Twitch will be instituting a new policy with regards to streams that feature gambling as the main selling point on October 18th as it will ban all streams that focus purely on things such as slots, roulette etc. This is due to a big protest from the site’s biggest streamers in which they pointed out that these channels often use ‘house’ money to spend as much as they wish in order to seem as though they are spending large amounts of money and winning big when in reality they are simply acting as glorified sponsorships.
This came to a head when one such streamer, ‘Sliker’ used viewer money to gamble on online sites for stream and promised viewers their money back when in actuality it was just used to fuel his gambling addiction. As such the new policy will stop streams that are purely there for the thrill of watching people gamble however others have criticised that the measures here don’t go far enough. As an example they have stated they will still allow things such as streams dedicated to sports betting and poker which just sounds like gambling with extra steps to me.
Regardless this new policy will go into effect next month and it will be interesting to see what the reaction from the general streaming media will be and more importantly how this will affect things such as loot box streams in gaming. Time will only tell I suppose.
That’s all for now, and as always. It’s not just a game, It’s a Life.