Twitch Bans Stake and Other Casinos From Streaming on the Platform

Gambling streams have long been a source of frustration for both gamers and Twitch viewers. Twitch is the latest organization to join the chorus of organizations condemning the practice, particularly when minors are involved. While it may appear to be a positive move, the truth is that the issue is far more convoluted and a tad bit more dramatic than that.

Enter the recent ban Twitch had to issue on certain types of gambling streams. After a string of messy events involving a particular gambling streamer, the company has finally taken its biggest action to date. While it’s definitely not a blanket prohibition on all gambling, it’s definitely going to hit some creators very hard.

Why are Casino Streams Banned from Twitch

The root cause of Twitch’s decision can be traced back to a single streamer called ItsSliker. Prominent online publications like The Verge and Eurogamer reported that the former member of Team Liquid had allegedly scammed family and friends out of almost $200,000.

According to the reports, ItsSliker would claim that his bank account was frozen and was struggling to get by. So, he accepted loans in good faith from a variety of people, including notable streamers such as Lacari and lukeafkfan. He then proceeded to use that money to gamble on his streams.

ItsSliker himself later admitted that he had a gambling addiction and used the ploy to fuel it. Naturally, the news of his behavior didn’t go down well with the rest of the Twitch community. Big-time broadcasters like xQc took it upon themselves to help the victims by giving them the money the gambling streamer had taken.

Others, including prominent MMORPG streamer Asmongold, called for Sliker’s immediate ban from Twitch. However, it wasn’t until more of the upper echelon of the streaming community started taking action that Twitch finally took notice.

Celebrity streamers like Pokimane, Mizkif, and Devin Nash instigated a “strike from streaming”  during the holidays, aka when ad revenue is at its peak. They believed “hitting the company where it hurts the most” would finally get them to take action.

This all finally led to Twitch’s announcement on Twitter on September 20th, 2022. The tweet begins with an acknowledgment that “gambling content on Twitch has been a big topic of discussion”. It then lays out what Twitch is calling a policy update involving gambling streams which would come into effect on October 18th, 2022.

What Types of Casinos are Affected

Gambling is a gigantic category on Twitch, so the company has been very specific with its policy wording. According to the official tweet, the update to their policy will “prohibit streaming of gambling sites that include slots, roulette, or dice games”. The Amazon-owned platform has clarified that sports betting, fantasy sports, and poker sites will still be allowed.

The company has also specified that the policy covers sites that aren’t licensed in the US and other regions that have “sufficient consumer protection”. They’ve named four major websites, all of which are cryptocurrency based: Stake.com, Rollbit.com, Duelbits.com, and Roobet.com. It’s important to note that Twitch has stated they may “identify others as [they] move forward.”

Which Creators Will Be Affected

There are a lot of creators on Twitch who’ve made a name for themselves while streaming themselves gambling. Undoubtedly, the news of Twitch’s ban on unlicensed dice, roulette, and slot websites will affect them quite severely, at least in the short term.

Notable gambling streamer Roshtein reacted to the news by stating “rest in peace” during one of his broadcasts. He also went on to wonder what this meant for his channel and those of his peers. What’s also important to note is that Roshtein wasn’t entirely surprised by the news. Back in 2021, when Twitch prohibited sharing links and referral codes, he stated in a tweet that everything was “going into the right direction.”

Other streamers who may be affected to some degrees include xQc who has been taking the news positively despite running gambling streamers himself. AdinRoss and Trainwreckstv also pull in big viewer numbers for their streams. It’s quite likely that they’ll be taking a big hit to their revenue.

When put into context, AdinRoss has streamed less than 400 hours of gambling on his channel. He’s the small fry here by comparison, but still managed to peak at over 50,000 views for those broadcasts. This number alone is enough to pull in a significant income from ads.

What Measures Might Twitch Take in the Next Months

Twitch is well aware of the criticism lodged against its lax approach towards gambling streams. Though this ban targets unlicensed crypt-based sites, it still has left a significant number of gambling categories alone for now. While it’s highly unlikely that poker streams and sports betting will be banned, we can expect that more gambling measures may be put into place.

The key term here is “unlicensed sites”. The US and other regions have strict laws and regulations for gambling and betting. One can’t just open up shop and start taking bets. However, Stake and other sites of its kind seemingly did just that, at least in the eyes of these countries’ laws. So, Twitch had to take action once the spotlight was on them.

Now, this could mean that governments knocked on the company’s doors to get them to start adding measures and Twitch is just playing ball. It could also mean, though, that the platform is placing more staff eyeballs on streams and looking for similar patterns. What we can expect, in that case, is that Twitch will be adding more site names to its hit list.

However, some speculate that Twitch won’t be doing anything more until the next piece of drama comes to light. The pattern has been that the platform keeps a hands-off approach and then reacts when the community says “enough is enough”.