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Twitch Streamers Rake in Millions With a Shady Crypto Gambling Boom:
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. And 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.
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 more than 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.
[...] "It wasn't my money," Matthew "Mizkif" Rinaudo said on his Twitch channel in June. Rinaudo, 26, says he was getting offers to do gambling streams for $35,000 an hour—double the price tag of his typical sponsorships—for 10 hour-long streams over the course of a month. (One individual who works with multiple Twitch streamers says that tens of thousands of dollars per hour is normal for these streams.) He had streamed gambling earlier this year, just five times in April, and he says sponsors were fleshing out his crypto casino account, once with $5,000. Plus, he'd advertise affiliate links with attractive discounts. Despite the lucrative business opportunity, Rinaudo decided to stop working with online crypto casinos in June. (Rinaudo did not respond to WIRED's request for comment.)
[...] Online gambling is regulated by a combination of federal and state laws in the US. Gambling websites need a license to operate in individual states—it doesn't matter whether they're operating with hard USD or digital currency. Many crypto casinos, like Stake and Duelbits, are based offshore in countries like Curaçao and do not have those licenses. Yet they are easy to access from the US through a VPN. (More reputable online gambling sites ask users for more data points to confirm their location.) "While these sites block the US, they do not prevent access from people within the US," says Jeff Ifrah, an attorney who specializes in online gambling law.
(Score: 4, Funny) by helel on Wednesday July 21 2021, @01:14PM (6 children)
I know I am getting old. I have played sports for a very long time. I still enjoy playing sports to this day.
That being said, the idea of watching someone else play a sport is just inconceivable to me. I do not understand it as a phenomenon.
- Old
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday July 21 2021, @03:49PM
Watching most sports is boring, though not inconceivable.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 21 2021, @03:55PM
I pity people with your narrow mindset because I've found that many people who make similar statements harbor deep seated insecurities from early in life where they were not adept in sport or had their vision of their self worth tied into their inability to excel at popular sport as compared to their peers. If I may generalize, I've noticed that they fall into several groups. One are the people who are very bitter toward sport in almost all form and they seem to be the ones who not only did not excel, but did not show rudimentary competence and were thus most likely teased or ostracized. These people generally promote the idea that intellectual activities are far superior to athletic and it is through these things that they have attempted to assert some sort of moral dominance over others.
Another group, to which it sounds like you might fall, are those who find they cannot argue against the maxim mens sana in corpore sano, so they argue that pursuing sport as a physical activity is fine, and perhaps even noble, but watching or celebrating a sporting competition is an ignoble activity suited only for the plebes. These people, I've found, have generally been considered "smart", and this stance allows them to participate in physical activity beyond boring exercise regimens while still feeling a sense of intellectual superiority to those around them. These people I've noticed, if they participate in team sports, are usually involved in those considered esoteric where they live, such as, say, squash or bicycle road racing, so that there are not many people who can show physical dominance to them beyond their limited clique.
I'm not sure how you view those whose physical disabilities do not permit them to participate in physical sport.
Watching and celebrating sport and competition is part of what it means to be human. This has been going on back much further than there are written records. To deny one this is almost to be denying part of their humanity.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 21 2021, @05:16PM
I know I am getting old. I have played the violin for a very long time. I still enjoy playing the violin to this day. That being said, the idea of watching someone else play the violin on a stage is just inconceivable to me. I do not understand it as a phenomenon.
(Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Wednesday July 21 2021, @06:08PM
I completely agree with what you said there, taken literally. Just because a bunch of people are doing it doesn't make it not insanely stupid. Now let's go storm the capitol.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 22 2021, @02:41AM
I know I am getting old. I have had sex for a very long time. I still enjoy having sex to this day. That being said, the idea of watching someone else have sex on a stage is just inconceivable to me. I do not understand it as a phenomenon.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 22 2021, @04:56PM
I used to be very dismissive of sports (and celebrities), but had a revelation. They have a very important social function of being "something to get invested in and argue about but doesn't really matter."
If I get into casually walk up to somebody in a bar and start ranting at how Brexit was the best thing ever, there is a good chance that somebody will disagree... and Brexit has real-world consequences so is important. People will get upset, and "Bad Stuff" could happen. Likewise if I walked up to somebody and said "God doesn't exist, you know," the same thing could happen, as "eternal damnation" is really important.
If I go up to somebody and say, "Tom Brady really is past his prime and should be cut," it's something to argue about, but ultimately it doesn't matter. Even if you love Tom Brady, the chance of it being so important as to grow to a fist-fight or an "I'll never talk to you again" is exceedingly small. (Yes, there are some sports hooligans, but I'd argue they are the minority.) So sports give something for society to engage with and helps keep a nation cohesive.
Of course that leads to the negative, that people are more interested in the superficial and meaningless performance of the latest football game rather than much more important topics like (insert political or social issue here), but that's a whole different matter.