Twitch CEO Dan Clancy has voiced his opinions about gambling sites being streamed on the platform. In a new interview with streamer Filian, Clancy noted that some specific sites and streams were targeted due to their unregulated nature. The Twitch boss hinted the platform had no issues with streaming gambling, but that it does not back content featuring unregulated sites.
He said: “The thing that was growing was these unregulated offshore gambling sites… These are sites that there’s nobody overlooking to see, for example, what are the odds on the craps tables, are they tweaking them, do they change them, cause they’re not regulated.”
Twitch CEO Dan Clancy gives his take about gambling on Twitch pic.twitter.com/c0QoBSTEcZ
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He also noted that a large amount of money from Twitch was flowing into these unregulated sites as compared to creators, which the platform felt was not good for the community it seeks to foster.
The Twitch CEO added: “The amount of money that was flowing, where our creators were building these communities and connections that they formed on Twitch, to drive people to these sites, it was a significant amount of money to a small number of creators. And we decided we didn’t think that was good for the community, so we banned unregulated ones.”
Twitch’s relationship with gambling-related streams has been tumultuous for some time now. Recognizing the potential negative impact of unregulated gambling sites on the community, last year in October, Twitch rolled out a policy that barred gambling sites that were unlicensed. These included Stake.com and Rollbit.com, as they were not regulated. In the interview, Clancy noted that if such sites were to become government-regulated, and would adhere to consumer protection laws, Twitch would allow them.
Clancy’s concerns are with gambling platforms on Twitch with no oversight or regulation. Owing to the lack of supervision or regulation, it gets difficult to ensure fair play, transparent odds, and consumer protection. Clancy also mentioned the likelihood of manipulation of odds as well as financial transactions that take palace through Twitch in such cases.
