Twitch gambling prompts threat of blackout from Pokimane, Mizkif

pcgamesn.com:

With Twitch growing in popularity, top streamers like Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys and Matthew ‘Mizkif’ Rinaudo are calling on the platform to do something about the presence of Twitch gambling streams, after another streamer admitted to taking money from viewers and fellow streamers to fund their gambling addiction.

Yesterday Mizkif, Pokimane and Devin Nash talked on stream about Twitch’s gambling problem, and proposed a platform blackout where a number of top streamers would remain off the platform during the holiday period in order to get a response from Twitch itself. While trends come and go on the platform, like Twitch hot tub streams, gambling is posing a real problem.

The proposed one week strike over the Christmas period is by no means confirmed, but all three expressed interest in the idea.

“Get a huge streamer like Miz or Poki to get ten to 20 bigger streamers, 10K viewers or plus, to write a joint statement to send to their partnerships and cause Twitch to consider the statement and make a concession on gambling, or else ten or 20 of those streamers will go on a one week strike over Christmas,” says Nash, reading a message from Steven ‘Destiny’ Bonnell on Twitch.

The idea would be to hit Twitch during the holiday season and impact its ad revenue, with all three saying on stream that they’d be behind it.

“I think that you have to make the fruit hang low enough that people want to take it,” adds Nash. “It won’t be that huge of a hit, but it’ll be significant enough to Twitch that they’ll take a look at it.”

“If you really think gambling is that bad you should be willing to take a week off,” added Pokimane, urging other streamers to take the matter seriously.

Following the discussion on stream Mizkif and Pokimane each