Twitch stars demand gambling reforms on streaming platform
Leading creators up in arms after Abraham Mohammed admits to scamming community out of $200,000 to fund gambling addiction
Several leading Twitch stars have called on the platform to take action against gambling streaming after a fellow streamer revealed his gambling addiction.
Abraham “Sliker” Mohammed disclosed his gambling addiction after it emerged he had borrowed money from both fans and fellow creators but failed to pay them back.
He admitted in a tearful video that he scammed fans and content creators out of at least $200,000 to fund his gambling on popular title Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
The revelation led to leading Twitch creators taking to social media to denounce gambling on the platform.
Pokimane (9.2 million Twitch followers), Mizkif (2.1 million followers) and Ludwig (3.1 million followers) all posted on Twitter to make their feelings known on the issue.
A tweet by Pokimane in which she asked her followers if gambling should be banned on the platform has garnered 300,000 likes.
like if twitch should ban gambling
— pokimane (@pokimanelol) September 18, 2022
However, this sentiment was not universal among the Twitch community, with popular gambling streamer Trainwreck taking an alternative view on the topic.
He said: “To be clear, the people scapegoating slots, blackjack and roulette and not blaming the individual, are the real problem. On top of that, Sliker was a sports betting addict, the one type of gambling that is normalised.”
Gambling on Twitch has been a contentious topic since the Amazon-owned platform confirmed it was undertaking a review of gambling behaviour on the platform.
Twitch said it was monitoring “closely to ensure our approach mitigates potential harm to our global community”.
This prompted Félix ‘xQc’ Lengyel to hit out at a potential ban during one of his streams.
Lengyel said: “Thoughts on Twitch removing gambling? I don’t think they could do that. I think everyone can understand why they won’t remove gambling, I think it’s a simple concept.”
“Why? Well, it’s not about the money. If you ban gambling, you have to ban almost half the games [on Twitch],” he added.
Slots gambling has become a leading category on the platform in recent years as streamers broadcast their live play to audiences.
Poker is also a popular category, yet one online player, Fintan Hand, laid out in a series of tweets why he believes poker should be treated differently to slots regarding any potential ban.
I haven't really caught up with the drama on Twitch surrounding gambling.
Seeing a lot of calls for gambling on Twitch to be banned.
I would like to think, given we are in a different category, Poker won't fall under the same blanket term.
It's so much different than slots.
— Fintan Hand (@EasyWithAces) September 19, 2022
Prominent poker sites such as GGPoker, partypoker and 888poker all have Twitch channels with tens of thousands of followers each. PokerStars leads the way with more than 306,000 followers.