Streams centered around gambling are debated on Twitch. An increasingly popular practice in North America, this type of broadcast may offend some people. This is particularly the case of Pokimane or Amouranth, who have repeatedly expressed their opposition to the presence of games of chance on the Amazon platform.
On the contrary, some like xQc become completely addicted to it, even spending millions of euros. Last month, the Canadian streamer admitted to having lost $1.8 million in just thirty days! But while xQc has the means and remains responsible for its money, does this practice really have a place on Twitch?
Pokimane launches the debate!
The streamer reacted by posting yesterday on Twitter: “Like if you think Twitch should ban gambling”. The post has harvested (at the time of this writing) more than 266,000 likesproving that the anti-gambling community on the platform is indeed present.
Under the Tweet, several users debated, some arguing that gambling is far too big an income for the platform and that the latter has no interest in ending it.
Others quite agree with the streamer, pointing out that this type of streams can be a bad influence for people with addictive tendencies. Although everyone’s opinion differs, this Tweet from Pokimane proved that the debate exists and that Twitch users remain very divided on the subject. For now, the company has not banned the distribution of gambling on its platform.
A petition to stop gambling streams
Last May, a petition was launched by a few streamers and viewers to have gambling streams banned on Twitch. The movement had brought together thousands of users and thus, the petition had reached around 3,000 signatures, more than the 2,500 it was initially aiming for. Still, Twitch hasn’t banned gambling on its streams, but set up a barrierprohibiting content creators of this type from sending their viewers to this type of site (links, sponsors, etc.).
It therefore seems that xQc as well as streams related to gambling are not ready to stop. In the future, Twitch may introduce an age limit for viewing this type of content, or other restriction to protect young viewers, who knows ?