Twitch Partial Gambling Ban Begins
Twitch’s ban on live streaming for unlicensed gambling sites has come into force. The new rules apply to a number of well-known crypto gambling operators, including Stake.com. The platform has not introduced an outright ban on streaming gambling activities, as poker, sports betting and fantasy sports content will be allowed to continue.
Twitch is a platform synonymous with gaming and esports, but this year has seen the popularity of live slots streams skyrocket. ©Yan Krukov/Pexels
Lucrative Sponsorships
Live streaming platform Twitch has introduced its partial gambling ban. The new rules, which came into force on October 18th, apply to betting and gaming sites that aren’t licensed in the US or other jurisdictions that provide sufficient consumer protection. The forms of gambling affected include slots, roulette and dice games.
The Amazon-owned company announced the changes last month. It had previously prohibited sharing links or referral codes to sites that offer slots, roulette and dice games, in order to combat scams and other harms arising from untrustworthy gambling sites. However, the site had become aware of instances in which streamers were circumventing those rules.
Twitch users are not allowed to share referral codes for online slots sites within the chat feed, refer to dice games or post banners or links to roulette games. This has not been enough to prevent the rise of sponsored streams, and in September TwitchTracker estimated that slots videos were the 10th most popular type of content on Twitch, overtaking live streams of gamers playing Minecraft.
In 2021, Matthew “Mizkif” Rinaudo told Wired Magazine that he was offered over $30,000 an hour to stream himself gambling. While he initially accepted offers from gambling operators, he later turned his back on working with crypto casinos. Another popular content creator, Tyler “Trainwreckstv” Niknam has more than 2.1 million followers. He claims that one gambling site has paid him more than $1 million a month to gamble with.
Other streamers that have gained notoriety for promoting gambling include Richard Bengston, of eSports group FaZe. He has claimed that at its highest point his website allowing users to gamble with CS:GO skins was making around $200,000 a day.
Crypto Gambling Sites Banned
Twitch’s latest policy update is designed to minimize the potential harm that Twitch viewers are exposed to. It has already named a number of banned sites, all of which offer crypto gambling. These are Stake.com, Rollbit.com, Duelbits.com and Roobet.com. The ban applies to all domain extensions of these sites, as well as free to play social versions.
Twitch says that it may add others to the list moving forwards. In deciding which sites are allowed, it has taken into account safety protections, such as deposit limits, time limits and age verification systems.
The ban is not an outright ban on streaming gambling activities. Twitch clarified that websites focusing on sports betting, fantasy sports and poker will be allowed to continue to feature in videos on the platform. Streamers are being given some leeway to adjust to the changes.
Initially warnings or suspensions will be issued, in a bid to be fair to streamers who may not have fully understood the new rules. In its community guidelines, Twitch stated that it takes into account whether streamers encourage or is VPNs to dodge geo-blocking, and if the site is licensed in the US or other specific jurisdictions.
The move comes in response to pressure placed on the platform to take action after streamer Abraham “Sliker” Mohammed scammed content creators and fans out of thousands of dollars to fund his gambling habit. The streamer said that what had started out as CS:GO skin betting developed into an addiction to gambling with real money.
In total, the streamer said that he had borrowed a total of £200,000 from other hosts, which he says he now intends to pay back in full. Some of the individuals that he borrowed money from have since said that Sliker has given excuses instead of paying them back, and that they still haven’t received the money they are owed.
New Measures Welcomed
The platform’s decision to block sites that aren’t licensed by trusted regulators has been welcomed by users of the platform, as well as operators. Poker was one of the earliest forms of gambling to become popular on Twitch. PokerStars has more than 300,000 followers on its channel, and will be glad that Twitch has not introduced a blanket ban on gambling streams.
Content promoting gambling has always proved divisive amongst Twitch users, but over recent months some well-known streamers have become increasingly critical of the platform. Some streamers have even threatened to strike or abandon the platform over the issue.
Devin Nash is one such streamer who has since left Twitch because of its gambling streams. He called them horrible and damaging to younger users of the platform, and has claimed that they bring down the quality of the site overall.
Imane “Pokimane” Anys and Matthew “Mizkif” Rinaudo, who together have millions of followers, had suggested leaving Twitch for a week at Christmas as a form of protest. They took to social media to celebrate the news that Twitch has banned some types of gambling, with Pokimane tweeting “we did it y’all”.
Those affected by the new rules are less pleased with the changes, and could have grounds to challenge them. Stake.com and Duelbits.com are both licensed to operate in the UK via white-label deals with TGP Europe.
The Isle of Man based operator is popular amongst Asian bookmakers, as it grants them access to advertise in the UK market through lucrative Premier League shirt sponsorships. Rollbit.com and Roobet.com do not carry licenses to operate in the US nor the UK.
