Twitch Restriction on Gambling Streaming. What Are the Reasons?

Twitch is a popular live-streaming platform that has been successful over the past decade it has been operational. It especially grew in popularity during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Like many casino app android, it usually has a lot of traffic, averaging about 30 million daily active visitors. It is approximated there are usually more than 2.5 million people live streaming services on Twitch at any particular time.

One of the many reasons why Twitch is quite popular is because the streams can be viewed on a wide range of PCs, gaming devices, and mobile. The service is also free to use. Viewers have the option to search games or categories they are interested in and interact with streamers from all over the world in real time.

Streaming content on Twitch started chiefly in the iGaming niche but has since spread to cover other areas that showcase unique and creative skills. Popular areas include painting, embroidery, model building, and more. Millions of people worldwide tune in to enjoy some of the streams created daily.

While there has been significant growth in certain niches, online gambling seems to be the favorite. Just recently, online slots streams were ranked in the top 10 most streamed categories. Gambling content sees content creators live streaming their bets as they play their favorite games from physical brick-and-mortar casinos or online.

There are more than 1.5 million users that follow the Slots category on Twitch. Most of these people stream over the weekends, watching their favorite content creator(s) hitting it big at the machines. This attraction is about experiencing the thrill of gambling, with the content creator narrating and responding to the gaming experience in a unique and normally over-the-top manner.

From statistics, it is clear that slots are the most watched casino games compared to other titles. In addition to being a popular game in itself, slots don’t require any prior knowledge to understand what’s going on in the machines. When it comes to Twitch streams, slots are also the most viewed games. Most of these Twitch streamers integrate comments for their viewers, guiding them on the best amount to spend while playing the game, the most suitable games to play, and where to play these games.

Not only do streamers seem to cheer on the big wins the content creators land, but they also seem to be excited about the losses. This has had a negative outcome for the streamers who continue streaming big regardless of the potential dangers. In fact, it is easy to conclude that big stakes, high emotions, and bigger reactions keep the viewers glued to the screens.

Live streaming audiences seem to be drawn in with high bets that start from highs of $ 1,000. Some of these content creators will gradually increase these bets, sometimes running into hundreds of thousands and millions. There is a case where one player, Twitcher, lost a staggering $1,000,000 playing live blackjack while another one won a colossal jackpot of $4.7 million.

These insane bets brought about a discussion online on how Twitch was promoting irresponsible gambling. Many users complained there were not enough measures put in place to protect vulnerable gamblers from the harms of gambling.

In response, Twitch prohibited any codes or referral links that lead back to online casinos as well as those that didn’t hold a license within and outside the US. This is the official statement from the company, which was announced on Twitter on the 21st of September, 2022.

Starting October 18th, we are further tightening our rules to also prohibit any streaming of listed sites that contain slots, roulette, and dice games and are unlicensed in the U.S. or other jurisdictions that offer consumer protections like deposit limits, waiting periods, and age verification systems. This updated policy applies to all global community members and covers all domain extensions of these sites, including free social versions. Linking to these sites in chat is also prohibited.

If you prefer playing poker and betting on sports, you’ll be happy to know you are not affected in any way by the Twitch ban. In fact, if you are always playing at licensed and regulated online casinos, you have no reason to worry since the ban mostly focuses on unlicensed gambling platforms and content creators promoting these brands.

Twitch intends to roll this same level of protection to its 150+ million active monthly streamers. They hope to ensure they run into legal issues by allowing streamers to only promote licensed operators.