Phantoml0rd has always been one of the big spenders during his streaming hours. Dropping exuberant amounts of money (skins) on various betting sites, Phantoml0rd always pulled in thousands of viewers who would literally sit and watch him gamble. He was part of the original problem when Twitch viewers lobbied for a gambling subcategory as Phamtoml0rd did little to no actual CS:GO anymore. Needless to say PL won a lot of money, and I mean a metric crap ton of cash via one site in particular – CSGOShuffle.
After Tmartn and Syndicate were exposed for their undisclosed ownership of the site CSGOLotto, an aura of doubt was cast on almost every big spender who partook in the lucrative skin gambling world. It’s a shady world which Valve put a damper on when they changed their trading regulations last week – which has somewhat done away with gambling sites who occupied a grey area in the gambling world. We thought the gambling drama was done, for now, but it seems the world’s best eSports journalist, and personal hero of mine, Richard Lewis has uncovered another snake in the grass.
The video above is mostly a Skype conversation between the developer of CSGOShuffle, Joris, and James “Phantoml0rd” Varga, the assumed owner. Richard Lewis uncovered these documents from an unknown source who had hacked into PLs Skype trying to perhaps get ahead on some skin gambling. It was there that he uncovered the horrible truth that Phantoml0rd was perhaps owner of CSGOShuffle. There was money trading hands in terms of payments for Joris, and it seems that percentages may have been altered to favour Phantoml0rd as he placed bets live on stream. In the Skype conversation Phantoml0rd even indicated that FaZe Clan (or members of) may also be involved with the gambling site CSGOWild, which has since also come under fire.
What Phantoml0rd has done here is extremely shady, and illegal. He could honestly face charges and even prison time for what he has done. He has conned people out of large sums of money by asking a developer to tell him the odds on certain bets. He also broke the Terms of Service of both YouTube and Twitch, which are his main source of income. Let’s not forget how this conversation has led members of the FaZe Call of Duty team on a damage control warpath as they’ve gone around editing and taking videos down.
Phatonml0rd has not responded on any social media since this news was made public. It’s clear that he is not trying to make the same mistakes as CSGOLotto by going on social media.
Last Updated: July 18, 2016
Darren Peach
July 18, 2016 at 11:06
This article is bizarre. I bet the whole Gamer-gate saga started with a article similar to this, Out of site and out of mind until the mainstream got hold of it. Personally, I think there should be a respectable divide between gaming and gambling………..
Kromas GG
July 18, 2016 at 11:17
This is less of a gaming scandal than a Youtube scandal. Similar to paid for or sponsored reviews a while back.
Darren Peach
July 18, 2016 at 11:18
I guess there is a good reason I instinctively feel disgust when the topic of gambling enters any community. Gaming is good. Gambling destroys lives.
Kromas GG
July 18, 2016 at 11:20
Well unless you play WoW. That game can destroy lives. 😛
Darren Peach
July 18, 2016 at 11:20
Yeah, I dodged that one 😉
Kromas GG
July 18, 2016 at 11:21
I did not. Legion pre-patch hits wednesday! 🙂
Darren Peach
July 18, 2016 at 11:23
Good for you. Now remember to stop and eat food once every eight hours and also be wary of deep vein thrombosis. 😛
Kromas GG
July 18, 2016 at 11:24
Yeah between work and other stuff I will only really get into it on weekends. Social life is already dead with Overwatch so I am good to go.
Darren Peach
July 18, 2016 at 11:26
I worry, I have yet to play Overwatch. I reckon the bus has already left the station on that one.
Kromas GG
July 18, 2016 at 11:34
Not really. I can see this game lasting a long long time. I mean Blizzard games generally do.
Darren Peach
July 18, 2016 at 11:36
Yeah, But I would prefer not to start in the petting zoo… If you know what I mean.
CongoKyle
July 18, 2016 at 14:43
It’s a bit of both since not only did some of these YouTuber’s not disclose their involvement, they also use the site to alter their chances of winning which is a major gambling scandal.
dash2026
July 18, 2016 at 20:43
Umm other then the fact he rigged rolls against other gamblers using csgo skins, this is very very big news in the csgo community and mostly viewed on twitch PL would have up to 30k viewers live and we all know twitch is all about the gaming community.
So to call this a youtube scandal is selling this short.
Kromas GG
July 18, 2016 at 22:44
Don’t get me wrong. It is a huge scandal but let us face facts. Twitch/Youtube is the main catalyst here. If he did not stream this then this would never have happened. This could have happened to any medium that has such a trade system in place.
Joon Lee
July 19, 2016 at 05:29
Mind you, trading systems are perfectly okay in their nature. However, third party gambling sites that USED the trading API of Valve-owned Steam, led to them hauling off to become another industry of CSGO (primarily, and by themselves). It’s not difficult for a coder to develop a trading bot system with Steam’s API and thus allow skin bettors/gamblers to be able to deposit onto their hosted websites. Some sites were officially partnered with Valve, although Valve claimed that they received none of the revenue that the sites were able to rake in.
Now, you’re saying that if PL wasn’t allowed, or didn’t, stream himself gambling for his large crowds of viewers, then these scandals wouldn’t take place? First of all, I think you should consider the fact that he was exposed through Skype messages; they were lengthy in conversation and extended for several months as Richard Lewis partially published. Heck, even if he didn’t stream this; any hacker (like the dude that transferred his Skype logs to Richard L.) would have tried to attack him. You kind of can’t prevent that from happening afaik. There are a LOT of streamers that went on to gamble on various sites, popular and small all the same. PL wasn’t the only one doing it, he was probably one of the few ones that did it for tens of thousands of viewers though. Nonetheless, props to YouTube and Twitch for finally reacting with strictness regarding gambling content. If it weren’t for these scandals and frauds being exposed, they’d still remain greedy and be scamming people’s money all over the place, which is what gambling is somewhat about. The first reveal was CSGOLotto, and that led to a chain of reveals and investigations, then came the regional and global gambling bans across gambling sites. The most popular ones are slowly shutting down and calling it quits as they frantically collected their profits and practically ran. Some smaller sites are still functioning, as they don’t care, which is understandable.
dash2026
July 19, 2016 at 07:27
yeah cos twitch is not targeted at the gaming community, and they are not using gaming currency or anything! it has nothing to do with gaming community at all!
Kromas GG
July 19, 2016 at 08:16
Did not say it had nothing to do with gaming at all. Just saying that streaming is the main culprit because you can replace pc gaming with TCG gaming and still basically have the same effect HOWEVER you can’t replace streaming as it is the medium that this happened through. Without streaming capabilities you would not have had this scam happening. Yes the sites would still be up but the “advertisement” of said sites would be mainly through word of mouth and that draws in a hell of a lot less people.
dash2026
July 19, 2016 at 09:20
once again you miss the point completely, the reason they got away with it for so long, is its unregulated since they are using skins as “chips” and not real $ to by pass the gambling restrictions and laws, you cant replace it was a TCG at all your analogy falls flat on its face, games of “skill” are not classed under the same laws.
Yes streaming was there advertisement but just like you replaced gaming with TCG (another form of gaming) you can replace streaming with TV or Radio this is all ignoring the sponsorship of competitions and pro gaming teams both of which would not even exist with out streaming.
If you take streaming away we would not have a Esports in the first place they are yes intertwined so to try and just blame it on streaming is so naive that if you do not get it at this point there is no point talking to you any longer.
Kromas GG
July 19, 2016 at 09:29
No you are missing the point completely. I used TCG as an example of say card trading gambling and not money so I will use another example. Pogs for Boglins (look it up).
Also streaming will never be the same as traditional media as streaming is completely free and has a extremely targeted user base. TV does not and adds or shows costs a lot fo money and then there is prime time spots etc.
Then finally once again I am not exclusively blaming streaming but most of the blame can be attributed to rules and regulations on streaming itself. This however is a non issues since those rules and regulations (called the community guidelines btw) has now been changed.
dash2026
July 20, 2016 at 09:12
ever herd Community TV stations? convenent you ingored radio its not like they can be compared to streaming at all ether. also the twitch TOS never changed what changed as valves stance on it witch in turn forced twitch to enforce said rules. but you CLEARLY know exactly whats been going on /s
atticus
July 20, 2016 at 17:55
Why are you shifting the blame from him?
Kromas GG
July 21, 2016 at 07:03
Not shifting the blame from him. He is an ass and should be convicted as a criminal. Just trying to shift the eventual blame from gaming. Guy shoots up a school and the focus immediatly goes to him owning a copy of Doom.
CongoKyle
July 18, 2016 at 14:34
There is, and major companies have started cracking down. Valve changed their trading rules, and Twitch banned gambling on their website. The shitstorm I’ve been hinting at for months has finally broken shore.
Darren Peach
July 18, 2016 at 14:38
I went and looked a little deeper via google. Dang, People can be dicks. I have zero sympathy for these guys.
CongoKyle
July 18, 2016 at 14:42
We’ve been covering it for the past two weeks, did some summaries and stuff like that. I think Geoff was the one who broke it last week with the h3h3productions reveal.
Darren Peach
July 18, 2016 at 14:59
I have been offline only ever coming online to check my mail and view a quick article or two for the last couple of weeks. So I guess I missed most of what you covered.
Skyblue
July 18, 2016 at 11:12
What a scumbag! Send him to jail. Good watch and very damning evidence.
Darren Peach
July 18, 2016 at 11:14
Eish, It’s all rather disgusting, Gambling in the same breath as gaming. No. Not cool.
Original Heretic
July 18, 2016 at 11:15
This, right here.^^^^^^^^^^
CongoKyle
July 18, 2016 at 14:33
Right? Richard Lewis is a major inspiration to me. He does so much great work in eSports journalism. Even though he rightfully punched Loda in the face, he’s still extremely professional and always does 110% due diligence when exposing anything.
Skyblue
July 18, 2016 at 14:51
Never realized it was the same journalist from that incident. He’s even cooler now that I know that, lol.
Joon Lee
July 19, 2016 at 05:31
Most famously known for the ibuypower scandal where he personally investigated and exposed the IBP team at the time, for supposedly match-fixing and intentionally throwing odd-favored matches so they could rake in much more money from match-betting sites. Basically, they bet on themselves to lose, as some of the members (as it was revealed) intentionally threw to lose certain matches.
Kromas GG
July 18, 2016 at 11:14
I played the original CS mod. after that I lost all interrest. Good thing cause I heard the community is terrible and this gambling thing is out of hand. Play Overwatch instead. The community is terrible but at least there is no gambling scandals. 😛
Just bloody Bastion. 🙁
Darren Peach
July 18, 2016 at 11:19
Kinda makes paid DLC less of a problem.
HairyEwok
July 18, 2016 at 11:32
Better sell my weapon skins while they have some value XD. I think the skin system will take a heavy blow once the gambling comes to a complete halt.
BakedBagel
July 18, 2016 at 13:54
As much as i want to see him get charged.
The evidence was obtained. Illegally.
With my very little knowledge of American law, evidence if obtained illegally cannot stand in court?
CongoKyle
July 18, 2016 at 14:31
You’re right (I think) but that won’t stop his career as a streamer/YouTuber from ending, as he violated the ToS of YouTube and Twitch. He has gone quiet over the past two days since the news surfaced. Before it came out he started streaming League of Legends, so I think he knew he was going to be caught sooner or later, or because of the trade rules he knew he’d be fucked.
Needless to say he’s going to lose a lot of business over this and I’m unsure if he can bounce back. It still won’t stop the lawsuits from other streamers and users from pouring in, whether or not the evidence was obtained legally.
BakedBagel
July 18, 2016 at 15:19
Damn straight he can kiss goodbye to any business involving him or his name.
I would love to know what the FTC thinks about all of this. And when will their judgement be a reality
Joon Lee
July 19, 2016 at 05:46
With my very little knowledge of US law, I’m pretty sure that the illegally obtained evidence can still be used in courts if lawsuits are pursued, which I assume will be as they continue to investigate and potentially file charges (which again I hope they do).
The thing with cyber attacks is that in reality, they are by all means illegal. Hacking into someone’s privacy and looking through their conversations is not okay, regardless of they know about it or not. In this case, Phantomlord probably didn’t, even though in Richard Lewis’ video he reveals that Phantomlord supposed changed the password to his Skype account after several months. However, it wasn’t known if he did it out of plain security or suspected that he was cyber-attacked.
What I’m trying to say is, this hacker (if found out) will face problems on his behalf due to his actions, which Richard Lewis could potentially support for if officials were to want to deal with him. However, the information that the hacker obtained and passed on to Richard Lewis, absolutely stands as clear evidence that Phantomlord was involved in breaking the law. The information is already there, it was just a matter of the hacker actually getting in and collecting it for the public, which wasn’t even his goal at first (according to Richard Lewis). In the time that if Phantomlord is being sued, the Skype logs stand as distinct, undeniable truth that Phantomlord not only violated the ToS of YouTube/Twitch/Steam, but was also involved in permitting/promoting underage gambling, and most importantly – undisclosed ownership of a gambling website and possibly ‘stole’ several million dollars worth of assets for his own enjoyment and greedy self in the course of several months as he worked alongside other shady owners and developers to potentially expand the business and find more ways to advertise and rake in more money. That’s about as worse as it gets, and this obviously gets filed under civil lawsuits when they do commit and proceed to charge him. You could certainly expect follow-ups to this because this is not at all over.
kira
July 18, 2016 at 15:45
This guy should be in jail just like those Faze guys. Obviously rigged.
CongoKyle
July 18, 2016 at 19:27
He’s one of the guys from FaZe who has since been editing and removing his videos.
Darren Peach
July 18, 2016 at 16:40
Still shocked over all of this. Can you believe it. I guess this reiterates the importance of the freedom of the press. SABC take note….
Ann Shepard
February 13, 2017 at 00:31
tell me CS:GO betting site that you can trust
Don
February 19, 2017 at 23:25
tell me a site where you can place your bet ???
Catherine
February 24, 2017 at 14:05
here is a good site HERE