Twitch expands ban on gambling livestreams by adding online casinos Blaze and Gamdon to its list

Amazon-owned livestreaming giant Twitch announced Wednesday it is expanding its ban on streams of gambling content on the platform. As per the announcement, the company will now prohibit streams of online casinos Blaze and Gamdom, adding to the four sites it banned last October when its new gambling policy went into effect, including stake.com, rollbit.com, duelbits.com, and roobet.com.

"Our goal now, as it was last fall, is to protect our community, address predatory behavior, and make Twitch safer," the company said in a Twitter post. 

🧵 Today, we’re adding two additional gambling sites - Blaze and Gamdom - to our list of prohibited sites, and sharing learnings from last year’s policy change.

Our goal now, as it was last fall, is to protect our community, address predatory behavior, and make Twitch safer. https://t.co/38I274nXCt pic.twitter.com/RJfm0TqMDa

— Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) August 2, 2023

Twitch first announced its restrictions after controversy broke out on the platform last year involving a streamer accused of scamming users and other content creators out of thousands of pounds to fuel a gambling addiction.

At the time, Twitch said it would prohibit websites that include slots, roulette, or dice games and aren’t "licensed either in the U.S. or in other jurisdictions that provide sufficient consumer protection." Blaze and Gamdom are not available in the U.S., but users can still gain access using virtual private networks that mask their locations.

An update on gambling on Twitch. pic.twitter.com/lckNTY9Edo

— Twitch (@Twitch) September 20, 2022

The company said it saw gambling viewership drop by roughly 75% after it implemented the new policy last year, but noted it has also "observed some new trends" and is updating its policy to better protect users.

The company also prohibits sharing links or referral codes to sites that include slots, roulette, or dice games to address what it said were scams and "other harms stemming from questionable gambling sites." It does, however, allow websites that focus on sports betting, fantasy sports, and poker.