Managing Editor
The emperor has no clothes, and ‘Monarch’ is a self-proclaimed cult leader who tweets racial slurs on the regular. Someone had to say it.
If you’ve read about Ossi Ketola, aka Monarch, in recent poker media coverage, here’s what you probably know that he:
- Is a Finnish entrepreneur.
- Has something to do with “skin gambling” and is controversial in that world.
- Wears quirky outfits.
- Shows up at Triton High Roller events and challenges some of the best players in the game to play him for millions.
- Loses most of those matches and is rich enough not to care.
Somehow, no one mentions that he’s been tweeting the N-word at people every few months. Or that the source of the skin gambling controversy is that he’s notorious for organizing a mob — which he refers to as a “cult” — against his competitors in the unregulated gambling space.
That said, credit where credit is due: as I’m preparing to press publish on this piece, I note that Poker.org, at least, has decided to address the elephant in the room. Despite interviewing and reporting on him uncritically in the past, they have committed to addressing his behavior in future coverage. This should be the stance of all outlets.
Jungleman Pushes Back
Despite this failure by the poker media, the poker world itself is beginning to notice what Ketola is like.
Dan “Jungleman” Cates has been one of the primary beneficiaries of Monarch’s forays into poker, having beaten him to the tune of $15 million in August. He attempted to address the situation on X yesterday, tagging Monarch in a post that read:
it’s deeply upsetting many especially in US, a big market it seems that you’d like to appeal to, when you use the N word. I know that your country/ many European countries it doesn’t have the same stigma. But in the US / Americas many horrible, unbelievable atrocities were committed against the Africans. So out of respect we don’t use the N word. The level of evil extends far beyond what even the complainers know.
Monarch responded:
shut up n***** restore freedom of speech resist the psyops censorship is a slippery slope. fight against 1984
(Obviously, the actual post does not censor the word in question.)
Granted, it is difficult to do good journalism about a guy like Ketola. His backstory is a confusing web of allegations, counter-allegations, and personal drama with other figures in the gaming and skin betting worlds. He’s also very much a product of the “edgelord gamer” subculture, in which every statement is simultaneously an ironic joke, and yet also not.
But that’s not an excuse to gloss over Monarch’s dark side while we’re goggling at how much money he’s spewed off to players like Cates. He is coming to the poker space for attention, and we’re not doing our jobs if we allow him to dictate the terms on which he receives it.
So, What is This Edgelord Subculture?
The term “edgelord” refers to a type of internet persona characterized by performative irreverence in the name of “irony,” or pushing back against taboos. When criticized, such people will typically blame the accuser for failing to understand the supposed joke. However, internet communities heavily invested in this subculture, like 4chan, also end up fostering violent far-right ideologies. Because every instance of racism and misogyny is both a joke and also not, bigots can express their sincerely held views with impunity in these communities and recruit disaffected young men to their cause.
The consequences of that are real. Payton Gendron, who killed ten people in Buffalo in 2022, wrote a 180-page manifesto consisting largely of racist memes from 4chan. Numerous far-right nationalist and accelerationist groups rely heavily on the meme-based language of 4chan for their dogwhistles, most notably images of and references to the cartoon character Pepe the Frog.
During the latest exchange between Ketola and Cates, one X user replied: “You’re going to get kirked, my guy.”
One of many theories about the motivations of Charlie Kirk’s suspected assassin is that he was affiliated with one such group, the Groyper Army. The theory is based on apparent references to internet jokes and the video game Helldivers in messages carved into bullet casings found at the scene.
Even mainstream media is struggling to figure out how to discuss these groups. The lingo, memes, and causes involved are just too detached from the everyday experience of those who don’t walk in those circles. The closest the general public has come to an education on this culture was during GamerGate, a harassment campaign targeting female gaming reporters, whose participants felt they were crusading for “ethics in journalism.”
However, much of the discourse resulting from these connections ends up focusing on the mostly-debunked idea that violent games lead to real-world violence. The issue is more complex than that, and we’re getting away from the main subject of this piece.
Ketola’s Crusade Against Rival Gambling Sites
What’s important about GamerGate vis-a-vis Ketola is that it’s an example of how edgelord communities, despite their nihilism when it comes to most real-world political issues, can become very caught up in idiosyncratic crusades.
Much of the lore around Monarch results from a long-running feud between his skin betting site, CSGOEmpire, and the rival CSGORoll. The very short version is that Ketola accused the latter of being fraudulent and rallied followers to stage protests against CSGORoll. These included storming the stage at an esports event, as well as stalking and harassing content creators affiliated with CSGORoll.
That followership dates back to a separate dispute between Ketola and another gamer going by “Jofa,” which involved the game RuneScape and played out on Ylilauta, a Finnish message board functionally and culturally similar to 4chan.
So, when Monarch talks about his “cult,” it’s much like the slurs: simultaneously a joke, and also not.
On Skin Betting, and Monarch’s Accusations Against CSGORoll
“Skin betting” is one of many forms of unregulated gambling that uses technology and legal blind spots to make an end-run around gambling laws in the U.S. and elsewhere. That includes Monarch’s home country of Finland.
“Skins” here refer to cosmetic in-game items that can be purchased in various video games and, crucially, traded between users. That ability to transfer ownership of items creates an informal economy around these games, very similar to that around physical collectibles in the real world.
Most skin betting focuses on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO), because some of the items in that game are extremely rare and expensive. Third-party casino sites allow players to exchange those in-game items for site credit, gamble with it, and “cash out” by purchasing skins back from the house.
Monarch’s accusations against CSGORoll began with the observation that the rival site had an ongoing promotion that gave out free credit. This, he said, would inevitably create the situation that there would be more tokens in circulation than the site could cover with the skins it was keeping as collateral. That situation is similar to the failure by some offshore real-money sites to segregate user funds. In the past, that has indeed caused sites like Lock Poker to implode dramatically and take their users’ balances with them.
So, in that regard, Ketola wasn’t entirely wrong to describe CSGORoll as a “Ponzi scheme.” However, the tactics he and his followers employed to try to take them down were controversial, especially in light of the fact that he stood to gain personally by taking out a rival.
Ketola’s Foray Into Real-Money Gaming
Monarch’s motivation for his poker appearances may be to drum up attention for his new endeavor, Duel. Unlike CSGOEmpire, this is a traditional iGaming site, using actual money rather than skins. However, its self-presentation is anything but traditional.
On an expletive-laden About Us page, the site claims:
The world needs Duel as much as junkies need pure meth instead of shit laced with fentanyl.
It also includes a link to Ketola’s personal Discord server, branded as an invitation to “join the cult.”
Activity on the server, predictably enough, consists mostly of information on the supposed scams conducted by CSGORoll, overtly racist memes, and commentary on Monarch’s poker antics.
The Duel website also insinuates that most other gambling operators — not just CSGORoll — are fraudulent. In interviews, Ketola has indicated that these latest accusations relate to technology he feels should be adopted by all gambling sites to prove the integrity of their random-number generation. Regulated casinos use third-party testing services to certify their authenticity. However, some blockchain-based cryptocasinos tout technology that they say allows users to verify the randomness for themselves.
Ketola has said that he thinks any site not adopting such a system can be assumed to be fraudulent.
