Twitch bans further crypto casino
Twitch has extended its restrictions on gambling via its streaming service by announcing it has banned a further crypto casino site from the platform.
The company made headlines last year when it moved to ban streams showing gambling on crypto casinos such as Stake.com. Canadian celebrity Drake was among those who had racked up large numbers of fans by streaming his gambling at crypto casinos via the Twitch service.
Twitch has now confirmed that gambling sites Blaze and Gamdom – the latter of which is an online crypto casino – have joined its banned list. In a thread it posted on Twitter, the site said the move was to “protect our community, address predatory behavior, and make Twitch safer”.
It also noted the restrictions on what gambling streams were to be allowed on Twitch from 2022 had seen a drop of 75% in streams of roulette, dice games and slots. Many of the most popular streamers on Twitch used to play slots for their fans, while Drake previously won $12 million from a single roulette spin during one of his crypto casino live streams on the Twitch platform.
“This meant the change had an immediate impact, and that our community has been better protected from scams and related harms,” Twitch said in a statement that was posted to Twitter.
Slots streamers who have found themselves unable to use Twitch to show themselves playing games at a crypto casino for their fans have since left the platform to use some other rival sites.
One such operator, Kick, has attracted some of the most popular streamers since Twitch’s announcement, signing up the likes of xQc, Amouranth and Destiny. Kick is also being financially backed by Stake.com, which is one of the world’s leading crypto casino sites.
Game streaming does however seem to be dropping across the industry, however. Stream Hatchet data revealed in its Video Game Live-Streaming Trends Report for Q2 2023 identified a drop of around 9% for the three-month period compared to between January and March 2023.
Twitch dropped by 4.9% according to the Stream Hatchet research while Facebook Live saw a 56.7% decline to follow halving its viewership over the course of 2022 as a whole. Kick has now become the fifth-most popular streaming service thanks to embracing crypto casino sites. But Kick has work to do if it is to catch Twitch and top rivals as it has just a 2% share of the market.
