Twitch has announced that the website will be making a policy update on October 18th to clamp down on gambling by banning some websites.
The statement states that from October 18th, a new policy update will “prohibit streaming of gambling sites that include slots, roulette, or games that aren’t licensed either in the U.S. or other jurisdictions that provide sufficient customer protection.”
Twitch’s response is in apparent retaliation to “a big topic of discussion in the community”. Popular Twitch streamers including Pokimane and Mizkif started to orchestrate a Twitch boycott earlier in the week due to the platform’s lack of policies on gambling.
The premise of the boycott was to seemingly protect users, especially children, from gambling and losing their money. These concerns are understandable, but Twitch has faced criticism for only addressing one issue that could have harm on its viewers.
One major cause for concern the people expressed is Twitch’s “Pools, Hot Tubs, and Beaches” category, where primarily females stream themselves in their underwear. After just 5 minutes of scouring the category without a Twitch account, no warnings popped up indicating the type of content on the page.
What’s more surprising though, is that without an account, I was able to donate to streamers using PayPal, DonatePay, and even cryptocurrency without moderation and relative ease. Some of these streamers even incentivized their content with “prize wheels” too, where for as little as a couple of dollars you could gamble for the opportunity to see someone shake their booty for a couple of seconds.
So you might not be able to gamble with slots and roulette anymore, but you can still place a bet to see someone dance in their underwear? Got it.
How Twitch handled streamer Kim_Mikka_ was also criticized, after she was banned for just one week in August after a window reflection showed her having sex live on stream.
Twitch’s statement was going to see backlash regardless, but the streaming giant must have a firm grip on all aspects of its site, not just on the ones their most popular streamers threaten to strike because of.
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