Twitch bans gambling in wake of streamer outrage

Twitch has announced plans to ban slots, dice games and roulette from being streamed on its platform in the wake of streamer outrage.

Twitch has announced a ban on streaming of gambling sites, specifically sites that include slots, roulette, and dice games that aren’t licensed in the US or similar jurisdictions with consumer protection.

In a statement released on Twitter, the streaming giant specifically named several websites, including Stake.com, Rollbit.com, Duelbits.com, and Roobet.com, but Twitch said it may identify more websites in the future.

These websites have exploded in popularity due in no small part to Twitch’s official category for gambling, named “Slots”. The ban will take place on October 18, and sports betting and poker will not be affected.

For months, concerns have been building about the dangers of not only allowing but officially recognising gambling as entertainment on streaming services like Twitch, which is regularly used by children and young adults.

Canadian Twitch streamer and YouTuber Imane 'Pokimane' Anys, who had lobbbied for the ban, wrote on Twitter: “We did it y’all. Public pressure, tweets, raising awareness, it all matters.”

we did it y’all.

public pressure, tweets, raising awareness, it all matters. https://t.co/FtC7h0Za7e

— pokimane 🤍 (@pokimanelol) September 20, 2022

I’m working with @xQc to pay everyone back who got scammed by sliker

It’s time @Twitch does something about gambling streams

— ludwig (@LudwigAhgren) September 18, 2022

like if @Twitch should ban gambling

— Mizkif (@REALMizkif) September 18, 2022

Imane 'Pokimane' Anys and Ludwig Anders Ahgren spoke out against gambling on Twitch. Picture: Instagram

It does strike me as weird that @Twitch staff are in Trainwreckstv's chat and accepting $50,000 in crypto from him.

It must be hard to see clearly when deciding whether to regulate the person that just paid near your entire salary in one bitcoin transaction. #TwitchStopGamblingpic.twitter.com/1fv9q30oUC

— ostonox (@ostonox) September 20, 2022

Twitch issues this statement about changes to its policy regarding gambling. Picture: Twitter

Twitch’s statement comes amid mounting pressure from top streamers to protest the platform, days after a prominent streamer’s shock confession he had been borrowing money from fans and other streamers to feed his gambling addiction.

The decision was well received, however some have questioned by why Twitch was so quick to act on this issue but slow to respond to other problems facing the streaming platform.

It has been suggested the reason Twitch was so quick to move on the gambling ban may be due to recent allegations that two Twitch staffers, Rellim and Pepegafish, received a combined $US80,000 ($120,113) in cryptocurrency payments from a top streamer named Trainwreck during one of his gambling streams.

Trainwreck and xQc are two of the most popular streamers on Twitch and have spoken out against the ban.

Both have focused heavily on streaming gambling games and receive large amounts of money from the betting websites named in Switch’s statement, with some payments rumoured to be millions of dollars a year.

Written by Junior Miyai on behalf of GLHF.