Youtubers offer real money online gambling to minors 13+ from US soil? Cheating and other shadiness alleged.
Best explanation
There's some similarities to the Micon situation.
Youtubers offer real money online gambling to minors 13+ from US soil? Cheating and other shadiness alleged.
Best explanation
There's some similarities to the Micon situation.
Last edited by FPS_Russia; 07-09-2016 at 03:15 PM.
Good lesson on ethics and legalities.
And yes parallels to Micon obv.
interesting...
these guys seem like dullards...they use the words "bet" and "gambling" in their youtube videos...that's just fucking stupid...
they should get micon on speed dial for a good lawyer, think they might be needing it...might be even worse than micon...micon was offering gambling to adults...this shit is targeted to kids...these guys might not be as lucky...
The other interesting bit is that Steam has been hit with a class action lawsuit around this for enabling such a system even if they don't directly benefit. For those not familiar with gaming, Steam is a private company which is rumoured to be worth over 3 billion dollars.
ok seriously this is fucking insane
"Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness." - Alejandro Jodorowsky
"America is not so much a nightmare as a non-dream. The American non-dream is precisely a move to wipe the dream out of existence. The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set up by the non-dreamers." -- William S. Burroughs
The forthcoming Druff Full Flush piece will seem like a benediction compared to this.
I saw this video the other day and it seems crazy. I get the gist of the controversy but I still don't get how the gambling actually occurs. Can someone explain it to me like I'm a five-year-old who only understands that Counterstrike is some kind of video game? Thanks.
brodude incorporated in florida, he is _fucked_
"Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness." - Alejandro Jodorowsky
"America is not so much a nightmare as a non-dream. The American non-dream is precisely a move to wipe the dream out of existence. The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set up by the non-dreamers." -- William S. Burroughs
The skins act as a virtual currency. You can then wager them. You can also buy/sell them for real money.Originally Posted by The Shrink
Very similar to bitcoin gambling sites. The reselling of video game items is actually really big money. So much that steam has a live market for trading such items. This is where Steam though gets in trouble. They have allowed the gambling sites permission for players to log into steam accounts through their webpage. This allows the gambling website to essentially verify how much virtual gear you have. You can then gamble it to try and get more or lose it and Steam facilitates the moving of items between accounts.
Its obviously completely unregulated and extremely shady.
don't remember if micon just got busted by the state or the feds as well...
these guys are not only gonna get fucked by the gambling side of it, but the FTC shit as well for promoting the site without full disclosure...
gonna be interesting to see how this one unfolds...
I have read that in ten years "e-sports" will be the second largest betting market behind the NFL.
The assumption is most of the handle will come from the Far East Obv.
lol @ fags playing cs:go. Real niggas play overwatch.
Hooked on this game.
Valve (Steam) is somewhere in the grayish area regarding legality while every existing cs:go skin gambling site is just waiting to be prosecuted.
Gambling sites facilitate coin flipping between customers and take their vig from every flip. For the sites it's printing money with none of the risks involved in running a sports book. Actual sports books try to always be in a position where their customers are flipping coins with each other while cs:go skin sites guarantee that they are always in that position. Oh and that's not even the shady part in the story.
There's no skill element involved. Only the sites have an edge. And apparently they are fine with providing gambling to kids while taking a somewhat questionable stance to marketing to that same demographic.
Closest thing to cs:go skins are something like baseball cards. Very little value on their own but reasonable secondary market value based on rarity/popularity. Can lose value steeply and even come close to worthless overnight. But on the short run works reasonably well in retaining value at least for the purpose of pseudo currency in gambling.
Valve can stop any gambling happening when ever they feel like btw. I just don't think they have any legal obligation to do so.
Already numba 1 in S. Korea. There have also been plenty of match fixing scandals throughout various games in the last few years. The wild west.....
Im going to take the under regarding e-sports.
I think the corruption, burnout, physical toll, and general habit of its target audience to grow out of shit is going to be make this a flash in the pan type deal.
"Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness." - Alejandro Jodorowsky
"America is not so much a nightmare as a non-dream. The American non-dream is precisely a move to wipe the dream out of existence. The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set up by the non-dreamers." -- William S. Burroughs
eh....I dunno. I think at the bare minimum it stays at the current level its at now, and never gets worse. High floor, low ceiling. Will people stop playing games? No. Will it ever be featured during prime time on ESPN? No as well.
For the pro's, it does have a shelf life thats even worse than say...tennis. Age 16-25ish and then you're done, for most of those reasons you listed above. Unlike most professional sports, it is not very conducive to having a "real life". There is no off-season. Plus, the games themselves literally change. Imagine telling LeBron after three years in the league "well that was great, but now baseball is the big thing, go learn that".
it's like the tech version of professional wrestling.....except 99% of the time the action and competition is real.
Last edited by gut; 07-10-2016 at 11:16 PM.
Twitch will (and has been so far) be a huge factor in keeping e-sports relevant. Now, the leetz0r gamers can make their own money on the side just dicking off at home, lessening the grind of only possibly making money at tourneys.
Before twitch, pro gamers were basically in the same field (but bigger audience and slightly better money) as like.... pro billiards players or bass fishermen. Train like mad and then hope you win that one big tourney a month, while getting barely any side income outside of free gear from your sponsors. Now, they can essentially brand themselves on twitch, if they want to take the time to do so, and make a livable wage just playing games......"working" anywhere from 20-50 hours a week from home.
Point, but I think that the turnover regarding interest in the games themselves is going to hamstring efforts to keep this shit consistently appealing to the broader audience.
Sooner or later, the current LoL fan bases and CS fan bases are going to grow out of giving a shit, and who knows if the next generation of Twitch superstar games/gamers are going to scale well towards this sort of mass marketing/appeal.
Like if Im running an esports league, sooner or later I have to choose if I dump an old game with a waning appeal for a new one, and that strikes me as a damned if I do/dont situation. Technically we are still looking at the first generation of Twitch star games holding up the industry, I really am curious to see what happens when they pivot to the next best thing.
"Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness." - Alejandro Jodorowsky
"America is not so much a nightmare as a non-dream. The American non-dream is precisely a move to wipe the dream out of existence. The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set up by the non-dreamers." -- William S. Burroughs
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