FBI Reportedly Investigating Video Game Match Fixing

Move over Dream and his highly suspicious Minecraft speed-run, it seems yet another video game has found itself embroiled in a major scandal, this time involving investigators beyond gaming-chair internet sleuths– the literal FBI. 

According to Kotaku, the FBI and the Esports Integrity Commission have apparently teamed up in a crackdown on match-fixing and illegal betting in Counterstrike, a highly competitive first-person shooter game. Already a problem in Australia, in which police and tournament organizers have gotten involved, the issue is apparently also occurring in North America, sparking an investigation “amongst a relatively small but significant group of players over a long period of time, organized match-fixing in North American MDL" that Ian Smith, the latter group's commissioner confirmed in an interview with gaming YouTuber, slash32.

“[It’s] what I would describe as classic match fixing — players being bribed by outside betting syndicates in order to fix matches, rather than players just doing it off their own bat opportunistically, and it’s being going on for longer, it’s much more organised," Smith explained. “So again, to some extent, we’re working with law enforcement and the FBI, who only recently have had a sports betting investigative unit within the FBI. They’re good, but they’re inexperienced because sports betting has never been a big thing in America until recently, so everybody’s kind of finding their feet on that one."

So folks, remember, virtual cheating is still cheating. Chill out. 

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