News

Twitch Bans Unlicensed Gambling Sites

Twitch Bans Unlicensed Gambling Sites
Image
Jason Glatzer Content Writer
  • Fact Checked by: PokerListings
  • Last updated on: August 19, 2024 · 3 minutes to read

Twitch, the go-to video live streaming platform for poker players, is also the home of many eGame and eSports competitions, musical broadcasts, “in real life” streams, and other creative content including streaming of slots broadcasts.

A scandal involving streamer SilkeR, who admitted scamming fellow streamers out of thousands of dollars to fuel his gambling habits, prompted many popular streamers for Twitch to enable a gambling ban.

Following this, Twitch made an announcement on Wednesday, Sept. 21 to go into force as of October 18 which will have some slots streamers scrambling.

“We’ll be making a policy update on October 18th to prohibit streaming of gambling sites that include slots, roulette, or dice games that aren’t sufficiently licensed either in the U.S. or other jurisdictions that provide consumer protection,” Twitch announced.

Does This Affect Poker Streams?

Kevin Martin
Kevin Martin

Rest assured that the most popular poker Twitch streams will not be targeted according to the announcement by Twitch.

“We will continue to allow websites that focus on sports betting, fantasy sports, and poker,” Twitch shared.

It is unclear from the announcement whether rooms offering unlicensed services to the USA will be targeted such as America’s Card Room or the plethora of black-market poker apps. For now, it appears just four sites, all targeting slots and table game players, were specifically called out as blacklisted as of Oct. 18th on Twitch.

“These sites will include Stake.com, Rollbit.com, Duelbits.com, and Roobet.com,” Twitch shared about the specific banned sites. “However, we may identify more going forward.”

At least for now, those streaming no-limit hold’em tournaments from licensed sites including the likes of the popular broadcasts by PokerStars Ambassador Lex Veldhuis and GGPoker Ambassador Kevin Martin will be safe.

Different Tune for Slots Streamers

Some slot streamers will either have to make major adjustments to their stream or find a new home away from Twitch come Oct. 18, 2022. It might not be as easy as it sounds as on one hand Stake.com is rumored to pay its top streamers seven-figures a month. This isn’t easy to turn down.

Popular slots streamers like Roshtein along with his clan of slots-streaming friends in VonDice, DeuceAce, and FrankDimes all have decisions to make. Roshtein in particular has built up a more than 1 million view following. He started off playing small stakes trying to earn off bonuses before progressing up stakes due to what he claims over and over on his streams is due to earnings from affiliate revenue and not from gambling itself. He has played on numerous sites but over the past year, Stake.com has been his home, where suddenly $1,000 slot spins and $100,000 bonus buys have become the norm. While he hasn’t shared the exact figures, he hasn’t been shy to say that Stake.com does pay him to host his stream on their site. Now, he will be stuck with a difficult decision going forward as to whether to try to move his massive audience to another streaming network or to find a home playing elsewhere.

Although affected by Twitch’s announcement, Roshtein may not have been the target of this as at least he was streaming from outside the United States. American eGame streamers xQc, and Trainwreckstv, and others have moved eGames to slots thanks to the lucrative deals they have made with Stake.com.

As one might expect, the reaction by slots streamers who do play at regulated online networks are pleased that others will be steered to do the same.

Slots Twitch streamer Kim Hultman, who plays under the name LetsGiveItASpin and also occasionally plays poker including a recent appearance on High Stakes Poker, was among those happy about the announcement.

Time will tell whether or not this is just the beginning and how it might affect Twitch poker streams, especially those that include unlicensed poker rooms. Stay tuned at PokerListings for more developments with this story.

Recommended