The proliferation of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (GS:GO) lottery sites – where skins are traded for real-world cash – has resulted in many investigations looking into the sites and whether they can be considered online gambling. One such investigation has revealed more than just the possibility of gambling: two prominent YouTubers that have promoted one particular CS:GO lottery are, in fact, the company’s owners.
For those not in the know, Valve, the developers of CS:GO, introduced Weapons Cases as part of their August 2013 update named Arms Deal. These Weapons Cases were rewarded after completing games on secured servers and could only be opened using keys purchased from the Steam Community Market for $2.50. When opened, the cases would reveal cosmetic skins for CS:GO weapons. They can be applied right away, or they can be put up for sale directly on Steam’s Community Market for Steam credit.
CS:GO lottery sites take this to the next level. Users can link their Steam accounts to these lottery sites, using Valve’s OpenID system for account verification, which then allows the users to auction off the skins for real-world cash. Most mil-spec (rare) skins are only worth a few dollars, but exceedingly rare skins – including the holiest-of-the-holy StatTrak skins – can be worth thousands. This is the pull of these CS:GO lottery sites: the promise of a big payout from auctioning off skins.
One of these sites, CSGO Lotto, is at the center of the latest investigation. YouTuber HonorTheCall posted a video where it is revealed that two prominent YouTubers, Trevor Martin (TmarTn), and Thomas Cassell (TheSyndicateProject), actually own CSGO Lotto. This is a huge conflict of interest, as they have regularly uploaded YouTube videos where they go on CSGO Lotto and win thousands of dollars in real-world money WITHOUT disclosing their role in CSGO Lotto.
In HonorTheCall’s video, he highlights corporate listings that show Martin as the President and Cassell as the Vice-President of the website. Martin and Cassell, who sport large followings on their respective YouTube pages, have posted quite a few videos on their channels where they bet on CSGO Lotto and win (or rarely lose) lots of real-world money by “betting” with CS:GO skins. These videos have clickbait-y titles like “HOW TO WIN $13,000 IN 5 MINUTES (CS:GO Betting)” or “CRAZY HIGH WINS! (CS:GO Betting)”. The apparent goal was to convince viewers who played CS:GO to go onto CSGO Lotto and attempt to do the same – without divulging their interest in this.
A YouTube video posted by h3h3Productions, another prominent YouTube channel, exposed more shadiness on the part of Martin and Cassell. The video highlights the fact that, in addition to there being no disclosures on Martin’s videos about his involvement with CSGO Lotto, he pretends to have been contacted by CS GO Lotto for sponsorships. The video also shows how he added disclaimers showing a collaboration with CSGO Lottery AFTER the news broke on his shadiness.
For its part, Valve has not gotten off unscathed. A Bloomberg article states that Valve is facing a class-action lawsuit over the practice of allowing third-party sites like CSGO Lotto to use Steam assets as a form of gambling. The crux of the lawsuit is that these sites facilitate a form of indirect gambling that does not exclude minors. Valve maintains its innocence, saying that the trading of virtual items for cash is not gambling in its strictest sense.
