In an announcement today, the FTC disclosed that the complaint against CSGOLotto has been resolved. The two owners of skins gambling site CSGOLotto have escaped without FTC punishment. YouTubers Trevor “TmarTn” Martin and Thomas “Syndicate” Cassell will admit no culpability and pay no fines in the resolution of the FTC complaint.
The complaint itself centered purely on exactly what blame there is to be placed on Trevor “TmarTn” Martin and Thomas “Syndicate” Cassell, is any, in regards to disclosure of their ownership fo CSGO Lotto. This scandal was months in the making, with lawsuits being brought up and everything.
As a result of this resolution, some interesting details about CSGO Lotto have come to light in terms of it’s promotional practices. CSGO Lotto apparently spent nearly $60,000 on paid promotion via an unknown quantity of Youtubers. An interesting tidbit here is that the payments hinged on the coverage CSGO Lotto being entirely positive, and ignoring any flaws. The reason this massive sum is even more infuriating is that it totals more than the maximum fine that could have been levied if the FTC had ruled against CSGO Lotto, just shy of $41,000.
A lot of people will be questioning the efficacy or ethics of such a decision from the sidelines following this ruling. But it’s important to remember that a lot of factors that went into this decision are unknown.
Although it is true that Trevor “TmarTn” Martin and Thomas “Syndicate” Cassell engaged in what could be termed as deceptive advertising. Namely when they promoted that site on their YouTube channels with titles like “HOW TO WIN $13,000 IN 5 MINUTES (CS-GO Betting)” and “ALL OR NOTHING! (CS:GO Betting).”
But readers can take solus in the fact that the FTC isn’t entirely sitting on it’s hands.
Likely as a result of this decision and others, the FTC have updated their Endorsement Guidelines and, relating to a separate incident, sent “warning letters” to 21 ‘Influencers’ who had previously been contacted in April 2017 with “educational letters”. The FTC has not disclosed the names of those 21 people.
Despite some minor set-backs due to the fallout from this scandal in July of last year, the scene for trading and gambling of skins remains alive and well.
