MORE LIMITS ON GAMBLING STREAMS
A week has passed since Twitch’s restriction on unregulated gambling streaming went into force, but already some streamers think they have discovered a loophole that will enable them to continue broadcasting their online slot games.
Twitch announced its plan to increase restrictions on gambling broadcasts in September and implemented the new regulations on October 18. Twitch said in its first statement on Twitter that it will block the broadcasting of gambling sites that are not regulated in the United States or other countries that offer adequate consumer safeguards.
It had previously prohibited the sharing of links and referral codes in broadcasts, but said that “some users have circumvented the regulations,” thus the strengthening of restrictions. Twitch expressly banned four online casino sites: Stake, Rollbit, Duelbits, and Roobet, all of which have gained popularity among gambling streamers due to their ease of use and acceptance of cryptocurrency, which enables users to circumvent banking limitations.
While extremely similar, the official policy on Twitch’s website is a little more ambiguous. It names the four blacklisted sites but does not explicitly state that additional unregulated sites are also barred. Instead, it states that the corporation “may designate more as we go ahead.”
STREAMERS ARE CONVINCED THAT THEY HAVE GAMED THE SYSTEM
In this regard, Scurrows, a German gambling streamer, claimed that he had discovered a loophole. He said that the URL of the casino website is everything.
“…when a streamer is playing a casino and the name of the casino is displayed in the picture, it is unclear whose site they are playing on. As long as the URL is not visible, it is impossible to determine whether or not this streamer is infringing the regulations,” he said.
Here’s what Scurrows means: certain gambling sites offer regionalized versions, similar to how PokerStars has a “.com,” “.eu,” “.uk,” etc. The sites specified in Twitch’s Community Guidelines are “dot com” versions of cryptocurrency casinos. Therefore, Scurrow feels he is safe if he streams on a non-“dot com” version of a website. And without displaying the URL, no one will know.
Scurrows specifies that although Stake.com is forbidden, Stake.US and Stake.UK are both acceptable (the latter is actually dot uk dot com, but no matter). Unfortunately for Scurrows, he is undoubtedly mistaken in at least one respect. In the FAQ section directly below the gambling restriction, Twitch specifies that “we do not permit free social versions of the aforementioned websites.” The dot US version of Stake is a social gambling website, and hence would be outlawed.
Obviously, you might be technically accurate with the dot UK version or similar, therefore it will be up to Twitch to either amend the list of blacklisted sites or explain the regulations more. Despite the fact that the “slots” category has fallen out of Twitch’s top 10 due to the restriction on gambling streaming, it is still in the top twenty, suggesting the streams have not completely vanished. It took the threat of a boycott from some of the platform’s most prominent broadcasters for Twitch to crack down on gambling broadcasts, so it is unknown how attentive the service will be in regulating streams that are prohibited.
In the meanwhile, gambling streamers have migrated to a service called DLive, which recognized the chance to embrace them with open arms and provide them with a larger income share.
Source: www.pokernewsdaily.com
