February 7 – Two British-based gaming enthusiasts who ran a betting website connected to FIFA’s globally popular EA Sports video game have pleaded guilty to breaching Britain’s gambling laws in a landmark case.
Craig Douglas, a prominent gamer known by the YouTube alias Nepenthez, and his business partner Dylan Rigby ran a “social gaming” website that let video gamers gamble virtual currency.
Douglas promoted the website to fans of his YouTube channel, which has more than 1.3 million subscribers, but was ordered to pay £91,000 in fines and costs when the case came to court while Rigby’s fines totalled £174,000.
The case marked the first time Britain’s gambling commission had prosecuted individuals for running an unlicensed gambling website connected to a video game.
The website was called FUT Galaxy and allowed players to transfer virtual currency out of the FIFA 17 video game – and use it to bet on genuine live matches. Winnings could then be transferred back in to the FIFA game.
Douglas admitted a charge of being an officer of a firm that provided facilities for gambling without an operating licence, and a further offence relating to the advertising of unlawful gambling. Rigby pleaded guilty to two charges connected to the provision of facilities for gambling, and a third offence linked to advertising illegal gambling.
FutGalaxy took bets on matches played in the UK, France, Germany and Italy and the court in Birmingham heard that the website, which had more than a million subscribers, had no age restrictions effectively allowing children to use a credit card to place bets. The court was told that the unregulated site generated pre-tax profit of about £96,000 between July 2015 and February 2016 and that one 14-year-old lost £586 in a day.
The district judge, Jack McGarva said the two men had not been honest about their finances and added: “The aggravating features of these offences are they were committed over a relatively long period of about six months. Children were gambling on your site. It’s impossible for me to know how many or the effect on them.
“In my opinion, both of you were aware of the use of the site by children and the attractiveness of it to children. At the very least, you both turned a blind eye to it.”
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