Years after Valve delivered cease and desist letters to numerous gambling sites, the first Twitch gambling meta of CSGO skins was put on hold, a new form of gambling is once again occupying the top spot on Twitch.
The gambling meta has returned this time with significant funding from foreign crypto casinos. Slots and other crypto gambling games are now being streamed on Twitch by several well-known streamers under the impression of being a real game of chance while being promoted by the gambling website in question to run ads. The Slots category reached at 6th place on the list of the Top Most Viewed Games on Twitch, surpassing juggernauts like Dota 2, Fortnite, and Apex Legends since the gambling meta is currently so popular on Twitch. Since many streamers attract thousands of viewers per day without using any disclaimers or age limits, the streaming are giving addicts and children unfiltered access to the gambling industry.
According to a recent Bloomberg report, the gambling culture has become so out of control that many of the streamers’ celebrity fans are borrowing money and risking their life savings in order to gamble and lose. They related the tale of a fan named Chabot who used to follow Felix “xQc” Lengyel, a former Overwatch player and Twitch partner. If you don’t recall, Felix began to broadcast himself playing poker on Stake.com later in 2021 and was called out at that time by several well-known streamers, including Pokimane. Felix used to run a promotional code for Stake.com, which touts itself as a
As a “leading online crypto casino,” it describes itself. On Stake, you typically trade actual money for recognized cryptocurrencies. Later, you may use that cryptocurrency to make bets on a variety of games of chance, such roulette, blackjack, and slot machines. Chabot attempted playing slots using Felix’s discount code and began placing modest wagers of $1 on his games. This once-fun activity quickly turned into a nightmare for Chabot, who claims he spent his whole $40,000 life savings on gambling before losing everything. Chabot thereafter took out two $20,000 bank loans and burned through those funds in an effort to recoup his losses. In the end, he caused himself to go bankrupt and lose everything.
You might argue that the issue isn’t with the platform, but rather with viewers betting on things they can’t stand to lose, but you should know that the majority of streamers who do slot streams are sponsored and play on specially designed rigged games created by site owners to encourage a winning environment. The viewers are encouraged to gamble because of the viewers’ perception that winning big isn’t all that difficult. The unexpected increase in gambling meta is profitable for more than just gambling websites. Every month, streamers who run promotional codes or participate in sponsored streams earn more than $1 million. Felix claimed in May that the Stake.com promotion code he distributed on Twitch helped the website earn $119 million. Although he withheld his percentage, it is assumed that he earned more than $2.3 million on the average VIP commission alone.
Despite the fact that online gambling with cryptocurrencies is prohibited in the USA, numerous sites have registered themselves in safe haven nations like Curacao in the southern Caribbean Sea and the Dutch Caribbean territory. The majority of gambling-related streamers have relocated to Canada, which at the moment does not have strict regulations banning cryptocurrency gambling online.
Twitch can’t seem to escape the ongoing debate over platform rules and streams. The platform used to be plagued by Hot-tub and pool streams, now Gambling meta has taken their place. Twitch is sluggish to respond and typically only takes action until the internet as a whole begins to campaign against the platform.
