Was Twitch Right to Ban Casino Streamers?
In September 2022, Twitch decided to ban popular gambling streams from their website. This was big news not only for the online gambling streamers who made a fortune in the previous years by promoting casino games but also for the casino operators. For instance, Stake.com has sponsored over a dozen live gambling streamers for several years. They managed to attract many new players through this platform.
A year after this unexpected decision, Twitch expanded its ban on these live streams. So, I decided to look closely at what happened and what is happening now, so I can get a clearer picture of the justification for this decision. In other words, was Twitch right to do this or not?
Why did Twitch ban casino streamers?
First, let me note that this decision was not something Twitch did alone. The pressure was mounting months before they banned casino live streamers. When several online casinos, mainly the ones labeled as crypto-friendly, entered Twitch with their accounts and started investing in popular users/channels to promote their content, no one expected these videos to become viral.
Twitch supported this practice by adding special categories (slots, casino, and poker) to the homepage. In a way, they were promoting this trend. As a result, many individuals not of legal age for online gambling were exposed to this content.
What’s even worse is that some streamers worked with online casinos to create fake accounts with vast amounts of money and massive wins intended to lure viewers into playing (primarily) slots. This practice was developing, which is why Twitch decided to put an end by banning real money streams from online casinos.
What do the numbers say?
According to the latest statistics, the viewership has declined. If there were around 2,83 million viewers in 2022 on average, now this number has dropped to 2,45. Of course, this doesn’t mean that the ban caused this trend, but I’m pretty sure it has something to do with it.
Where did the streamers go (and are they really gone)?
The move made by Twitch definitely had implications for the online gambling community. Generally, the most popular streamers switched Twitch with Kick.com. Even though Kick is no match to Twitch, the number of users keeps growing. This video live-streaming service was founded by Stake.com in response to the ban.
It promises more liberal moderation and better revenue shares. It’s not exclusively focused on gambling, meaning video game streamers are allowed and encouraged to use this service. According to the latest statistics, there are around235,000 live streams a day on this platform as of June 2023. These are impressive numbers for a relatively new service.
Unlike Amazon-owned Twitch, which seems to have reached the top, Kick keeps expanding. One of the things this company does right is striking deals with celebrities. In 2022, shortly after Kick was launched, Trainwreckstv, the popular streaming personality, joined it. Adin Ross, another person that video gamers know, signed a deal with Kick in March 2023. The same goes for Hikaru Nakamura (famous chess grandmaster), xQc (ex-Overwatch player and streamer), and Destiny (a political commentator).
Kick can sponsor significant teams like Alfa Romeo F1 and the Premier League football club Everton, thanks to its success.
Kick is not the only place where banned streamers found refuge. DLive, another American-based video live-streaming service, also welcomed users who want to stream online gambling content on their platform. This time, we have an example of a brand with a more extended history. It was established in 2017. The problem with DLive is that it is often associated with Qanon and radical groups, so there’s little room for improvement. I should also note that YouTube allows players to stream their gambling sessions under specific terms. Twitter (or should I say X), Instagram, and Facebook are more restrictive.
But the most unusual place where you can find live streamers focused on online gambling is Twitch itself. That’s right, you read right. When Twitch banned this activity, it was not a strict ban as it looked like. You can see it yourself, just like I did when I visited Twitch.
When I typed “slots” in the search field, I got 30 channels with live streams with online slots games. “Poker” and “casino” provided similar results. So, how is this possible? Well, online gambling streaming is not entirely banned on this platform. Instead of banning the activity, Twitch banned specific online casinos and streamers they thought were abusing the platform.
Four online casinos were part of the purge in 2022, and two more were added to the list (Blaze and Gamdom) at the beginning of August 2023. The company has once again stated its intention to prohibit sites offering slots, roulette, blackjack, dice, and other casino games not licensed in the US or in other reputable jurisdictions and authorities (MGA, UKGC, etc.).
Some users were also caught using VPNs to promote such content. Still, these attempts were short-lived because the team at Twitch is pretty efficient and detecting these intruders.
What can we expect from Twitch in terms of gambling in the future?
Let me start by stating the obvious – if we ask the guys from Twitch behind cameras, they will confirm that they definitely want the revenues they had from gambling streaming. After all, that’s why we can still find slots and other similar streams on the platform. Their main objective was to prevent lawsuits from dissatisfied users.
Also, other players in the market took the opportunity to get their share from this situation. Twitch will probably look for a way to stop this. It’s a fact that this platform was a bit slow to prevent the harmful practice of online casinos and streamers from faking earnings. This is not something that lasted for a day or two – it went on for weeks and months.
Now that they have learned the lesson and made the rules more precise, there’s room for improvement. Hopefully, Twitch will find a solution that will benefit everyone – the streamers, the casinos, the platform, and the viewers – without breaking the ethical codes.
This article delivers the thoughts and opinions of the author, and it doesn't represent the stance of GoodLuckMate.
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