British YouTuber NepentheZ has been charged with inviting children to gamble along with promoting and advertising an unlawful lottery. The popular FIFA YouTuber Craig Douglas (NepentheZ) has over 1,300,000 subscribers (many of which are under the age of 18). Craig and Dylan Rigby appeared at the Birmingham Magistrates’ Court today in a case that is set to resume October 14th, 2016. Here is what you need to know about the NepentheZ underaged gambling scandal.
I have embedded a video from HonorTheCall describing the NepentheZ underaged gambling situation in great detail. You will probably recognize his voice from his coverage of the TmarTn/ProSyndicate scandal involving CSGOLotto this summer. In today’s video he provides evidence of NepentheZ being a director for this underaged gambling site, as well as proof that he wagered on his own site.
I will summarize the contents of HonorTheCall’s video but I highly recommend that you watch it for yourself. Not only does it do a phenomenal job of explaining everything you need to know but he has also put a lot of work into presenting this year’s underaged gambling scandals. NepentheZ sent out a tweet earlier today confirming that this story was true and that he would make a video discussing what had happened at a later date. Both of these tweets have since been deleted.
HonorTheCall provides evidence that Craig Douglas (NepentheZ) is a director at the underaged gambling site known as FUT Galaxy. Here is a screenshot showing that the child betting site is owned by Game Gold Trading Limited:
And here is a screenshot that shows Craig Douglas (NepentheZ) is an active director at Game Gold Tradings Limited (appointed on October 1st, 2015):
The significance of the date is that NepentheZ began releasing videos showing himself betting on FUT Galaxy days after being appointed the director. Here is a screenshot from a NepentheZ underaged gambling video uploaded on October 3rd where he can be seen placing wagers on the site.
Here is the same NepentheZ underaged gambling video description showing no indication or sponsorship or directorship, which in itself is illegal:
HonorTheCall found some screenshots of fans predicting the NepentheZ underaged gambling scandal almost a year ago. Here is one from YouTube where a commenter said that FUT Galaxy were paying him money to promote the site to underaged gamblers, and that his actions were dishonest and unethical:
One of NepentheZ’s Twitter followers knew there was going to be trouble after Craig sent out a tweet advertising a wager he had just placed on the site in June of 2015:
Once Kenan heard the news of the NepentheZ underaged gambling case he immediately signed on Twitter to drop a well deserved I-told-you-so:
The problem with advertising a betting site that accepts “virtual” currency is that there is a monetary value attached to it. This was made evident with Counterstrike weapon skins. There are tons of marketplace sites that allow you to buy and sell FIFA coins for real money. HonorTheCall cites a NepentheZ underaged gambling video in which he himself compares gambling on FUT Galaxy to CSGO gambling. He mentions to his young audience that they can buy FIFA coins with their money in order to bet on the site. You can listen to this clip on HonorTheCall’s video:
HonorTheCall goes on to provide evidence that the company that owns FUT Galaxy moved from Essex to Costa Rica. HTC says he believes this was for tax purposes, but I believe it had more to do with the lax online gambling laws in the Central American and Caribbean countries. It could have been a desperation attempt to save them from legal trouble (although that clearly did not work). HonorTheCall notes that the company also operates a CSGO gambling site which still appears to still be operational.
HonorTheCall ends off with a message to the United Kingdom gambling commission asking them to take a look at the actions the faces of underaged gambling TmarTn and ProSyndicate as they determine how to deal with sites like this. Be sure to subscribe to HonorTheCall’s channel for more coverage of this case once they return to court on October 14th, 2016.
