After a recent gambling controversy hit the spotlight in Twitch’s community, the streaming service has announced that starting October 18, streaming any kind of gambling site that includes slots, roulette wheels, or dice games that are not licensed in the United States is prohibited. While they announced a small list of websites included in this ban, it was stated that more could be added if they were identified to be harmful.
All of this arose after some of Twitch’s most prolific content creators banded together to push the new hashtag, #TwitchStopGambling. A streamer who goes by Sliker was recently called out by his community for his gambling tendencies and has since admitted to borrowing more than $200,000 from his fans and fellow content creators without paying it back. He first began gambling with Counter Strike: Global Offensive skins before moving on to real money. Sliker has since apologized for his actions and says he is seeking help in rehab for his gambling addiction.
While a lot of the main casino attractions you would see have been banned from Twitch, this does not have an effect on sports betting, fantasy sports, and poker games on the platform. The included tweet states that Twitch will reveal more about their policy change on streaming gambling on their site before the October 18 changes go into effect.
Before the ban comes to, you are still able to see gambling streams on the service, although it is expected to see this quickly dwindle down as the end date gets closer. Even today, as the announcement has come out, you can find streaming categories that have to do with slots and other gambling games within the most popularly viewed streams on Twitch. The hope is to help mitigate and eliminate possible gambling addictions spreading amongst the Twitch community that could end up being quite harmful.
