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Twitch on Tuesday announced a ban on streaming unlicensed gambling sites, including slots, roulette and dice websites, starting next month.
Sites that will now be prohibited include Stake.com, Rollbit.com, Duelbits.com, and Roobet.com. More websites may be banned at a later date, Twitch said in a statement posted to Twitter. Websites focusing on sports betting, fantasy sports and poker will still be permitted.
The news comes after some of Twitch’s biggest streamers — such as Imane “Pokimane” Anys, Matthew “Mizkif” Rinaudo and Devin Nash — threatened a potential boycott of the platform during the week of Christmas, Kotaku reported.
While gambling streams are not new to the platform, in recent years some on the platform have argued that “rich creators promoted potentially harmful content to young, impressionable fans,” according to Kotaku. A number of creators have been pushing Twitch to do something about online gambling streams, citing potential dangers to younger users. Some have used the hashtag #twitchstopgambling on Twitter to raise awareness surrounding the gambling streams.
Most recently, Twitch users expressed outrage after a streamer known as Sliker said he scammed his followers and other Twitch streamers out of money in the video game “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.” In a video uploaded on Saturday, Sliker, whose real name is Abraham Mohammed, teared up after claiming that he scammed people out of more than $200,000, to feed his gambling addiction.
Sliker did not immediately respond to request for comment.
In a lengthy Twitter thread on Sunday, Nash wrote: “Gambling is horrible for the platform. Get rid of it.” He said it’s “damaging to young Twitch users, bad for legitimate advertisers, and brings down the quality of the whole site.” He also described the issue as “a platform problem, not a people problem.”
Pokimane tweeted on Monday “like if twitch should ban gambling.” The post garnered over 310,000 likes.
Twitch had already prohibited users from sharing links or referral codes to sites that include slots, roulette or dice games.
However, the new policy is being enacted after Twitch said it has “seen some people circumvent those rules and expose our community to potential harm.”
Twitch’s new ban on the streaming of sites “that include slots, roulette, or dice games that aren’t licensed either in the U.S. or other jurisdictions that provide sufficient consumer protection” will go into effect on Oct. 18, the company said in its Twitter statement. Specifics on the updates to the policy will be shared before the rules take effect.
A spokesperson for Twitch said the company has no further comment beyond the statement posted to Twitter.
Pokimane celebrated Twitch’s announcement on Tuesday, writing “we did it y’all. public pressure, tweets, raising awareness, it all matters.”
Hasan Piker, who goes by Hasanabi on Twitch, also expressed enthusiasm. “W,” he wrote, linking to Twitch’s announcement.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com