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Trevor ‘TmarTn’ Martin and Thomas ‘Syndicate’ Cassell, two of the part-owners of CS:GO gambling site CSGOLotto, have reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
It’s the equivilent of a slap on the wrist for the pair, who faced backlash from the community for advertising their CS:GO gambling site CSGOLotto in their videos without admitting they they not only had a financial stake in the company, but that they were the co-owners of the site itself.
Read PCGamesN’s summary, it’s a weighty tome but lays it out. It was a very bad situation.
Which is what makes it more all the more upsetting that the FTC have given Martin and Cassell the equivalent of a slap on the wrist. The settlement agreed on includes no immediate financial penalty for the pair, however Martin and Cassell, with a combined subscriber count of over 10m, will be required to “clearly and conspicuously disclose any material connections” with any business interests in the future.
FTC has said that this is the “first-ever complaint received against social media influencers,” which could explain why the penalties are so light. Below is a video that shows why this is awful, but there are a lot of swears over the 13 minutes of damning evidence.
If they violate the FTC’s order, they’ll face penalties up to $40,654. $40,654. Swirl that around for a little while. The FTC say that the duo have been paying other well-known social media personalities thousands of dollars to promote CSGOLotto via their social media feeds. Payments ranged from $2,500 to $55,000.
So yes. This ended with a whimper rather than a bang, but hopefully this means the FTC will take stronger action in the future.
