Twitch Plans To Crack Down On Gambling Livestreams Amid Backlash
New York CNN Business -
Live-streaming huge Twitch on Tuesday stated it will take additional actions to punish unlicensed gambling content on its platform after facing reaction from some of its leading creators.
The Amazon-owned service plans to prohibit gambling sites from streaming on the platform if they are not in the United States or in "other jurisdictions that supply adequate customer security," according to a company statement posted on Twitter.
"While we forbid sharing links or recommendation codes to all sites that include slots, roulette, or dice video games, we've seen some people circumvent those rules and expose our community to possible harm," the company said in the statement.
The restriction takes impact on October 18th. Sites for sports wagering, fantasy sports and poker will continue to be allowed on the platform.
Gambling has actually found a foothold on Twitch. "Slots," where audiences can enjoy streamers wager in cryptocurrency in online casinos, is now the tenth-most-watched game on Twitch, according to TwitchTracker. Sites like Stake.com, affected by the revealed ban, have sponsored streams on Twitch to draw in new players and permit them to use cryptocurrencies to bet on their platform.
But there has been renewed criticism of betting activity in current days after one Twitch banner livestreamed a video to fans over the weekend claiming to have actually scammed them out of more than $200,000 to money his own gaming dependency.
Top streamers have been contacting Twitch to prohibit gambling, with the hashtag #TwitchStopGambling trending on Twitter. Some also talked about a week-long boycott throughout the critical vacation season.
"Gambling is awful for the platform. Get rid of it," popular banner and CMO of influencer marketing agency Novo Studios Devin Nash, who had over 150,000 fans on Twitch before leaving the platform last May, wrote in a Twitter thread over the weekend. "Gambling is harming to young Twitch users, bad for legitimate advertisers, and lowers the quality of the entire site."