Danish Gaming Authority fines Twitch streamer for promoting illegal gambling

An unnamed Twitch streamer has been issued a DKK10,000 fine ($1,500) for promoting gambling operators that do not have the pertinent licenses from Spillemyndigheden, the country’s national regulator.

The Danish Gambling Authority has detected the streamer during its routine search of illegal gambling websites and collaborators who may be targeting Danish citizens without authorization and reported the case to the police as per procedure.

Authorities have stepped in and determined that the streamer had indeed broken the way, marking the first time that a Twitch streamer has been found guilty of a similar offense. Streaming has become a particularly lucrative opportunity for influencers and companies.

Many streamers have left Twitch as they objected to the company’s rather tight controls on gambling products, arguing that Twitch was cracking down on their content unjustifiably. Some of these streamers were reportedly making thousands of dollars per hour or streaming gambling content from certain sites that had no authorization in the targeted jurisdictions where they were visible.

After Twitch started restricting gambling content, many of its biggest stars, including xQc, Amouranth, left for the Amazon-owned giant’s biggest rival – Kick, a platform that has a far more liberal approach towards gambling content and allows users to filter such content if they do not want to see it rather than introducing a blanket ban.

Other streamers, though, such as Pokimane, have held their ground and remained with Twitch over Kick, to which the platform responded with an ad that supposedly took a jab at her personality. Regardless, streaming of online casino products has become omnipresent, with the Danish Gambling Authority among the first authorities to step in and try to regulate this to some extent.

Although a first case for the regulator, it may have a much bigger impact on the way the region approaches regulation of streamers and parties that may be involved in the promotion of unauthorized gambling products.

Twitch has not hesitated to act more determinedly on gambling content for the time being, expanding its ban recently, and trying to better communicate what products would be considered to be impacted by the decision. Still, there is much that Twitch can elaborate on before a clear-cut set of rules is introduced.

Image credit: Unsplash.com