Streaming service Twitch has banned one of its most popular broadcasters after he was accused of secretly owned a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive item gambling site. James "PhantomL0rd" Varga had his channel closed after Skype logs indicated that he owns a stake in CSGO Shuffle, a site that allowed players to gamble weapon skins from the popular Valve game, and had rigged bets in the past in his favor.
The accusations against Varga come in the same month that two other popular Counter-Strike streamers — Trevor "TmarTn" Martin and Tom "Syndicate" Cassell — were found to own another gambling site. Like Martin and Cassell, Varga used the gambling site he reportedly owns on his stream without disclosure, presenting multiple victories as the results of chance rather than potentially rigged pots. Varga was notably involved in a CSGO Shuffle bet worth over $100,000 last year — the largest in Counter-Strike gambling history. Unlike Martin and Cassell, however, Varga has not admitted to owning the site, remaining silent since his last video was posted to YouTube on July 16th.
Varga was the seventh-biggest streamer on Twitch
Varga was the seventh biggest streamer on Twitch, with 1.3 million followers, but even if his links to CSGO Shuffle aren't conclusively proven, he would no longer be able to broadcast himself engaging in any CS:GO gambling on the service. Twitch clarified that it would not allow its streamers to break third-party terms of service during their broadcasts, soon after Valve made it clear that people using Steam's functionality to trade Counter-Strike items on website like CSGO Shuffle was against its rules.
Valve claimed that it had not received any revenue from such sites, and said that it would request that they all cease operations using Steam's in-built trading options. The company has this week followed up that demand with cease and desist letters sent to more than 20 gambling sites, in which it gives them 10 days to stop using Steam accounts "for any commercial purpose," before Valve will "pursue all available remedies including without limitation terminating your accounts."