Streams of gambling games have long been a major headache for Twitch. The Casino Jackpot / Slots / Virtual Casino categories, and others alike, can now be considered some of the most controversial and problematic. Technically, streams of gambling games are not prohibited, but these categories are subject to a number of serious restrictions on advertising, viewer age, and so on. The platform has also witnessed several high-profile scandals where popular streamers borrowed hundreds of thousands of dollars from their colleagues and fell into debt, becoming too engrossed in streaming online casinos. In other cases, it was the viewers themselves who became victims, entrusting their personal data to scam roulette games that were heavily advertised.
In October 2022, following another scandal surrounding gambling, Twitch banned streamers from broadcasting their gaming sessions from online casinos that do not have an official license in the United States. This restriction affected not only hundreds of small online casinos but also major platforms such as Stake, Rollbit, Duelbits, and Roobet. Twitch's gambling policy partly prompted Stake owners to launch Kick, their own streaming service with much more lenient gambling rules. Subsequently, many Twitch streamers, including stars like xQc, Amouranth, TrainwrecksTv, Adin Ross, and others, moved to Kick.
As for Twitch, the administration has gradually tightened the rules for gambling streams. Four new sites have been added to the aforementioned platforms. Streamers are now prohibited from posting their referral links, advertising gambling to underage viewers, and engaging in other similar activities. Essentially, streams in the gambling categories on Twitch are like navigating a minefield, where any careless actions can result in channel suspension. Some streamers have embraced the new rules and strive to adhere to them, while others completely ignore them. Currently, gambling channels on Twitch are among the leaders in terms of the number of banned channels and the percentage of channels with abnormal viewership activity (i.e., bot manipulation).
How many suspicious channels are in the Twitch gambling category?
Streams Charts has conducted an analysis of Twitch categories with gambling games and found that 76% of all active channels in the last three months (from May to August) can be classified as suspicious. These are channels with abnormal viewership metrics that do not fit the usual logic of other streams. For example, when a newly created channel immediately attracts several thousand viewers or a large number of viewers suddenly appears/disappears during a broadcast. We have also taken into account other factors during the analysis, but these are the most indicative ones.
The methodology used for such calculations is not flawless and has its inaccuracies; sometimes channels from verified streamers were mistakenly flagged as suspicious, or clearly boosted channels were not identified as such. Taking into account all these inaccuracies, our analysts have concluded that 76% of all gambling streams on Twitch during the specified time period were artificially inflated.
Dynamics of Suspicious Categories on Twitch
With the tightening of the rules in the gambling categories on Twitch, the number of suspicious channels has also increased. Partly, their share has grown because many "normal" gambling streamers have switched to Kick or other platforms. At the same time, the number of one-day channels on Twitch has started to rise. Essentially, these are channels that are specifically created for advertising online roulettes or illegal casinos, completely disregarding Twitch rules. The owners of these channels do not expect long-term interaction with the audience. They deliberately inflate bots during their broadcasts, thus increasing the chances of being noticed by real viewers, in order to later attract them to another platform or online casino.
More than 92% of all new channels that broadcast the gambling categories on Twitch from May to August had signs of bot manipulation. These channels, typically short-lived, would often get blocked quickly but still managed to stay on air for some time. About 49% of the channels that streamed in the gambling categories were live for less than two hours. We found thousands of channels that streamed for only 5, 10, 20, 30 minutes, and so on. Among these channels, there was an exceptionally high percentage of bot manipulation (over 80%).
There have always been a lot of bots in the gambling categories on Twitch. However, after the rules were tightened, the proportion of new suspicious channels has increased to 92%. In fact, the Twitch administration has encountered a reverse effect — streamers in these categories have found it more profitable to create channels quickly, manipulate bots, and violate platform rules rather than work with the audience for long-term prospects.
Popularity of broadcast languages in gambling categories on Twitch
Portuguese, English, Spanish, Russian, and German are the top 5 most popular languages for gambling streams on Twitch. However, the percentage of suspicious streams varies for each language. For example, for English streams, it constituted 85% out of 3.3K channels. For German streams, it was 91% among 929 channels.
Spanish deserves a special mention. Among the 3.4K channels in the gambling categories on Twitch, only 62% showed signs of artificial boosting. This is a relatively low percentage for such a large number of channels: either Spanish-speaking viewers genuinely love gambling games or local streamers have found more sophisticated ways to artificially boost the number of viewers, which are harder to detect.
Summing up our analysis, it can be concluded that tightening the rules around gambling games on Twitch has only led to an increase in the number of bots and scam channels. At the same time, the platform has lost several reputable streamers from these categories who have moved to competitors and partially taken their audience with them.
Recently, Twitch introduced new restrictions for gambling streamers, prohibiting the promotion of roulette websites with CS:GO skins. It is evident that the platform is seeking new mechanisms to protect its underage users. However, Twitch does not plan to completely abandon the streaming of gambling games, as there is still a successful poker section on the platform.
