Twitch is certainly by far the most popular streaming platform in the world for gaming, pulling in millions of viewers per day with the biggest channels accounting for tens of thousands per individual channel. The platform has had a muddled history however with making rule changes that often make little to no sense and with other problems starting to emerge with different genres too. It raises the question why it often takes so long for changes to be put into place and why these changes are often so complicated to facilitate in a more comprehensive way.
The latest to come into question has been within the online casino and slots section of the platform. Over the past eighteen months, online casinos have continued to thrive and see a huge amount of growth particularly with the launch of things like bitcoin slots and alternative ways to deliver online game services too. As the casino industry as a whole continues to grow with new operators registering their own services and the growth of existing names like Spin Casino online amongst many other examples, the future looks to be very bright, but perhaps not for the streaming side of things.
Coming under criticism recently largely because of the unprotected audience who may be subject to the long streaming hours and the huge numbers being gambled away. Although it is required to label the streams as 18+, there is no verification that would otherwise protect players underage, and with a number of the services being played on being unlicensed, these same don’t have verification checks either which has left the door open for younger players to get involved. The same is true for the ads and sponsored streams too, whilst it is a requirement to disclose whether or not the stream is sponsored, leaks have shown that not all were following the rules and were being paid to stream on a particular service, with money provided by the service and without disclosing it. When these players are gambling away tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, it definitely warrants the question of why this is yet to be addressed, and why it has been allowed to continue on without any changes being seen, particularly as other categories and genres saw changes extremely quickly.
It’s definitely a tricky thing to tackle, either way changes will upset one audience or another, but as a very influential platform both the streamers and those who make the rules for Twitch have a responsibility that many viewers currently feel isn’t being upheld. As noted it has been shown in the past just how quickly changes can be made if needed and it seems strange that this change hasn’t come sooner, but with a growing public outcry for something to be done, it seems that at least some level of change could be on the way, as a blanket adjustment to either limit the practice or a big sweeping set of rule changes will hit heavy.
