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Team Faze Clan Members Failed To Disclose CS:GO Gambling Sponsorships
The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) skin gambling story continues to unravel. This time, an esports club with an active CS:GO team failed to disclose sponsorship and stands accused of having ownership interest in a site.
Honor the Call, which broke the news about both Tom “ProSyndicate” Cassell and Trevor “TmarTn” Martin’s ownership of skin gambling site CSGOLotto has discovered clear evidence of FTC violations. We confirmed that videos posted by Shat were changed months later to include a disclosure after the Martin/Cassell scandal broke (before/after). Other members of Faze Clan, including Alex “Adapt” Prynkiewicz and Lucas “Blaziken” Mosing have posted videos of winning on CSGOWild.
No disclosure is listed in the descriptions of those videos. However, we cannot at this time discern if these specific members were sponsored by CSGOWild.
The channel also alleges that the owners of Faze Clan, Nordan “Faze Rain” Shat and Richard “Faze Banks” Bengtson, have an ownership interest in gambling site CSGOWild. We’ve reached out to Faze Clan for comment, but in the meantime, both Banks and Shat have denied (via Twitter) owning the organization.
Likewise, CSGOWild has denied any ownership affiliation with Faze Clan. The note posted by the official CSGOWild Twitter account does confirm that multiple members received sponsorships, including cash, skins, and the site’s currency for betting. Further, the site outright denies altering betting results, which has been a verified problem with other influencers, remains a big question in the CSGOLotto case, and has been an accusation levied at Twitch-banned gambler James “PhantomL0rd” Varga.
We’ll update should we receive a response from Faze Clan or receive new, verifiable information on this situation. For more on the CS:GO skin gambling fraud epidemic, check out our most recent coverage of the CSGOLotto matter, Lewis “PsiSyndicate” Stewart’s fraudulent videos, and Varga’s ban from Twitch. You can also read an opinion piece about accountability, influencers, and the media.
CSGOWild is one of the many sites specifically targeted by Valve in a recent cease and desist letter. While the site is shutting down, the disclosure issues (and any others that may have been perpetrated by Faze Clan) will outlast it.
[Source: Honor The Call]
Our Take
Even without a confirmed ownership relationship, members of Faze Clan took money from a gambling site, promoted that site to millions of underage viewers, and failed to disclose that their winnings were sponsored by CS:GO Wild. Preying on children is utterly disgusting, and I am very interested to see if and how the FTC handles this.
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