Where there's smoke, there's fire, so they say, and a fair amount of smoke has been pouring out of live streaming platform Twitch over the thorny topic of streamed gambling. One content maker who had previously stopped the practice was Felix Lengyel, better known as 'xQc'. Back in June 2021, xQc made the decision to drop gambling sponsorship promotion due to the heavy backlash that followed whilst also acknowledging he was 'slightly, if not moderately addicted', expressing concern for 'hardcore exposing it to people.' The content maker revealed that nearly 2,000 people had used his referral link, including 600 depositing money to play for the first time.
The hiatus is apparently over, and xQc spent part of a streaming session on May 16, 2022, playing slots. This surprised viewers, especially since xQc has spoken extensively about his 'addiction'. In a four-hour streamed chat with Pokimane, the content maker mentioned losing $1.85 million in the month of April while gambling. The pair also touched on the ethics of publicly gambling by live stream. Pokimane made her thoughts clear, saying xQc was 'negatively impacting your viewers.' One reason being, 'When it comes to taking gambling sponsorships, that's literally just your viewer's money.' xQc appeared to be on the same page, saying, 'It's like a spectrum of bad. It's like taking a sponsorship for a game you know is complete asscrack. You know it's bad, but you still do it.'
xQc has admitted personal issues with gambling and seems uncomfortable promoting 'asscrack' games, so why the flip? When prompted, xQc mentioned dissatisfaction that viewers 'pick and choose' the streamers they go after. According to him, the issue is that attitudes towards gambling are softening - but only towards certain streamers. 'People are selectively choosing who they back up when, if your real motive is behind morals and ethics, you can't pick and choose.' It seems xQc feels he is not getting the same treatment as others are and is being singled out. Could the thinking be that if he's going to be viewed as the bad guy, then he might as well just go back to doing sponsored gambling streams? As he put it, '...at the end of the day, I was like, I love gambling, so I'm just going to gamble.'
xQc's return has reignited the debate over streamed gambling, and reactions have bloomed across the net. Unsurprisingly, not all of it was positive. One Redditor reacted to xQc's stream by posting; 'Taking money from shady ass companies to fuel your gambling addiction in front of your audience of tens of thousands of easily influenced children is not it.'
Others have been more supportive. Fellow streamer Asmongold puts the focus on gambling itself rather than the gambler, saying, 'It's pointless and naive moralising over gambling when it makes so much money. People will always do it unless there is a change in the rules. It's too lucrative and popular to pass up.' It should be noted that Asmongold has called for a ban on gambling streams in the past, putting the blame squarely on the streaming platform itself, stating, 'The real disease here is Twitch still allowing this to happen.'
For now, streaming gambling content on Twitch is still permitted, though the platform made a move to ban referral codes and links for roulette, dice games, and slots in 2021. Whatever the motivation for xQc's return, the move has put the spotlight back on streaming gambling content, further fuelling the debate.
