For more than a few years now, Twitch has been trying to curb illegal activities related to casino streams worldwide. It is not a hidden fact that casino streamers on Twitch attract numerous viewers every day. And most of the casino streamers adhere to the platform’s community guidelines.
Casino streams on Twitch have everything to do with online casino and sports betting. From slot machines to live betting, nothing is left out. Twitch introduced some restrictions for casino streamers back in 2018 and then again in 2021.
However, in an official tweet, the platform recently announced new restrictions on casino streams that will go into effect in October 2022. In this blog post, we take a look at all the details.
Casino Streamers in Twitch: An Overview
For more than a few years, there have been multiple casino streamers in Twitch. Some of them are very popular, with thousands of subscribers. For example, streamers like CasinoDaddy and ROSHTEIN stream multiple hours per day.
Some casino streamers are considered to be poker specialists, while others are more experienced in slot games. Even though table games like Poker or roulette are among these channels’ content, nothing is as popular as slots. There are multiple live streams that include some of the most well-known slot titles, such as the slot book of dead deluxe by Play’n Go.
Twitch has recently announced that it will ban streaming (and thus affiliate programs) from certain gambling sites like Stake.com. Of course, this does not mean that the best casino streaming accounts on Twitch will also be banned. As long as the casino streamers follow the new guidelines, they will be allowed to create casino-related content.
Before we analyze all the previous and new restrictions Twitch applies to gambling-related content, let us take a look at how streaming casino sites came to be.
How Did Streaming Casino Sites start?
Casino streaming has been turned into a big business on Twitch during the past few years. The affiliate process is pretty simple. If a streamer cooperates with a particular gambling site, they were allowed to provide an affiliate link to that site.
And that’s reasonable. The problem has been that not all gambling sites offered on Twitch are licensed in the US or worldwide.
This direct native advertising of certain unlicensed casino sites was gradually curtailed by Twitch. The reason for this is simple.
Due to this uncontrolled advertising, there were problems with impunity, dubious and fraudulent schemes/sites. Therefore, Twitch gradually introduced the first restrictions for casino streamers. Before we get into the latest restrictions, it is important to analyze the first wave of restrictions that took place in 2018.
The First Wave of Restrictions from Twitch
The first time that Twitch introduced some gambling related restrictions was in 2018. The platform banned bot advertising and limited some channels that had a questionable reputation. Since then, the gambling streams on Twitter have been tailored to influencers. In 2021, Twitch announced a new batch of restrictions for users.
Since then, casino streamers are not able to provide direct links to casinos or add banners in their broadcast descriptions. These new community guidelines had a goal of protecting the community and eliminating unauthorized gambling websites from the platform.
Still, this wasn’t the end of the Twitch restrictions towards casino streamers. A few days ago, on September 21, 2022, the platform announced a new set of restrictions for casino streams. Let’s have a deeper look at the latest update.
2022 New Twitch Restrictions: What is Included?
As early as October 2022, Twitch will once again change its policy regarding gambling. We already know the basic information about this change from the platform’s latest tweet. According to Twitch, some casino streamers have found a way around the latest batch of restrictions.
This means that casino streamers have found a way to share links and referral codes to unlicensed gambling sites. For this reason, Twitch will ban streaming from certain gambling websites starting October 18, 2022.
At the time of writing this blog post, the list includes sites like Stake.com, Rollbit.com, Duelbits.com, and Roobet.com. Of course, Twitch will likely expand this list in the future.
The new Twitch restrictions focus on casino games like slots, roulette and dice games. On the other hand, websites that focus on sports betting, poker and fantasy sports are not affected by this measure.
It becomes clear that Twitch is taking serious measures to prevent the existence of unauthorized gambling websites on the platform. It remains to be seen whether these new restrictions will actually eliminate impunity, dubious and fraudulent schemes and websites.
David Prior
David Prior is the editor of Today News, responsible for the overall editorial strategy. He is an NCTJ-qualified journalist with over 20 years’ experience, and is also editor of the award-winning hyperlocal news title Altrincham Today. His LinkedIn profile is here.
