Twitch announced that it will prohibit links and referral codes to gambling websites.
Twitch has introduced a restriction related to gambling content, prohibiting all content creators from promoting gambling-related links or codes on the platform. After months of debate over whether Twitch should allow gambling content on its website, the platform has made the decision to restrict its promotion from creators.
Twitch shared the news to its users this week on Creator Update, Twitch has announced that it will ban links and referral codes to gambling sites. They claim that this action will prevent damage, hits and will provide a better user experience.
The news shared was posted on the 11th of August read:
“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,” the announcement says. “We will continue to monitor gambling-related content and update our approach as needed.”
This change won’t immediately come into effect, the new policy will be put into effect on Aug, 17. They chose this date to allow time for those creators who have already shared these links on their channel to remove them.
In the past months, many creators came out against gambling on Twitch, stating that it should be banned altogether. While this isn’t the decision that Twitch has made, the removal of affiliate links and codes is a step in that direction.
Gambling on stream has not been completely banned by the platform. But large sites that used to promote themselves through streamers (e.g Stake.com, promoted by xQc) may also leave the platform. It will be difficult to go without distributing links or reference codes to a large audience as before.
Twitch has been paying attention to community feedback and users might even see stricter moderation in the future.
Gilbert Fletcher is an ex financial journalist from Cambridgeshire, England. Gilbert worked with several leading financial publications before joining Gaming Industry Media.