Twitch expands its ban on gambling livestreams. It also says viewership of the content is down 75%

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon-owned Twitch said Wednesday it's expanding the ban on livestreams of gambling content on the platform.

The company said it will now prohibit streams of online casinos Blaze and Gamdom, adding to the four sites it banned last October when its new gambling policy went into effect.

Twitch announced the restrictions after a controversy broke out on the platform last year involving a streamer accused of scamming users and other content creators out of thousands of dollars to fuel a gambling addiction. That led some big-name streamers to protest the platform’s lax policies on gambling streams.

As the pressure intensified, Twitch said it would prohibit websites that include slots, roulettes or dice games and aren’t “licensed either in the U.S. or in other jurisdictions that provide sufficient consumer protection.” Blaze and Gamdom are not available in the U.S., but users can still gain access using virtual private networks that mask their locations.

“Our goal now, as it was last fall, is to protect our community, address predatory behavior, and make Twitch safer,” the company said Wednesday in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Twitch said it saw gambling viewership drop by roughly 75% after it implemented the new policy last year, but noted it has also “observed some new trends” and is updating its policy to better protect users.

The company also prohibits sharing links or referral codes to sites that include slots, roulette, or dice games to address what it said were scams and “other harms stemming from questionable gambling sites.” It allows websites that focus on sports betting, fantasy sports and poker.