Popular Post Isaac Posted July 14, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted July 14, 2021 https://www.wired.com/story/twitch-streamers-crypto-gambling-boom/ Quote TYLER NIKNAM WAS getting out of Texas. Niknam, 30, is a top streamer on Twitch, where he’s better known as Trainwrecks to his 1.5 million followers. For hours on end, Niknam was hitting the slots on Stake.com, an online cryptocurrency casino and his most prominent Twitch sponsor, to live audiences of 25,000. He’d been winning big, sometimes as much as $400,000 in crypto in one fell swoop, and he never seemed to go broke. The problem? It wasn’t allowed. If you visit Stake on a US-based browser, a message will quickly pop up on the site: “Due to our gaming license, we cannot accept players from the United States.” Though Stake doesn't possess a gambling license in any state, Nikam and other US gamblers easily circumvent this by using VPNs. Promoting gambling sites that cannot operate in the US and making money by referring US residents to them may constitute promoting illegal gambling, legal experts told WIRED. “Canada needs to happen asap,” Niknam wrote in a private Discord DM to Felix “xQc” Lengyel, 25, Twitch’s number two streamer. Lengyel briefly streamed slots but stopped in June. “You cannot show you’re on Stake at all.” A few days later, Niknam arrived in Canada, where he settled into a routine—gambling in a mostly empty apartment, sometimes more than a dozen hours a day. (Niknam did not respond to WIRED’s requests for comment.) Twitch is in the middle of a gambling boom, fueled by the rise of so-called “crypto casinos”—websites where gamblers can purchase cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum for use in digital games of chance like slots, blackjack, and baccarat. Sites like Stake and Roobet are paying popular streamers to play the casino games on their channels, sometimes offering tens of thousands of dollars an hour, according to streamers and experts interviewed by WIRED. One gambling website, Duelbits, apparently offered top gambling streamer Adin Ross between $1.4 million and $1.6 million a month to stream slots on Twitch, according to a Discord DM between himself and Duelbits. (Ross, who was recently suspended from Twitch for using his phone while driving, did not respond to WIRED’s requests for comment. Neither did Stake, Roobet, or Duelbits.) A WIRED review found that 64 of the top 1,000 most-trafficked Twitch streamers have streamed crypto slots or advertised sponsorship deals from crypto gambling websites, although the trend gained real traction in April and May of 2021. Some streams attract over 100,000 live viewers. Many of these streamers are members of Twitch’s Partner Program, which gives top creators access to additional support and features like increased revenue sharing. It’s Twitch’s highest tier of streamers, and the company says it looks for people “who can act as role models to the community”—a community where 21 percent of users are between 13 and 17 years old. TL:DR - Twitch Partners (streamers with thousands of subscribers and viewers) are spending more and more time livestreaming crypto gambling on the site, for huge backhanders from said gambling companies. They are often gambling with house money, rather than their own. In addition, there are rumours that the games are rigged to have bigger/more regular pay outs. I don't even know where to start with how grim and illegal this shit is. Maybe this belongs more in Off Topic, wasn't sure. 22 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlospie Posted July 14, 2021 Share Posted July 14, 2021 It's the Cs go scandal all over again 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RubberJohnny Posted July 14, 2021 Share Posted July 14, 2021 https://esports-news.co.uk/2021/07/02/save-the-kids-cryptocurrency-scandal-faze-influencers-opinion/ Quote In a nutshell, a cryptocurrency token called ‘Save the Kids’ ($KIDS) was peddled by huge influencers. Those accused include Brits FaZe Jarvis (who was banned from Fortnite in 2019 for using an aimbot), FaZe Kay and Joel Morris of UK-based YouTube academy Xcademy, as well as others: FaZe Nikan, FaZe Teeqo (who was later found innocent), Ricegum and Sommer Ray. Joel Morris has since stepped down from his role at Xcad Network, while FaZe Kay urged his fans ‘not to believe what you’re hearing online’ and that a ‘dishonest person abused his trust’ with Kay to ‘scam everybody and make six-figure profits’. Kay added in this video that lawyers are involved and working with authorities and that he is conducting an investigation to find out exactly what happened. Save the Kids was billed as a Bep-20 token ‘redistributing wealth’ to both hodlers and charities via the Binance Charity Wallet (‘hodlers’ is a term with an intended typo used to describe those that hold on to a particular token rather than sell it). Once the influencers had promoted this to their millions of followers, who began buying in, several of them then ‘pumped and dumped’, i.e. sold large amounts of the token in order to make money from it. This crashed the value of the $KIDS token from $0.0029 to $0.0012 in about a week, leaving many who bought in with a worthless crypto. Pretend to do something for a childrens charity and then make millions of it, and get to keep all of it, because crypto is an unregulated shitshow. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeanR Posted July 14, 2021 Share Posted July 14, 2021 Skids, lol… 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrben09 Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 18 hours ago, Isaac said: https://www.wired.com/story/twitch-streamers-crypto-gambling-boom/ TL:DR - Twitch Partners (streamers with thousands of subscribers and viewers) are spending more and more time livestreaming crypto gambling on the site, for huge backhanders from said gambling companies. They are often gambling with house money, rather than their own. In addition, there are rumours that the games are rigged to have bigger/more regular pay outs. I don't even know where to start with how grim and illegal this shit is. Maybe this belongs more in Off Topic, wasn't sure. I've been watching this guy and his mate Roshtein for a while now. I enjoy watching the slots and it's stopped me playing them myself. However, it is so rigged its unreal. Rosh wins a million euros for a 400 euro spin and then comes back for another 12 hours the next day. Nearly all of them are sponsored by Stake these days. Guys turning over literally millions and wearing nearly the same clothes very day. And they all live in Canada or Malta. Where the online casinos are based. Not fishy at all. This has been happening for years, but it was sort of believable when it was 5 and 10 euro bets. now they are spinning 500's like its no thing, its getting silly. The funny thing is the kafabe, its exactly like wrestling. Anyone in chat suggests it's not real is instabanned. And now they are crypto based, it's easy to be playing with "real" money. I get a wallet, drop a load of money in it, give it to you, You deposit back into my casino, and the circle continues. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moosegrinder Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 I can't imagine that Twitch can play dumb with all this for very long. Surely at some point some agency will start looking closely at it all? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrben09 Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 Like they have with Hub Tub streamers...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moosegrinder Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 2 minutes ago, mrben09 said: Like they have with Hub Tub streamers...... Not really the same thing though, is it? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Soldier Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 Yeah I've never got the hate over the hot tub thing. Just don't watch it. To encourage gambling is a big fucking no no however. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Stock Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 I can't really see Twitch doing much about this. They've always had a gambling/casino section on their site and there's little incentive to nuke these crypto streams when they are getting so many viewers out of it. I think only if there's a big backlash on this they'd do anything about it, and even then I don't know if it breaks their terms of service. So I guess the only thing folks who are against this can do is to apply pressure to both Twitch and the streamers to knock it off. As for legal matters, are Twitch actually breaking any laws here? Even if they were, what's to stop them just cutting off feeds for certain countries and keeping them for countries with laxer laws? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePixelbarks Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 1 hour ago, mrben09 said: Like they have with Hub Tub streamers...... Ah mate, that's such a terrible fucking take. This crypto scam isn't something that Twitch need to look into, this is a job for the law. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isaac Posted July 15, 2021 Author Share Posted July 15, 2021 20 minutes ago, Alan Stock said: I can't really see Twitch doing much about this. They've always had a gambling/casino section on their site and there's little incentive to nuke these crypto streams when they are getting so many viewers out of it. I think only if there's a big backlash on this they'd do anything about it, and even then I don't know if it breaks their terms of service. So I guess the only thing folks who are against this can do is to apply pressure to both Twitch and the streamers to knock it off. As for legal matters, are Twitch actually breaking any laws here? Even if they were, what's to stop them just cutting off feeds for certain countries and keeping them for countries with laxer laws? Do they track the ages of people registered to the site? If so, do they hide all gambling content from anyone under the age of 18? If not they are breaking a few laws here at least. If the people playing the games are doing so with dodgy odds to present them as winning more often than actual players they are breaking some serious US laws and pretty sure some serious ones over here too, even if they are just a content provider. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrben09 Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 45 minutes ago, ThePixelbarks said: Ah mate, that's such a terrible fucking take. This crypto scam isn't something that Twitch need to look into, this is a job for the law. Agreed , maybe i didn't explain myself very well. The question was should Twitch look into it and my point is that the hot tub thing should really be a over 18 area. As for the gamblers, the crypto thing is one area, the other is the fact that all these bods cannot be losing / winning on their own coin, despite saying they are. This in itself is encouraging to others, as has been said elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnC Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 What’s this hot tub thing? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 This all sounds like the digital equivalent of the stooge who conveniently wins a few turns on the shell game to encourage actual punters to try their luck. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RubberJohnny Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 10 minutes ago, JohnC said: What’s this hot tub thing? e-Girls were using Twitch's audience of horny pubescent teens to push their onlyfans by streaming themself in a hot tub and jiggling about. One went from nowhere to 13 million subs, becoming the most-watched female streamer worldwide doing it, before Twitch quarantined it out into it's own category that couldn't get on the front page. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnC Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 Pretty much what I imagined then… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PK Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 9 hours ago, Isaac said: Do they track the ages of people registered to the site? If so, do they hide all gambling content from anyone under the age of 18? If not they are breaking a few laws here at least. If the people playing the games are doing so with dodgy odds to present them as winning more often than actual players they are breaking some serious US laws and pretty sure some serious ones over here too, even if they are just a content provider. No proof of dodgy odds, but it's fairly well known that a lot of the streamers are pretending to be using their own money. The gambling sites load their accounts with 'cash' to make the streams more dramatic and thus give their advertising a larger audience with a higher conversion chance. They've been doing it for years and Twitch don't give a fuck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrben09 Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 As an example. Roshtein has had 4.5 mil of wins in the last fortnight. Would you be streaming like nothing happened if that’s happened to you ? 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlospie Posted July 16, 2021 Share Posted July 16, 2021 I'm convinced the FIFA streamers get free money and loaded packs too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danster Posted July 17, 2021 Share Posted July 17, 2021 Someone should do this... https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/public-and-players/page/report-something-in-confidence They may not be aware that this stuff is happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabe Posted July 17, 2021 Share Posted July 17, 2021 17 hours ago, carlospie said: I'm convinced the FIFA streamers get free money and loaded packs too I thought that was pretty much a given, like any game with a significant pay to win element? Once you get a certain size audience companies through this stuff at you so you can keep promoting it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlospie Posted July 17, 2021 Share Posted July 17, 2021 22 minutes ago, Gabe said: I thought that was pretty much a given, like any game with a significant pay to win element? Once you get a certain size audience companies through this stuff at you so you can keep promoting it. Yeh but it's never officially started anywhere. At the start of FIFA all the big streamers claim they bought all their points. Iv seen Castro get sent various cards by ea though so they can definitely manipulate packs. Kinda like all the fake natty bodybuilders on YouTube I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex3d Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 Crazy how much Twitch streamers with a sizeable audience make (source: Twitch leak). CriticalRole's income since 2019 appears to be 9m USD (he's got a huge audience). Every streamer in the Top 2,000 made no less than 100,000 USD. https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/twitch-leak-claims-to-reveal-earnings-of-top-streamers-and-more-1669308/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PK Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 I think Critical Role is the channel for that 'voice actors playing D&D' podcast rather than an individual The amount of money involved in streaming is obscene. Although I'm glad to see Limmy's made nearly £700k in the last 3 years from it 👍 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RubberJohnny Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 The money isn't really a shock, a subscription is £5 a month, the streamer gets 50%, those are all public facing figures. A bit of maths and you only need ~1000 paid subscribers and you're over the average UK wage, and obviously once you're there it's easier to snowball than collapse. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clipper Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 Critical Role have 8 voice actors streaming and they have built up a whole company based off the streaming so they employ many more people and run an actual studio. 9 million over two years doesn't seem all that "bad" if they are paying for all that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeciderVT Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 Not surprised that Amouranth (hot tub girl) was raking it in but $92,000 a month from Twitch alone is madness. God knows how much she makes in donations from thirsty viewers on top of that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TehStu Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 I assume a chunk of it goes on security, with the creeps she has to deal with. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamus Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 Tub girl is streaming? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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