Twitch takes aim at gambling meta by banning referral codes & links for slots, roulette

Twitch is taking action against gambling streams on its platform to protect its users from potential scams and harmful content by banning referral codes/links to slots, roulettes, and more.

Popular content creators like xQc and Trainwrecks have championed the gambling meta on Twitch, among others. But the platform is now barring the biggest incentive to run those streams in the first place. On August 11, Twitch released a notice to their creators telling them to clear out any content that promotes links or referral codes to services that have been propelling the gamba meta. Streams will have less than a week to purge their channels and VODs from the new rules that will soon go into effect. Twitch will decide if any further action will be warranted against gambling streams.

“To prevent harm and scams created by questionable gambling services that sponsor content on Twitch, we will prohibit sharing links and/or referral codes to sites that offer slots, roulette, or dice games,” a Twitch advisory said. “We will continue to monitor gambling-related content and update our approach as needed. To give you time to remove this content from your channel, enforcement will be delayed until August 17, 2021.”

• Read more: Streamer slams Twitch as racist bots target black streamers and mock #TwitchDoBetter

Twitch did not immediately respond to Dexerto’s request for comment.

This comes on the heels of debates among streamers like Pokimane, Asmongold, MoistCr1TiKaL, and more speaking out against gambling on Twitch. Some streamers, like Trainswrecks and xQc, insist their content was transparent and above water.

• Read more: Twitch promises to take action after racist bots target Black streamers

Twitch streamers, and to a lesser extent the gambling sites they partner with, will now have much less of a reason to run those streams without the benefits from referral codes and links. While those kinds of streams won’t be outright banned, this is a direct action against the gambling meta that has been steadily growing on Twitch.