Twitch could be reconsidering its take on gambling streams at some point in the very near future. The company has already banned the handing out of referral codes to online casinos and other gambling websites. This however comes after months of controversy and multiple instances of lives ruined or even lost on account of such streams.
The news about a policy change comes from a spokesperson for Twitch who recently described how the platform is in the “midst of a deep dive into gambling behavior.” Speaking to Bloomberg, the spokesperson added that “we take any potential harm to our community extremely seriously. While gambling content represents a very small fraction of the content streamed on Twitch, we monitor it closely to ensure our approach mitigates potential harm to our global community.”
The contention around gambling all began when the streamer xQc started accepting sponsorships from online casinos and handing out referral codes, most notably to a website called Stake. The content creator previously said that he would stop accepting such sponsorships before going on to admit that he had a problem with gambling. “I’m just easily addicted, so I just shouldn’t gamble,” xQc said at the time. “I still do it. Is that good? No, that’s terrible. That’s an illness. That’s ill. I’m ill. But you know what? I can afford to be ill. I’m lucky.” The streamer later noted that he lost more than $2 million to online casinos and other gambling websites, revealing that his followers have thrown away over $119 million in the process.
Some content creators like Asmongold and Pokimane have been very open about their opposition to gambling streams. Ludwig and Hasan have been a bit more equivocal on the matter, but clearly critical. “What does make a difference is if the rules change,” Asmongold remarked back in May. “Unless the rules change, nobody is going to stop gambling.” The content creator went on to describe how Twitch could put a stop to the practice. “Twitch could change the rules,” the streamer noted. “Twitch could say ‘no, no more gambling’ and they could remove the slots category today and they could say ‘if you stream slots, you’re getting permabanned.’ And that’s it. That’s literally it.”
This comes after numerous cautionary tales have emerged about gambling streams. “Back in early June, one of my relatives, who I will refer to only as Alex, came across a promoted gambling stream from a very large streamer,” a source who chose to remain anonymous explained. “Said streamer started promoting gambling again in May after saying that he would no longer gamble last year.” The source noted that “Alex was easily swayed by the multiple six-digit winnings that the streamer attained and ultimately decided to try slots on the website Stake, just for the fun of it.”
“From the bank statements that Alex left behind, Alex began gambling away with $25 a day, eventually evolving to $2,500 by the third week of June,” the source remarked. “By the fourth week of June, Alex refused to leave his apartment and always sounded extremely gloomy in his speech when we communicated.”
Alex apparently stopped responding to any form of communication in July. “We sent a welfare check only to find that Alex had committed suicide by hanging,” the source described. “Alex left behind a detailed note where we were able to determine that his reason for doing as such was none other than gambling. “We could see the constant deductions in his bank transactions, presumably to purchase cryptocurrency to be used on Stake. His bank account was completely drained.”
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