Earlier in the week, it came to light that two famous YouTubers had been using their videos to promote a CSGO betting site that they own, without disclosing the fact that they own it.
Obviously, this raised questions of morality (and legality), as well as the possibility that the pair could easily have rigged the videos in which they win big in order to draw more people to their site.
It seems we’re down the rabbit hole now – another YouTuber has recently come forward and admitted to recording a rigged video in exchange for a payoff.
British streamer Lewis “PsiSyndicate” Stewart uploaded a video that sees him admitting to taking two Counter-Strike: Global Offensive weapon skins worth $3,200 (roughly £2,400) to record a pair of videos promoting a site called Steam Lotto.
As you can probably guess, the videos were setup so that Stewart would win those skins while recording himself playing on the site. You can see his confession below.
To be fair to Stewart, he mentions that he gave away what he made from those illicit clips:
Everything I gained from the video I gave away and more to prove to people that it was wrong that it was rigged, but it was rigged anyway, but still I gave away that stuff. I’m not trying to make out that I’m an angel but I’m trying to make it okay.
Stewart has since added disclaimers to the two rigged videos (below), explaining that they were entirely set up.
Since uploading his initial admission video, Stewart has filmed another in which he discusses the responses to his revelation.
You can watch that one below, but spoiler alert: People weren’t thrilled with him.
In the above video, Stewart goes one further and shares screen-grabs of regular offers he receives to promote betting sites. Take a look at a small sampling…
Kotaku
There’s nothing to suggest that these are legitimate offers – spam is everywhere, after all – but spam or not, this is a troubling indication that promoting betting sites on YouTube is a regular thing.
In another twist, one of the YouTubers embroiled in the original CSGO scandal – TmarTn – has since issued an ‘apology’ video in which he sort-of-but-not-really says sorry. His upload was soon deleted for unknown reasons, but you can watch a rip of it below.
https://youtu.be/dgLdAAg9Vdw
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.