Twitch Says It Will Ban Users From Streaming Unlicensed Gambling Content (nbcnews.com) 33
Twitch has announced a ban on streaming unlicensed gambling sites, including slots, roulette and dice websites, starting next month. From a report: Sites that will be prohibited include Stake.com, Rollbit.com, Duelbits.com and Roobet.com. More websites may be banned later, Twitch said in a statement on Twitter. Websites focusing on sports betting, fantasy sports and poker will still be permitted. Some of Twitch's biggest streamers -- such as Imane "Pokimane" Anys, Matthew "Mizkif" Rinaudo and Devin Nash -- threatened a boycott of the platform during the week of Christmas, Kotaku reported.
While gambling streams are not new to the platform, in recent years some on the platform have argued that "rich creators promoted potentially harmful content to young, impressionable fans," according to Kotaku. A number of creators have been pushing Twitch to do something about online gambling streams, citing potential dangers to younger users. Some have used the hashtag #twitchstopgambling on Twitter to raise awareness about the gambling streams.
While gambling streams are not new to the platform, in recent years some on the platform have argued that "rich creators promoted potentially harmful content to young, impressionable fans," according to Kotaku. A number of creators have been pushing Twitch to do something about online gambling streams, citing potential dangers to younger users. Some have used the hashtag #twitchstopgambling on Twitter to raise awareness about the gambling streams.
Gambling is bad for kids (Score:1, Informative)
But softcore porn is just fine!
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No one's completely destroyed their life because of softporn, as far as I know.
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commercials and ads touting gambling
But these commercials are for sites or casinos where age restrictions are in place. And there are licenses at stake should the operators become lax about enforcement.
Yes. There is a valid argument about just not attracting kids to gambling anywhere. Like we do now for smoking. Because it creates a demand that they will satisfy elsewhere. So perhaps Twitch should ban all gambling streaming (any games with a payoff in other than a high score). Lets see how that plays out.
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Damn straight, tits ain't for little kids!
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But softcore porn is just fine!
Yes, pretty much. At least that is what the actual research says. There still is absolutely no scientifically sound evidence that porn (and not only softcore) is harmful to kids, and there likely will never be any such evidence as the evidence to the contrary is getting more and more solid. There are just the usual uptight peal-clutchers like you. What is harmful to kids is a lot of the things pushed in advertising.
Natural Progression from Gambling Loot Boxes (Score:5, Interesting)
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Kind of. It's a matter of immediacy in the reward. Poker is arguably a game of skill more than a game of chance, and gambling on sports generally has a significant amount of time between the bet and the reward.
Slots.. Well. Don't. They're constantly hammering you.
Blackjack is also skill (Score:2)
Isn't Blackjack also a game of skill, particularly in how you adjust your betting and hit/stand strategy for how many tens are left? For example, you don't want to insure unless at least 34% of the shoe is tens, up from 31% after a fresh shuffle.
Re: Natural Progression from Gambling Loot Boxes (Score:2)
Poker is a game of skill, slots is not.
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Poker is a game of skill
Not the way we play it.
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"Not the way we play it."
People who play poker for real call guys like you and your friends "my rent check for the month."
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I think the difference is that it would be extremely hard to define what is gambling if they tried to count anything in game that can be purchased. Does opening a card pack in Hearthstone count because you bought it and don't know what might be in it? Does opening a reward box in LoL count? There are so many different iterations of "loot boxes" in different games that there would be no way to define it in a meaningful way. With regular gambling, there is an easy way to define it for these rules. Gambling of
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How does "unlicensed" matter? (Score:2)
If that's your thinking, then I would expect licensed gambling to be every bit as bad, absolutely no difference.
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Licensed sites are governed by laws against underage players, etc.
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Sure, kids are smart. But I think there is a major difference between 'here is an activity', and 'here is an activity that you can do at this site'.
description unclear (Score:2)
Story description is pretty unclear.
Are they boycotting because they are banning the gambling streams?
or, are were their boycott theats because gambling streams are allowed?
no more saltybet? (Score:1)
Glad they did this... (Score:5, Interesting)
...because it was foul play, arranged even.
I often followed only small streamers, I noticed how they switched to gambling streams as it gained them more followers and more viewers. One (I won't mention his name or channel for his own protection) that I followed for the longest time almost got a gambling addiction from it, his fans told him this and he was in total denial and said it was only because he gained more viewers from it. Could be true, but he was real because he used only his own money.
How did I know?
Because he was a small time streamer. No big gambling company cares about some 200 viewer andy, and he lost all the time just like the rest of us who has ever tried gambling. And he lost big in the long run, and he is totally depending on his donations, a big time gambler often donated subscribers and money to him so he could keep gambling, but he kept losing all the time, and the feelings was real - sometimes he would rage so hard that his entire face got red. He even lost his girlfriend who was also on stream at some point, but she came back to him and he stopped gambling.
I also watched the big gamblers, just like sometimes he did - he raved about how "that should be him" and how he "wished he had an affiliate" with them. He would scream and yell at those other streams who won hundreds of thousands almost on a regular basis, while he - who was just gambling small time didn't ever win anything.
It became pretty clear after a while that those "professional slot machine gamblers" - ha - professional slot machine...gamblers was in on these big players, they where shilled and paid for by the casinos and it was pretty apparent. OFC. this has a bad effect on kids and weaker adults who can't resist the dream of easy money.
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Yes (Score:2)