Twitch finally hits out against illegal gambling

The definition of what constitutes illegal gambling is often coated in shades of grey, but as the world is moving towards a safer and more responsible industry, higher standards have emerged. Twitch, the largest streaming service for video gaming, entertainment, and gambling content, has announced a serious overhaul of what content it considers appropriate when it comes to gambling.

Moving forward, Twitch would expect creators to only stream gambling content in those cases when the content in question comes from websites that are regulated in the United States, or in another jurisdiction that holds high consumer protection standards. This excludes at least several brands that have been known to buy airtime on the platform through sponsored gambling partnerships with some of its biggest streamers.

The announcement said that Stake.com, Rollbit.com, Duelbits.com, and Roobet.com gambling streams and content will be the first that Twitch will prohibit come October 18. Moving forward, the company will continue to assess the situation as it evolves and possibly add more brands that are currently not meeting the platform’s guidelines.

The platform assured that daily fantasy sports, poker, and sports betting content will remain unchanged and content creators do not have to worry about the time being. Twitch, though, insisted that it will continue to review its policies to ensure that it maintains high regulatory standards in the vertical.

In its statement, Twitch explained that it will prohibit the sharing of links or referral codes to all casino content which includes slots, dice games, and roulette, and which exposes the community to potential harm. The decision comes as a relief to many gambling hawks who have been pushing the platform to introduce further restrictions for the past year.

Many popular streamers, among which Trainwreck and xQc, have been staunch supporters of some of the banned brands, and shared them with their followers and community. Others, though, such as Mizkif, a fellow streamer, have offered scathing criticism of their fellow streamers who have shared such content.

Twitch, though, is unlikely to move with a complete ban on gambling on its platforms, and the limitation of casino content is mostly focusing on websites that the platform agrees should not be shared with specific demographics until such a time they have a license from a whitelisted jurisdiction. Ideally, this would be the United States, but Twitch did not go into detail about what other jurisdictions may meet its requirements.

Image credit: Unsplash.com