Streaming services such as Twitch and YouTube Live are now a significant part of popular entertainment. These sites host millions of “live streamers” and tens of millions of daily viewers.

Streamers broadcast their lives and activities — often digital gaming — to audiences who interact and chat with them in real-time. Twitch, the dominant streaming platform, also currently houses around 150 channels offering the live broadcasting of real-money slot machine gambling — the most popular of these regularly receive over 100,000 views.

Slot streaming channels have recently made headlines. Well-known streamers have been racking up views and wagering and winning large sums of money. Criticism from other streamers has flowed in, such as Imane “Pokimane” Anys calling the hosted slots sites “sketchy” and “ethically ambiguous.” And Felix “xQc” Lengyel eventually ended his slots streaming, concerned he was addicted to gambling and apologized for exposing his audience — which included underage youth — to gambling.

Live gambling streams inspire some important ethical and regulatory discussions. The media outcry over these streams often points to the risk of exposing youth to gambling. Age-gating, or age verification, on Twitch or elsewhere is minimal. A streamer can indicate that the stream is intended for mature audiences, but this does not restrict any viewer from clicking “Start Watching.”

If the gambling website is hosted in one location, the streamer in another and the viewers are located around the world, which local, national and international laws apply? Compound this with a variety of currencies — like fiat, fungible crypto, non-fungible crypto, virtual currencies without cash value — not all of which are legal tender for gambling in all jurisdictions, and the complexity of the situation becomes clear.

The Interest In Live-Stream Gambling

For people experiencing problems with their gambling, they might turn to casino streams to cope with cravings. On a recent podcast episode of All Bets Are Off, a gambling addiction recovery podcast, two men discussed using live gambling streams as part of their recovery.

Alternatively, interest in these streams may be unrelated to gambling cravings and focus on entertainment, excitement or other gambling motivations like financial interests.

Broadcasting real-money gambling inevitably complicates the ethical practices of such a platform. Gambling live streams appear likely to become an increasingly important part of contemporary gambling practices in the years to come, and merit the closest study.