did and block US IPs.

I 100% agree. For the sake of Tom and Josh, I hope it's just a shattered reputation. Reputations can always be rebuilt.

Trevor though kinda needs to suffer a bit JUST because he's handling it like a child instead of like an adult.

This whole situation reminds me a lot of the Emporio Motor Group and Bobby Khan. I wouldn't be overly surprised if Martin faces a similar fate. Frankly it's deserved because fraud is fraud.

Here's my question though. What did he do that is considered fraud?

As far as I know he stated he was sponsored by CSGOLotto which establishes the finical relationship that the FTC requires him to disclose. The FTC, nor anyone for that matter, requires anyone in the US to disclose that they own a company in this sense as it's public record should one just look it up.

Only way that's going to happen is if something illegal happened, which it doesn't look like it did. Secretive yes, illegal no.

Disclosing that he is or isn't sponsored by CSGOLotto isn't considered fraud, fraudulent, or defrauding. The FTC simply requires that to prevent conflicts of interest -- which has been mentioned a lot lately.

We can speculate but in one of his videos where he was gambling he was logged into the one of the site bots. In what capacity would he be required to have access to that particular bot while gambling to provide content or some form of entertainment value? We can presume that he was potentially transferring skins from the bot to his personal inventory. It's more than enough probable cause for the FBI to open an investigation. The only thing they would have to do is simply look at his trading history and that of the bot.

Obviously I cannot say that he was or wasn't doing this. But he definitely has the modus operandi and the narcissistic personality to match. Also; although Valve leases these skins Martin can still be held liable. Saying he isn't is like saying that banks should be held responsible if someone defrauds them of their vehicle that is on consignment.

how about they are all scumbags
joshog > only got big off giveaways and playing a little with summit
syndicate > a scumbag who scammed animators and is a overall fuckboi
tmartn > got big off reddit whoring news to retarded 12 year olds