Just how much gambling is taking place on Twitch? It’s been claimed that there is a “gambling boom” taking place on the most popular live streaming website in the world.
That claim was made by Bloomberg reporter Cecilia D’Anastasio and Twitch now say they are “currently in the midst of a deep-dive look into gambling behaviour on its platform.”
Gambling has now become the ninth most popular category on Twitch. There are casino and sportsbooks operators such as Stake.com and DuelBits who are sponsors of several top Twitch gaming personalities. Doing so sees their name being seen by thousands of viewers.
The Bloomberg report included comments from a gamer called Chabot who comes from Quebec in Canada. He was referred to the Stake.com site by a promotional link that was on the Twitch gaming channel. Since then he’s had a pretty disastrous run of luck and has seen his $40,000 life savings lost and a further bank loan of $20,000.
Also having a bad time has been rapper Drake, who is sponsored by Stake.com. He’s said to have lost over $20 million gambling by using live streams on Twitch.
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Both Stake.com and DuelBits are listed as crypto casinos and have found it useful to use Twitch to promote their online gambling services. Players are keen to as they can get around national gambling restrictions by using VPNs.
Stake.com have responded to the VPN claims saying that they carry out “stringent compliance processes” that stop people using their VPNs who live in countries where gambling is not allowed to make deposits with them. They added that the site comprehensively monitors any at-risk gambling behaviour.
2021 saw Twitch ban content creators from promoting gambling links. They also stopped streamers from directly advertising online casinos. This has not proved to be working though and online gambling streams have risen in popularity with them still being part of gaming broadcasts.
Several gamers have been criticised for continuing to promote crypto casinos. They include Roshtein, xQc and Trainwreckstv.
Three months ago news came through of a petition signed by gamers. It said that “your advertisements on Twitch are being played next to Twitch broadcasters who promote unregulated online casinos that disproportionately damage young viewers and racial minorities”.
American Gaming Association Vice-President Alex Costello says that US lawmakers are looking at “regulating gambling over shutting down illegal websites.” However, crypto casinos are not something that seems to be at the top of their list.
