Twitch has added two more gambling sites to its list of prohibited sites - Blaze and Gamdom. This follows its policy change that it implemented last year.
The company is an interactive livestreaming service for content such as gaming, entertainment, sports, music and more.
Its motive for banning gambling sites is to ‘protect its community’ (from gambling-related harms), ‘address predatory behaviour’ and ‘make Twitch a safer place.’
After updating the policy – prohibiting streams of certain sites that include slots, roulette, or dice games – Twitch saw gambling viewership drop by 75%; meaning that its new policy is working.
Speaking on its policy update decreasing gambler viewership by 75%, a Twitch representative posted on Twitter: “This meant the change had an immediate impact, and that our community has been better protected from scams and related harms.
“Since then, we’ve observed some new trends and are updating our list of prohibited sites to better protect our community. It’s important that the policy continues to meaningfully prevent harm.”
Twitch has been reviewing its policy in regards to gambling since September 2022 and put its policy into action in October 2022.
However, despite banning the sharing of links or referral codes to gambling sites, Twitch will still permit links that focus on sports betting, fantasy sports and poker.
A Twitch representative posted its policy on Twitter stating: “Gambling content on Twitch has been a big topic of discussion in the community and something we've been actively reviewing since our last policy update in this area.
“While we prohibit sharing links or referral codes to all sites that include slots, roulette, or dice games, we've seen some people circumvent those rules and expose our community to potential harm.
“So we'll be making a policy update on October 18 to prohibit streaming of gambling sites that include slots, roulette, or dice games that aren't licensed either in the US or other jurisdictions that provide sufficient consumer protection.
“These sites will include Stake.com, Rollbit.com, Duelbits.com and Roobet.com. However, we may identify others as we move forward.”
