The debate over gambling on Twitch has been gathering steam recently, and one streamer who has taken the negative side of the argument is content maker Pokimane – the most followed woman channel on Twitch. In no uncertain terms, Pokimane has aired her view that Twitch should stop streamers gambling at crypto sites to generate content. She’s also claimed that some streamers who are doing so actually agree with her point of view.
While Pokimane might be strongly against it, others are warm to the practice, and doing so is a lucrative business. Popular streamers such as Trainwreckstv and xQc have both won and lost vast sums of money during streaming sessions. Interestingly, in an echo of Pokimane’s sentiment, Trainwreckstv stream displays a warning message – ‘Do not gamble, you will lose’ while intermittently flashing a message that he is ‘down millions.’
Despite warning viewers not to gamble, streamers like Transwreck continue to do so themselves. And while Twitch banned users from promoting referral codes and links, taking some of the heat off, a number of Twitch stars do not think the platform has not gone far enough. Pokimane is one of them, stating that streaming while gambling at crypto casinos needs tighter regulation, tweeting;
‘imo twitch shouldn’t allow gambling streams on crypto websites at all, and I think even those who do it would agree lol. There are plenty of ways to do similar content (poker tourneys, slots/rng in games) that aren’t as legally ambiguous and morally corrupt.’
Opinions on who is ultimately responsible for gambling content vary from those who place the blame on Twitch, to others who believe content makers are directly responsible. Amongst those who think the situation will only improve if Twitch steps in is Mathew Rinaudo, otherwise known as Mizkif on the platform. Mizkif believes that gambling is damaging Twitch, saying ‘the genuineness of streaming is slowly deteriorating, it’s felt like that for a while.’
Yet he holds little hope streamers will tidy up on their own, stating, ‘Everyone has a price. Even someone like Asmongold who holds himself so true, does have a f**king price.’ We’re talking big money, too, and balancing morality against the purported million-dollar deals streamers are being offered to gamble at certain sites is a divisive topic.
Pokimane is squarely on the other side of the argument, placing blame on content makers broadcasting the type of content she has an issue with. At one point in her stream, Pokimane busts out MS Paint to help convey the message about those in her scope ‘… you’re rich, and you’re gonna make millions off your viewers… that’s how it works. Your viewers lose money.’
For now, streamers are free to put this sort of content up, and time will tell whether Pokimane’s plea has any effect on either Twitch or those using the site to stream their exploits at crypto casinos.
