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A lawyer for CSGO Lotto claims that the website did not offer gambling of really money on the basis that customers could have played for free. All they had to do was read the fine print.
Last year, two YouTube stars, Trevor "TmarTn" Martin and Tom "Syndicate" Cassell, came under fire for failing to reveal their ownership interests in Counter-Strike: GO gambling website CSGO Lotto.
The site allowed users to win virtual Counter-Strike: GO skins using real money. Each skin can then be sold for as much as tens of thousands of dollars. CSGO Lotto and similar sites were accused of offering online gambling based on this platform. The company would later become the target of multiple civil lawsuits.
Attorney Coleman Watson says that CSGO Lotto was as much a gambling website as McDonald’s is a casino since the site would simply accept skins as tickets to enter its contests and there was always a way for people to get those tickets for free.
Watson alluded to McDonald’s running its famous Monopoly-themed game once a year.
From Polygon:
On every package of fries and on the side of softdrinks is a pull-tab, and some are instant winners that award cash, electronics or even cars. But the promotion, and others like it, isn’t gambling because there’s always a way to get one of those pull-tabs for free.
No purchase necessary. Some restrictions may apply.
“The trick to that is if you’re in McDonalds and you look at the display, it says you don’t have to buy any fries or Coke to play the game,” said Watson. “You just have to walk up to the counter and ask for a ticket. Then you mail it in and they’ll tell you if you won or not.
“Our business model for CSGO Lotto was no different than that. It would have allowed anyone who ever wanted to play the games for free skins to get them. All they had to do was ask.”
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
