The new Twitch gambling policy officially comes into effect today – what happens now?
Update October 18, 2022: The Twitch Prohibited Gambling Content policy now states:
We do not allow users to share links or affiliate codes to sites that contain slots, roulette, or dice games. For example, on Twitch you may not:
- Share a referral code to a slots site with your chat.
- Include a banner with a link to online roulette games.
- Verbally refer your chat to a site containing dice game.
Furthermore, similar to our prohibited games policy, we do not allow the sites below to be streamed on Twitch (Stake, Rollbit, Duelbits, Roobet), or linked to in chat. We consider many factors in determining whether a site is allowed, including whether the site includes safety protections, such as deposit limits, waiting periods, and age verification systems. We also take into account whether streamers use or encourage VPNs to evade geoblocking, and whether the site is licensed in the US or other jurisdictions that provide sufficient consumer protections.
For those who were hoping for a full-stop gambling ban on Twitch, that is not the case. Gambling is still allowed on the platform, but ignoring the rules can now lead to harsh punishment.
In the wake of Twitch’s new policy updates on gambling-related streams, some viewers are under the impression that gambling has been banished in its entirety. However, gambling is indeed still allowed on Twitch as long as it follows a few simple guidelines.
Twitch announced its new gambling policy update on September 20, 2022, but the rules did not come into effect until today. For those hoping for some clarification, there have been no further comments from Twitch regarding the matter other than the initial statement in which a handful of casino operators were singled out to be directly affected by the ban – Stake casino being the major player.
What appears to be the case, however, is that “unregulated” casinos, crypto casinos in general, should tread carefully and are now deemed unsafe. So how should streamers tell if a gambling site is legal to stream on Twitch? With Twitch (owned by Amazon) being an American company, it could very well be the case that streamers may only showcase gambling websites licensed in the United States. So, to check whether or not an online casino is safe to stream on Twitch, it’s important to determine where the operator is licensed.
Streamers ignoring the rules may be permanently banned from the platform, which is already happening. On the first day of the implementation of the new policy, most Stake streamers had disappeared from Twitch though a handful of channels tried to defy the rules (mostly spam and view botting channels). According to sources, reporting the channels proved effective and many were removed with immediate effect, proving that Twitch are indeed set on following up on its promise.
TrainwrecksTV, one of the biggest Stake streamers on Twitch, was seen streaming Overwatch 2 on the platform rather than doing his usual gambling stream. In a video clip, TrainwrecksTV mentioned either building his own streaming platform or starting doing podcasts. As a result of the policy update, the slots meta had dropped outside the top 25 for possibly the first time in years. Whilst this may only be the first step by Twitch to take some sort of control over the matter, for the time being, at least, the new rules appear to have been fairly successful.
