Twitch wants to switch, as in switch off gambling affiliates.
In a statement Twitch said, “To prevent harm and scams created by questionable gambling services that sponsor content on Twitch, we will prohibit sharing links and/or referral codes to sites that offer slots, roulette, or dice games.” The company also pledged to “continue to monitor gambling-related content and update our approach as needed.”
Creators were given until August 17 to eliminate such content from their channels. Affiliate streamers supposedly take in more than $1 million a month from particular operators. But according to CDC Gaming Reports, it also adds another negative connotation to iGaming. The focus of Twitch’s wrath centered on crypto-gambling sites as exposed in the July issue of Wired.
U.S.-based streamers accessed crypto-gambling casinos deemed illegal. Promotion of such sites was thus illegal as well. According to Wired, Twitch’s terms of service prohibit illegal activity but does not explicitly ban gambling streams.
The National Council on Problem Gambling called for a ban over concerns that such streaming can result in underage gambling and addiction.
“Twitch has taken a good first step to help protect young and vulnerable users by preventing the sharing of links to gambling websites,” said Council Executive Director Keith Whyte. “However, much more must be done. Everybody should be concerned that Twitch still allows the broadcast of unregulated and illegal gambling and that sites like Stake and Roobet pay popular streamers to play the casino games on their channels.”
The council has called on Twitch to keep gambling content to adults with mechanisms to verify age.
