As more controversies emerge around gambling on Twitch, one of its most prominent streamers, Pokimane, calls for them to be banned. It's not uncommon that various Twitch "metas" or trends arise on the service, such as the hot tub meta, ASMR, reaction content, or the TV meta, with some dying off rather quickly and others growing legs.
One of the most controversial has been gambling streams. While one's opinion on gambling certain matters, it's not at the crux of this issue whether gambling is legal or not, but the issue of how it can be used differently on Twitch streams. Instead, many find this type of content to be manipulative, leading streamers to take advantage of their audiences.
Many have criticized Twitch for allowing gambling streams, and though the company is reportedly looking into it, steps have not seemingly been taken yet. Pokimane is one of those critics and recently posted on her personal Twitter, as first reported by Dexerto, asking her followers to like the post if they believe these streams should be banned. As of this writing, it has been like over 270,000 times in less than 24 hours.
This post comes shortly after one of the biggest Twitch gambling stream controversies to date. Streamer ItsSliker had been accused of scamming followers, fellow content creators, and friends for thousands of dollars. This was accomplished by sending them short emotional clips asking for money, for a variety of reasons such as getting locked out of his bank account or needing to pay off certain, important debts. It would seem these funds were, instead, redirected toward gambling. ItsSliker recently confessed to these scams during a stream, where he added that he suffered from a severe gambling addiction.
It remains to be seen what happens from here, but the Twitch gambling controversies do seem to be hitting a boiling point. One streamer, Mitch Jones, revealed he lost $50,000 due to gambling. Meanwhile, xQc has waged half a billion dollars in gambling streams and doesn't seem likely to stop. He doesn't believe Twitch will ban gambling as some of the most popular games on the service involve gambling of some sort, like CS:GO and Apex Legends, but it should be noted that there is a difference between "simulated gambling" and "real gambling." Whether that difference is enough for Twitch is up in the air.
Source: Dexerto