"It doesn’t strike me as a malicious thing” - CaptainSparklez on allegations that MrBeast ran an "illegal lottery"

Minecraft YouTuber and Twitch streamer Jordan "CaptainSparklez" (11.4 million subscribers) shared a video, giving his take on the ongoing MrBeast (aka Jimmy) allegations. For context, on July 24, 2024, a YouTuber and former MrBeast employee named DogPack404 made a series of allegations against the latter. One of the allegations stated that the YouTuber had conducted an "illegal lottery."

Earlier today (August 1), CaptainSparklez weighed in on the situation and explained that MrBeast's giveaways were indeed unlawful. However, he also defended him, stating that he believed Jimmy had no "malicious intent." He said:

"As long as people received what they were promised, it doesn't strike me as a malicious thing to do. It seems more like an oversight and not realizing that you are not allowed to do it."

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Why does CaptainSparklez label MrBeast's past lotteries to be "illegal"?

CaptainSparklez uploaded a 16-minute video discussing the recent MrBeast situation, explaining that the past lotteries conducted by the YouTuber were indeed "illegal." He explained that these lotteries often lead to gambling addiction or tendencies:

"What's the hubbub? Why do these laws exist that lotteries are illegal unless they are run by the government? It's to protect them from themselves really. We don't want people gambling away their life savings hoping that they are going to win whatever the prize is."

(Timestamp: 05:11)

He further illustrated this point by giving an example:

"Giving away something of monetary value while your chat is in subscriber mode if it's Twitch or in member mode if it's YouTube, that is an illegal lottery because what someone could do is they could create 100 new accounts, subscribe on all of them, and therefore increase their chances of winning them."

He did, however, add that many creators (in this case, MrBeast), especially the new ones, might not be aware of this:

"I don't necessarily think that the creator is hoping for that to take place, they are not hoping for someone to gamble their life savings, make alt-accounts, it's just not something you probably think about very much if you're getting into this, you're young and you don't know about the rules."

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MrBeast has not yet shared an official statement regarding the allegations. However, in DogPack404's video, it was also alleged that some of the giveaway winners did not receive the products they were promised.