Online gambling and Twitch streaming have become unfortunately tied together over the last few years. CasinoGrounds, a site run by gambling streamers, even published its own list of popular streamers by state, showing how closely related the two worlds are these days. This has led to a movement to ban gambling streams from Twitch — and to instances of perceived bribery.
Streamer HasanAbi’s editor ostonox shared a clip of such an interaction on Twitter. During one of streamer Tranwreckstv’s broadcasts, he can be seen blatantly handing over an amount of Bitcoin to two Twitch staff members: Pepegafish and Rellim. Trainwreckstv even states the cryptocurrency given to them amounts to $50K and $80K, respectively. Considering the heat on Twitch to ban gambling streams altogether, this act is being seen as a bribe by many.
Ostonox includes the #TwitchStopGambling hashtag in the tweet, and following that topic will bring up plenty of other instances of questionable ads and streaming choices. This has led the likes of Pokimane, Mizkif, and other big streamers to band together and demand Twitch take action against gambling streams. Streaming journalist Zach Bussey shared an example on Twitter as well, in which Mizkif states a willingness to boycott Twitch until a change is made.
It’s important to note that many gambling streamers have actually left the United States to pursue these types of broadcasts. One major outlet, Stake, is inaccessible in the US due to the terms of its gambling license. Direct links to gambling sites aren’t permitted in Twitch chat, but that doesn’t stop people from finding ways to access them independently. When a site like Twitch has so many young and impressionable viewers, it’s easy to see why allowing such gambling streams to take place can cause real problems. Hot tub streams are one thing, but influencing young people to risk their money (or other people’s money) is a whole other issue that Twitch needs to address.
