I would have never done all this.
I know, I know I want to say this, I want to say, I know I can be a good person.
I know in my heart I'm a good person, but in my brain I'm stupid because if
it weren't for this addiction of course why would I go to anyone?
I've been doing a lot about things ever since I started streaming.
That's twitch streamer, slight slicker who is talking about his gambling addiction
after it was revealed that he had actually stolen literally hundreds of thousands of
dollars from his own viewers on his twitch stream to pay for his gambling addiction.
But slickers actions actually lead to twitch banning gambling on their platform.
And that was just announced today where they say that gambling content on
twitch has been a big topic of discussion in the community and something we've
been actively reviewing since our last policy update in the area and later they
say today we want to update you on our plans while we prohibit sharing links or
referral codes to all sites that include slots, roulette or dice games.
We've seen some people circumvent those rules and expose our community to
potential harm and they're essentially going to deal with that harm and
prevent the gambling from taking place on their platform,
which was what slicker was doing and what allowed him to essentially steal
hundreds of thousands of dollars from his own viewers.
Now, there are more details to this story, jake your nephew actually,
Hoss was very much in favor of the platform, banning gambling.
I don't know if I have a strong opinion on it.
I actually have some questions that I want to ask but before I do,
why don't you china?
Yeah, me too.
So apparently slicker took money from his audience but also from other streamers and
so that's why Hassan, So Hasan piker is one of the was part of T.
Y. T.
Here and now is one of the largest streamers on twitch and
another large streamer.
They actually kind of in a sense, confronted them from what I understand and
got him help and got him to admit what he was doing and
then that led to them leading a campaign to stop gambling on twitch.
So that's activism, it was effective activism.
So I love that part of it in terms of putting gambling on twitch,
I am a little conflicted on it, I think that so I I gamble but it's easy for
me to say because I don't have a problem, right?
And in the past, I have once back when I was in Miami about 20 years ago you know,
I used to gamble too much and so I understand that perspective but
I also didn't need to go to rehab or anything like that.
So it's I come at it from a little point of privilege and
that that that I didn't have any addiction problem, I couldn't kick, right?
So everybody reacts differently and that's a really important part of the gambling
issue, because you might not get addicted by watching certain things, but other
people watching those slot channels might, and it's all a matter of percentages.
So, but on the other hand, I wouldn't want anybody banning like sports
gambling advice, hey, take the titans to with the over etcetera,
because I view that as just like they're not showing you gambling and
people winning and my God, that feeds your addiction.
But others might say, yeah, it does, but I I definitely wouldn't do that because I
think that goes too far into impinges on free speech etcetera.
So it's a tough issue.
Yeah, I I guess the way that I think about it is we're constantly
surrounded with temptations, right?
So if you're predisposed to an addiction, whether it be a drug addiction or
in this case, a gambling addiction, well, yeah, this platform allowing
that gambling to take place, puts you at risk at the same time, though.
Do you completely overhaul your policies to accommodate a small
group of people who have an addiction.
And I'm not saying I'm against what what twitch is doing,
I'm just asking the question,
look, take it one step further if twitch is causing a problem in doing that aren't
the casinos causing a bigger problem and they're perfectly legal.
And so, and a lot of people have alcohol addiction, but we still have bar and
so can you do a show from a bar can you do a show while drinking a beer,
can you do a show where you're constantly drinking?
So where's the line?
It's I don't think it's an easy question at all.
Yeah, I agree.
And again, it's it's I'm just I just think it's a little more complicated than ban or
don't ban.
I again, do not have a problem with twitch making this decision.
I can tell that they're doing it on their doing it to respond to their streamers,
which is actually a great thing.
I like to see that kind of interaction between the platform and
the actual streamers and if there was an overwhelming number of streamers,
including someone like Hoss was one of the top streamers on twitch calling for this.
I'm really glad that they were responsive to it and
obviously I don't want to make it easier for
people to fall victim to whatever their addiction might be with that said though.
Yeah. Where do you draw the line?
It is a little complex, a little more complicated than that and
I don't know where that line would be, but if this is the right decision for
twitch and for the streamers, God bless,
I think they probably did draw it at the right place as hard as it is because so
I don't want to ban casinos, I don't want to ban online gambling, I do it.
And and not everybody gets addicted, so you can't take away something
that people enjoy and that just because some percentage get addicted otherwise.
Again alcohol would be banned and many other things would be banned.
And I think that people talking about gambling is not a problem here.
They were just showing apparently they were just showing nonstop gambling and
when you have just showing gambling and people winning.
Yeah.
It's like it's propaganda meant to honestly make you think that gambling
is all hunky dory like without really highlighting the significant negative.
So I want to give you one quick account.
Okay. And
one person who got sucked into the whole gambling world on twitch.
Let's go to the last graphic here.
I discovered online gambling on steak dot com last year in May from twitch
streamers that I am a massive fan of and still watch every day.
Then I discovered online gambling.
I started small and one big I won $40,000.
This was amazing to me.
And I thought it was nearly too good to be true.
That same day I lost it, I lost it very, very fast and then I pulled more money
out of my bank account to chase that loss until my bank account itself reached zero.
And so I think stories like that are really important to learn about
take into account.
And if the platform is causing damage to people's lives,
especially damage, that drains all of their resources.
I like that they're responsive to calls to do something about it.
Yeah.
Look, that very, that was very close to what happened to me 20 years ago.
And so there's no question, there's a downside.
If you're gonna get into anything that can lead the addiction,
be super careful, right?
Having said that, we do have to let people be who they are.
And so I would not be in favor of banning gambling because it leads to,
it sometimes leads to that, but it definitely sometimes leads to that.
So please be careful.
You mean banning, you're okay with them banning gambling on twitch, but
you mean like banning gambling period online?
Yeah, Yeah.
Or even talk of online gambling, but here, it just looks like they're showing people
win as if, like that's the only thing that happens if they afterwards they showed
people in misery in fetal position after they lost all their money, I'd say, Well,
okay, then that's a balanced look at gambling.
Is it like a huge chunk of our economy based on gambling?
You mean the stock market crypto, I mean, yeah, like that's the other thing.
I mean, that is the basis the foundation of our economy.
You know, if you, funny enough, you put,
if you put CNBC on twitch twitch might have to ban it.
That's all they talk about.
They're like, which stocks are up, which ones are down, who's losing money?
Who's winning money?
Right.
Well, it's just a giant gambling channel CNBC, it's the kind of gambling
that's not frowned upon as long as you do it with a tie on, it's totally okay.