Twitch has banned the streaming of slots, roulette, and dice games that involve betting real money.
A popular Twitch streamer has confessed to scamming his followers and fellow streamers out of around $300,000 to pay his gambling expenses, and this prompted users to call for Twitch to ban all gambling streams.
Now, the company has responded by banning any streams that include slots, roulette, or dice games. The ban will take effect from October 18, 2022.
“We’ll be making a policy update on October 18th to prohibit streaming of gambling 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,” said an official statement.
An update on gambling on Twitch. pic.twitter.com/lckNTY9Edo
— Twitch (@Twitch) September 20, 2022
Twitch streamer ItsSliker has admitted to conning fans and friends out of hundreds of thousands of dollars with tales of frozen bank accounts and similar stories. The British streamer explained that he asked fellow users for loans with no way to pay them back due to his massive gambling debt – a debt he says he amassed after getting into gambling via Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
Since his confession, many prominent streamers have called for Twitch to ban gambling streams.
It looks as though the online streaming platform has at least partially listened. Currently banned sites include Stake.com, Rollbit.com, Duelbits.com, and Roobet.com… and Twitch promises that this list could include more.
like if twitch should ban gambling
— pokimane 🤍 (@pokimanelol) September 18, 2022
However, the bans are also likely to affect several other prominent streamers. Streamers xQc (Felix Lengyel) and Trainwreck (Tyler Faraz Niknam) both gained sponsorship deals from Stake.com to stream their own online gambling. While xQc has stepped up to help those scammed by ItsSliker, offering victims their money back along with help from Ludwig Ahgren, he also retweeted a statement from Trainwreck which attempts to shift the heat off the gambling sites:
“To be clear, the people scapegoating SLOTS, BJ & ROULETTE and not blaming the individual, are the real problem,” he said.
“WITH THAT SAID, the STREAMERS & VIEWERS who sell a false reality should be banned,” he added. “People who gatekeep giveaways through codes that require you to gamble should be banned, people who hide all losses and only show wins should be banned, things like this are predatory”
What these popular streamers will do after October 18 remains to be seen.
Want to read more about Twitch? Check out which streamers announced they’re taking a break, and find out about the Twitch feature that allowed porn to be pushed to the front page.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.