A YOUTUBER from Colchester has been accused of promoting illegal betting on video games.

Dylan Rigby, and his business partner Craig Douglas, are believed to be the first to be prosecuted for alleged offences involving betting on video games.

It is claimed they encouraged people to gamble with in-game purchases, such as in-game coins on the Fifa football games, which can be exchanged or used as currency to bet for cash on other sites.

Rigby, 33, of Creffield Road, Colchester, appeared at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court accused of six counts of providing facilities for gambling contrary to the Gambling Act.

He was also charged with two counts of promoting a lottery without holding a licence to do so and two counts of advertising unlawful gambling.

Douglas, 31, of Robinia Close, Ilford, was charged with two counts of promoting a lottery without holding a licence, inviting a child to gamble and two counts of advertising unlawful gambling.

Rigby is the major shareholder and director of Game Gold Tradings Limited.

Douglas, who posts videos online to his more than one million subscribers under the pseudonym Nepenthez, is his business partner at the company registered at Weston Business Centre in Colchester until earlier this month.

They were investigated by the UK Gambling Commission after allegedly promoting gambling with Rigby accused of using his now deactivated FUTGalaxy channel to facilitate gambling and now removed videos allegedly showing Douglas betting on it via the site to encourage others to follow.

The videos have since been taken down but clips on Youtube about the criminal investigation have reached more than one million viewers.

Charges followed on from a long term investigation by the Gambling Commission into the rise of video game gambling.

The commission is looking into sites which offer gamers a chance to play while putting down cash to win rewards.

This could act as a test case with other investigations currently taking place into the estimated £4billion industry.

The commission has also released statements warning parents of the hidden risk.

It is feared children can be drawn into betting on in-game items, which can be won, traded, sold or used as virtual currency to gamble with or even converted into cash.

The virtual currencies and social gaming points are known as “skins” and a number of gambling websites will accept these as stakes to win cash from.

A spokesman for the commission stated it is interested in virtual currencies and in-game items which are sold, traded and used.

The Gambling Act 2005 was brought into law before many of these “skins” were available.

An operating licence is required by those inviting others to gamble with money or “money’s worth”.

The case has been adjourned with Rigby and Douglas due to make a second appeareance on October 14.