Twitch Casino
Twitch is the world’s leading live streaming platform for gamers and the things we love. Watch and chat now with millions of other fans from around the world. Twitch is the world’s leading live streaming platform for gamers and the things we love. Watch and chat now with millions of other fans from around the world.
Boasting an impressive 25,000,000 unique viewers every month, Twitch is by far the most popular live streaming platform in the Western world. While it’s mostly known for video games, the platform also hosts a wide variety of other content. One of the more popular categories of such content is online gambling.
The presence of gambling activities on the platform is a complex, multifaceted issue that sparks heated debates in the twitch community whenever it’s discussed. Read this article to find out everything you need to know about the current status and legality of Twitch gambling streams.
Twitch Gambling Rules: Is It Legal to Stream Gambling Content on Twitch?
First things first: are gambling streams even legal? The short answer to this question is yes. The long answer is that it’s complicated.
For the most part, gambling streams are completely legal. For example, if you were to start your own live casino Twitch channel, would not have to worry about facing any legal repercussions for doing so. Your online casino Twitch account would also not violate the platform’s terms of service. But all of this is only true if you follow a certain set of rules when conducting your gambling activities.
The most important of these rules is, obviously, legality. Streamers must be of legal gambling age and the gambling activities they are streaming must be legal in their country of residence. For example, if online gambling is not legal in your country, you cannot legally start and run a Twitch casino slots channel.
The venue the streamer plays on also matters. Casino streamers playing on a legitimate, licensed, and regulated gambling site are unlikely to get into trouble. On the other hand, those using gambling streams to deceive their audience by promoting a scam casino will inevitably get banned.
Twitch is very serious about fighting scammers. In recent years, there’s been a war on fake casino streaming channels. Such channels promote disreputable venues by altering the win rates and streaming themselves getting big win after big win. Although some of these channels manage to stay active for long periods of time, they are inevitably banned.
Lastly, in order to protect children from the negative influence of gambling, your stream needs to be clearly labeled as serving content for a “Mature Audience”. Some jurisdictions also require gambling streamers to put up information about responsible gaming practices, as well as websites people can turn to if they are suffering from gambling addiction, in their channel descriptions.
Gambling Skins on Twitch: Is It Considered Real Gambling?
Twitch Casino
When it comes to CS:GO skin gambling and other types of video game item gambling, Twitch’s policy is quite clear. If the items you’re gambling for are exchangeable for real money, Twitch gambling rules will apply to your content.
For a real-life example of what not to do, let’s take a look at the case of James Phantoml0rd Varga. The popular streamer received a permanent ban for streaming himself playing on a Counter Strike: Global Offensive skin gambling website.
The reason Varga got banned wasn’t because he was streaming a gambling activity. As we discussed above, that’s perfectly legal. Varga was banned because he owned that skin betting website and didn’t disclose the fact to his audience.
Varga also used his access to the website to tip the skin gambling odds in his favor. This was done in order to make his viewers believe they might get a big win if they played on the website.
Twitch Casino Bot
Taken altogether, Vargo’s behavior can be summed up in one word: fraud. Hence, it’s no surprise that he was permanently banned from Twitch.
Later on, Phantoml0rd went on to sue Twitch for removing him from the platform. Here’s a short recap of what went down:
Gambling in Twitch Chat: Are Twitch Raffles and Giveaways Legal?
When it comes to raffles and giveaways, their legality should be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Using a twitch bot to give a random viewer a non-monetary reward, such as letting them choose the next game you’ll play on your stream, is perfectly fine. This is because they didn’t pay anything to participate in the raffle and what they receive for winning does not have a monetary value.
In most cases, if subscribing to your channel or paying a certain sum of money was not a condition for entering, giving a monetary prize to the winner of a raffle is also fine. Most publisher-sponsored giveaways with gifts of free games fall into this category.
Giving a prize with no monetary value to a paid subscriber is also fine. For example, you could use a random number generator to make one of them your Twitch moderator for a month.
What is decidedly illegal is actual gambling in Twitch chat, i.e. having users pay for a chance to participate in a giveaway with monetary rewards. Having a paid subscription to your channel may be interpreted as a payment.
Top Twitch Casino Streamers
Here is a list of the top 5 most popular Twitch casino streamers as of January 2021:
- ROSHTEIN (total followers: 465,000)
- CasinoDaddy (total followers: 164,000)
- ClassyBeef (total followers: 139,000)
- JugiPelaa (total followers: 66,500)
- Jarttu84 (total followers: 54,100)
As you can see from the list, Twitch’s gambling segment is dominated by its biggest star, ROSHTEIN. The popular streamer also has a YouTube channel with close to 50,000 subscribers.
Frequently Asked Questions About Twitch Gambling
Can You Stream Gambling on Twitch?
Yes, gambling streams are perfectly legal and do not violate Twitch’s terms of service in any way whatsoever.
What Are the Rules for Streaming Gambling on Twitch?
Gambling streams can be only be run by players of legal gambling age who reside in countries where gambling activities are legal. Streamers must not use their broadcasts to deceive their audiences. Streamers must also put a “Mature Audiences” warning on all streams of gambling activities.
How to Gamble on Twitch?
As long as you comply with the above-mentioned rules, you are free to start your very own online gambling channel.
How Do You Play Casino Games on Twitch?
To play casino games on Twitch, you must create a Twitch account, choose a reputable online gambling site to play at, and launch your stream. If you do not know how to set up a Twitch stream, this guide will help you get started.
Who Are the Biggest Twitch Slot Streamers?
As of January 2021, the top 3 biggest Twitch slot streamers are ROSHTEIN, CasinoDaddy, and ClassyBeef.
Article updated on 27/01/2021.
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Recently, the Twitch casino community has come under the spotlight for perhaps not the most glorious of reasons. A recently published piece on Eurogamer highlights the status quo of the Twitch casino section. Such a section even no longer seems to exist. Seemingly spurred by the challenging article, Twitch is now graced by sections such as blackjack and slots. What’s the root cause of this problem? How can we fix it? Are bots the only problem here? Find the SlotsFighter take here on the Twitch casino fiasco.
The Machines of Twitch Casino
One of the first things that any person visiting the Twitch casino section of yore would be it is the massive influx of viewers. Alongside grands such as CS: GO, Fortnite and even Overwatch, the Twitch casino section seems to outrank the others at certain times. Is it possible that casino streams can outmatch some of the most popular game streams out there in views? Something seems fishy, and that suspicion is right.
Some streams within the casino section have even received more than 20,000 concurrent views. For Twitch in general, this does not seem to sound all that impossible. But seeing how some of the most prominent Twitch casino streamers manage to average to around 5,000 concurrent viewers, there is a serious reason for concern.
Other gaming sites recently have expressed concerns about bots invading the Twitch casino section. Kotaku dug deeper within the category and found patterns of some botting-related severe infractions. Unsensible blabber by “viewers,” day-old channels with views in the thousands and more. While this has been going on for months, this whole issue with bots has gone unnoticed until now.
Unlicensed Casinos On Twitch Casino Channels?
Bots were not the only issue concerning Twitch community members. Some questions were raised regarding unlicensed casinos being promoted in a few of these questionable streams. For one, some of these unlicensed casinos allowed players from the United Kingdom to create accounts while the casinos were not even licensed in the UK. However, the Gambling Commission has already begun their investigations into this matter. Hopefully, this will get the foul players to back off and give some more room to legitimate streamers.
All in all, it looks like this sudden awareness within the gaming community has taken a turn for the better. The Twitch casino section has seen some changes regarding channels being funneled full of bots. Also, we’ve seen how the casino section has been split into several different categories and streams such as SlotsFighter can now be found on “Slots”. Nevertheless, an actual response from Twitch is probably what all casino streamers have been hoping for and SlotsFighter alike. Hopefully, this