Twitch Is Shutting Down Unlicensed Gambling After Streamers Threaten Strike

Gambling streams on Twitch have led to a lot of debate within the streaming community as a large number of viewers and streamers disapprove of it. Félix "xQc" Lengyel, who is one of the biggest streamers on Twitch had wagered $685,075,984 USD with 656,376 bets, 63,057 wins, and 583,405 losses.

What led to the gambling site ban on Twitch

Recently, a Twitch streamer named Abraham “Sliker” Mohammed, admitted that he had scammed fans and other content creators out of at least $300,000 to fund his Counter-Strike: Global Offensive gambling addiction.

Imane “Pokimane” Anys, Matthew “Mizkif” Rinaudo, and Devin Nash are just some of the streamers who called out Sliker’s actions and wanted Twitch to take action. Sliker had reached out to streamers to help fund his gambling addiction and allegedly lied to them so he would get money which he has not yet returned.

xQc and Ludwig Ahgren said that they will be helping people out who were scammed and help recover the money. However, the scam led to some creators threatening to go on strike if Twitch did not do something about the gambling streams on the platform.

Twitch said in an official statement that gambling content on Twitch will be restricted. Starting from 18th October, any gambling sites that include slots, roulette or dice games that are not licensed in the United States, or other jurisdictions that provide sufficient consumer protection, will not be allowed.

Stake, Rollbit, Duelbits and Roobet are the four sites that are being targeted for now and more sites may be identified as Twitch moves forward. Sports betting, fantasy sports and poker will continue to be allowed.

Twitch’s gambling policy will also be updated before the new rules go into effect on 18th October. After gambling was restricted on Twitch, others wanted hot tub streams to also be restricted. Fortnite streamer “Saevid” said, “If you’re going to ban something that’s immoral, it doesn’t make sense to keep something arguably even worse morally, make an age restriction that actually works.”