One of the seedier side effects of all the micro transactions in modern video games is that they’ve opened up the floodgates for blackmarket trading and gambling. Would you believe it, but there seem to be quite a few people falling foul of the law, and two men have pleaded guilty of breaching the UK Gambling Act with their FIFA Coins gambling site.
A key factor was that Craig Douglas and Dylan Rigby’s website, FUT Galaxy, would allow you to turn the virtual currency into real money, akin to cashing in your chips at a casino. Doing so without the appropriate licenses meant they were breaking the law.
Further to that, both were guilty of advertising unlawful gambling via Douglas’ YouTube channel, where he goes by the online handle Nepenthez and has over 1.3 million subscribers.
Gambling sites were propelled into the limelight last year when Trevor “Tmartn” Martin and Thomas “ProSyndicate” Cassell were exposed as the owners of CSGO Lotto, a site that they owned and could potentially manipulate for promotional videos through Martin’s YouTube channel that did not make full disclosure. It led to Valve changing its policies and banning CS:GO skins gambling and has seen a number of lawsuits filed in the US. There was also a really weird apology video in which Martin kissed his dog.
Source: BBC
PoolieMike
I used to play FIFA back in 08-12 with Nepenthez.
Pointless fact of the day for you there.
Tony Cawley
Should’ve stuck with him, then you too could be heading to prison for running a gambling operation without the correct license!
leeroye
I am sick of all these gambling options is games these days, especially when devs/publishers know kids play their games.
Buy this lucky box and see what random crap is inside, oh you didnt want that item, here buy another random box. The whole thing needs to made illegal, it just encourages kids to gamble. God knows how many of todays kids will have gambling addictions in the future as a direct result of this practice in todays games.
Whats even worse is when these two scumbags take full advantage.
Tony Cawley
I totally agree with you, I have no problem with randomised loot boxes or player packs or whatever in games, but when the option is added to buy them for real cash you’re headed into whole new territory altogether.
If the game is free to play, that’s one thing, they’ve got to make money some way. But in the instance of fully paid for AAA games like FIFA and Overwatch or CoD or whatever, I just don’t think it’s right at all.
Why should my son be hassling me to buy him Overwatch loot boxes when I’ve already spent £50 buying him the game?
The Lone Steven
Serves the bugger right. Hope this is the start of the end of gambling and that it will end up leading to Microtransaction loot stuff being eradicated in triple A games that cost £40+. Why should I feel the need to spend further cash on it just to try to get the stuff? Remember when it used to be free? Steven remembers. Steven also remembers that one game you played and don’t want anyone to find out. Would be a reaaal shame if it were to be leaked.