Apps

Twitch responds to gambling scam drama by banning some betting sites

Comment

twitch glitch
Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch

Twitch is cracking down on some gambling sites after a streamer scammed his peers out of tens of thousands of dollars to fuel a betting habit, kicking off a firestorm about how the platform should handle games of chance in the process.

Over the weekend, ItsSliker, a U.K.-based streamer who gained some popularity back in 2019 after appearing on game show streams, was accused of misleading Twitch figures into loaning him big sums of cash. According to Discord logs linked on a Reddit thread, ItsSliker claimed that his bank account was locked and he needed help while the account was frozen.

A number of big-name streamers came forward with similar stories about being contacted to help ItsSliker with his financial need under similar circumstances, including Ludwig Ahgren, Mizkif, Lukeafkfan and Trainwreck, who said he once gave the lesser-known streamer a payment of about $45,000. Twitch’s most-watched streamer of 2021, xQc, vowed to help repay the money lost, estimating the total at around $300,000.

ItsSliker came clean about his gambling problem in a video over the weekend, admitting that he has a gambling addiction and explaining that it all started with making bets using in-game skins in the now decade-old game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. After that, he “started to gamble with money,” moving on to sports betting.

“I’d come across streamers and ask them if I could borrow money,” he said. “And obviously I wouldn’t give them the reason, because it was gambling — I would lie to them.”

As the scandal spread, influential Twitch figures — including Pokimane, Devin Nash, Mizkif, Ludwig and Hasan Piker — called on the company to ban gambling on the platform, with some threatening to boycott Twitch for a week or longer in protest.

Twitch responded to the situation — and the threat from some of its biggest streamers — on Tuesday, saying that it would issue a policy update next month to prohibit “slots, roulette, or dice games” that aren’t licensed in the U.S or other markets with robust consumer protections. The new partial action against gambling streams would block sites like crypto betting hub Stake.com, Rollbit.com, Roobet.com and Duelbits.com.

Twitch noted that it would continue to “allow websites that focus on sports betting, fantasy sports, and poker,” leaving plenty of room on the platform for some of the most popular forms of betting.

Some streamers were happy to notch a win against gambling, which they don’t believe has a place on Twitch. Others were quick to point out that the company’s half measure wouldn’t do anything to impact the scam that kicked off the conversation to begin with.

Trainwreck, one of the streamers who fell victim to ItsSliker’s scam, objected to the broad anti-gambling sentiment while raising awareness about adjacent predatory behavior, like Twitch streamers who lure people to sign up for betting sites in order to win on-stream giveaways or those who only show wins without depicting the reality of their betting losses.

As the scandal unfolded, an inevitable backlash to the backlash fairly pointed out that Twitch stars swiftly rallied a pressure campaign against gambling in spite of failing to organize against other serious, systemic issues that still plague the platform, including harassment and hate speech targeting marginalized streamers.

Whether you think gambling has a place on Twitch or not, the conversation that launched out of some interpersonal drama between streamers is getting pretty muddled. Twitch might please some of its biggest names with a promise to ditch a few gambling domains, but ultimately there’s not a lot platforms can do when it comes to scammers using good old-fashioned social engineering to manipulate the people around them.

VTubers are making millions on YouTube and Twitch

Twitch builds toward a ‘layered’ safety approach with new moderator tools

 

More TechCrunch

OpenAI has banned a cluster of ChatGPT accounts linked to an Iranian influence operation that was generating content about the U.S. presidential election, according to a blog post on Friday.…

OpenAI shuts down election influence operation that used ChatGPT

Apple is reportedly shifting into the world of home robots after the wheels came off its electric car. According to a new report from Bloomberg, a team of several hundred…

Apple reportedly has ‘several hundred’ working on a robot arm with attached iPad

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. I’m Anna Heim from TechCrunch’s international team, and I’ll be writing this newsletter…

Another week in the circle of startup life

MIT this week showcased tiny batteries designed specifically for the purpose of power these systems to execute varied tasks.

Researchers develop hair-thin battery to power tiny robots

Rimac revealed Friday during The Quail, a Motorsports Gathering at Monterey Car Week the Nevera R, an all-electric hypercar that’s meant to push the performance bounds of its predecessor.

Rimac squeezes more power into its new all-electric hypercar Nevera R. And it only starts at $2.5 million

While the ethics of AI-generated porn are still under debate, using the technology to create nonconsensual sexual imagery of people is, I think we can all agree, reprehensible. One such…

A hellish new AI threat: ‘Undressing’ sites targeted by SF authorities

Almost two weeks ago, TechCrunch reported that African e-commerce giant Jumia was planning to sell 20 million American depositary shares (ADSs) and raise more than $100 million, given its share…

African e-commerce company Jumia completes sale of secondary shares at $99.6M

We’re entering the final week of discounted rates for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. Save up to $600 on select individual ticket types until August 23. Join a dynamic crowd of over…

Only 7 days left to save on TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 tickets

Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, announced on Friday that it has officially launched its rival iOS app store in the European Union. The Epic Games Store is also launching…

‘Fortnite’ maker Epic Games launches its app store on iOS in the EU, worldwide on Android

After bringing AI overviews to the U.S., Google is expanding the AI-powered search summaries to six more countries: India, Brazil, Japan, the U.K., Indonesia and Mexico. These markets will also…

Google is bringing AI overviews to India, Brazil, Japan, UK, Indonesia and Mexico

The Commission is seeking more information from Meta following its decision to deprecate its CrowdTangle transparency tool. The latest EU request for information (RFI) on Meta has been made under…

Meta draws fresh questions from EU over its CrowdTangle shut-down

In the last few months, Twitter alternatives — new and old — have found an audience willing to try out a new text-based social network. Mastodon, Bluesky, Spill and T2…

What is Instagram’s Threads app? All your questions answered

Revolut has confirmed a new valuation of $45 billion via a secondary market share sale, shortly after the U.K.-based neobank secured its own banking license in the U.K. and Mexico.…

UK neobank Revolut valued at $45B after secondary market sale

A social media spat between billionaire tech investors is raising questions about the journalistic independence of three-year-old news outfit SF Standard, after a reporter representing the outlet reached out to…

Ben Horowitz declares war on Michael Moritz

SB 1047 has drawn the ire of Silicon Valley players large and small, including venture capitalists, big tech trade groups, researchers and startup founders.

California AI bill SB 1047 aims to prevent AI disasters, but Silicon Valley warns it will cause one

California’s bill to prevent AI disasters, SB 1047, has faced significant opposition from many parties in Silicon Valley. Today, California lawmakers bent slightly to that pressure, adding in several amendments…

California weakens bill to prevent AI disasters before final vote, taking advice from Anthropic

Journalists, researchers and politicians are mourning Meta’s shutdown of CrowdTangle, which they used to track the spread of disinformation on Facebook and Instagram. In CrowdTangle’s place, Meta is offering its…

Meta axed CrowdTangle, a tool for tracking disinformation. Critics claim its replacement has just ‘1% of the features’

The Rivian camp kitchen attracted buzz from almost the moment it appeared as a prototype in 2019 at Overland Expo West. Despite interest in the accessory, Rivian never actually sold…

Rivian launches smaller $1,400 camp kitchen, 5 years after initial demo

Featured Article

A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs

The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has already seen 60,000 job cuts across 254 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. Companies like Tesla, Amazon, Google, TikTok, Snap and Microsoft have conducted sizable layoffs in the…

A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs

The layoffs occurred in waves over the past two years, and as recently as the last few weeks.

3D printing stalwart Formlabs confirms ‘small number’ of layoffs

A pair of Rocket Lab-made spacecraft are about to embark on a two-step journey. The first step is the 55-hour, 2,500-mile stretch from California to the launch site at Cape…

NASA and Rocket Lab aim to prove we can go to Mars for 1/10 the price

At a price of $111 for the Sat75 X board, this is a fun and easy way to get into building a custom mechanical keyboard without breaking the bank.

CannonKeys launches a modern take on a classic mechanical keyboard with the Sat75 X

HighPost Capital, a private equity firm run by Mark Bezos, Jeff Bezos’ younger brother, and PE veteran David Moross, has launched a new venture capital arm.

Jeff Bezos’ brother’s firm has launched a debut $100M VC fund called HIPstr

California residents will soon be able to store their driver’s license or state ID in their Apple Wallet or Google Wallet apps, as the state’s government announced Thursday that support…

Apple, Google wallets will soon support California driver’s licenses

Despite the influx of U.K. users to Bluesky, other new data indicates that it’s still Meta’s Threads, not Bluesky, that’s better poised to challenge X.

Bluesky’s UK surge has had little impact on X

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! We brought…

WeRide preps for an IPO, meet the man who built a startup pipeline at CNH and Waymo’s nightly honk-a-thon

It’s a successor to Geekbench ML.

Geekbench releases AI benchmarking app

Meta’s X rival Threads announced a number of new features today, including the ability to store multiple drafts, a way to rearrange columns on the desktop and insights into the…

Meta’s X rival Threads gains multiple drafts, audience insights and more

Franki is a social discovery and video-based review app where users can interact with a community of foodies, discover local dining spots and create their own videos showing off their…

Franki’s app rewards you for posting video reviews of local restaurants

The Startup Battlefield is one of the highlights of Disrupt, and we can’t wait to see which of the thousands of applicants will be selected to pitch to panels of top-tier…

Announcing judges for the Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024