How Twitch’s 2022 Restrictions on Gambling Streams and The Rise of Kick Have Changed Casino Streaming

New rules introduced by Twitch in 2022 changed the rules for casino streaming and helped facilitate the rise of Kick, a rival streaming service that is more permissive toward gambling streams.

Before 2022 and the introduction of Twitch’s new gambling rules, casino streams were a high-visibility type of stream on the platform.

Since the Twitch gambling ban, content around casino streaming has been heavily restricted. This has opened the door to rival streaming platforms like Kick, which provide a more permissive alternative for streamers who focus on gambling streams as their niche.

But it has caused an issue for viewers: are the streamers playing at regulated casinos, and how can they tell the difference when they aren’t?

Being able to discern easily whether or not a streamer is promoting a regulated casino is important for viewers. Streamers lend a degree of trustworthiness and help any casinos they play at seem well-established.

When streamers can be from any jurisdiction, it is especially hard for viewers to discern whether the casinos a streamer plays at are trusted casinos for Norwegian players or for whichever jurisdictions the viewers are from, which can lead to confused expectations or even the promotion of unregulated casino platforms.

Why Twitch Changed its Gambling Rules?

Twitch changed its rules around gambling on October 18th in 2022, citing consumer protection concerns and banning any streams that featured unlicensed gambling sites.

Gambling activities under the hammer included roulette, dice games and slots. Specifically, sites that were not regulated casinos in the US or other jurisdictions were banned.

The rules were changed after an increase in the criticism that Twitch had received for hosting gambling content on its platform, and were a step further than the earlier prohibition against referral codes and links to gambling sites on the platform.

Currently, the Twitch Community Guidelines still contain provisions that prohibit linking to or streaming from a number of listed gambling sites.

Factors such as age verification, deposit limits, licensing and other safety protections are cited as determining whether or not a website is permissible for gambling streams on the platform.

These rule changes, obviously, created an environment where any streamers whose niche was online casino content had to be much more careful about what they streamed, and led to the rise of an alternate streaming platform.

Kick Provides a Different Environment For Streamers

Kick was launched as a response to the changing rules on Twitch and offers streamers a bigger cut of the revenue from their audience, as well as much more permissive rules around moderation and, importantly, gambling streams.

Kick does have its own rules around what sort of casino streaming is allowed. No minors can participate in gambling; gambling streams must comply with any applicable laws, and sponsored gambling is only permitted when the platform holds a licence in the relevant jurisdiction.

It also states that any affiliate-type relationships between a streamer and an online casino platform must be disclosed to the audience.

Just that extra dash of permissibility has made Kick THE destination for streamers who make content in the gambling niche.

But it is important to note that viewers on Kick should be more aware. Just because a streamer is engaging with a platform that is licenced in their jurisdiction doesn’t mean that it will be legally available for them to enjoy as well.

Why Regulation is Hard to Identify?

A sad truth about streams of casino games is that they often blur the line between gambling, entertainment and advertising.

It’s pretty common for a gambling streamer to be playing slot games, talking about their chances, bemoaning the losses and celebrating the wins, displaying the logo of the casino, and even providing an affiliate link for their audience to try the casino out themselves.

All perfectly normal, but none of it explicitly states where the casino is licensed, who can play under that licence and what, if any, customer protections exist, especially for people outside of the licence jurisdiction.

Online casino licenses, like many other sorts of laws, are highly jurisdiction-dependent. What is permissible and fine in one region can be considered very dubious or highly illegal in another.

So just because a streamer is playing at what looks like regulated casinos for them doesn’t mean that all of their audience can play there as well.

What Differentiates a Regulated Casino From An Unregulated One?

The biggest difference between regulated and unregulated casinos is that one of them is overseen by an easily identifiable gambling regulator.

Operators should be able to clearly identify which authority has issued its licence and which jurisdiction that licence applies to. All of this should then be independently verifiable by viewers.

Two other key qualities that regulated casinos typically have are:

1. Age and identity verification processes. As an example, the UK’s Gambling Commission has strict rules about how businesses verify the age and identity of customers, largely to protect underage individuals.
2. Financial deposit limits and other responsible gambling tools. Most regulated online casino markets mandate that limits for deposits be included as standard with most platforms, and that other responsible gambling tools are also made accessible for players.

Importantly, while these systems and features improve the consumer protections around gambling activities and help to distinguish between regulated and unregulated online casino operators, they do not make gambling risk-free.

What Should Viewers Check When Watching Gambling Streams?

There are a few things that viewers should check when they are watching gambling streams before accessing any links and going to play themselves. Firstly, they should be aware that popularity is in no way indicative of trustworthiness.

Before an affiliate link is clicked, viewers should independently verify if the casino in question has a licence with a gambling authority that is relevant to their jurisdiction.

They should also check if the operator has sufficient identity verification and responsible gambling tools, as this will ensure that they are enjoying sufficient consumer protections while they play.

Streamers can make gambling content very entertaining, but if viewers seek those games out themselves, they should do their due diligence and ensure that they are participating only in regulated and legal online casino entertainment.