H3H3 Productions Strikes Out at Twitch Gambling Streams


by in Entertainment | Jul, 20th 2021

While it hasn’t garnered the same kind of attention that the hot tub and ASMR metas have, gambling on Twitch has become something of an issue among streamers and fans of the streaming mega site.

While poker streams have been a mainstay of the website for quite some time, other ways to gamble, including slots, using cryptocurrency to gamble, and other methods have become popular with viewers. This includes simple methods such as slots and other gambling games – and many are likening it to CSGO skin, with some suggesting that this is overall worse and could even turn young people into degenerate gamblers, just because their favorite personalities seem to be enjoying themselves.

Ethan “H3H3Productions” Klein recently took to the airwaves of Twitch, returning to the platform for the first time in months, to talk to various streamers about the issue, as well as to check in on the state of the site.

He was apparently dismayed to find streamers like Trainwrecks playing slots for his viewers (though at the time he went to check, he was on Rust), and went on quite the tirade against the practice.

Ethan Takes On Twitch Gambling on New H3TV Show


“So this guy just gambles all day,” Ethan said. “I personally find this to be really, really messed up dude. Let’s see what he’s up to right now, Let’s watch Trainwrecks get kids hooked to gambling.”

Ethan continued airing his opinion on Twitch’s gambling problem, questioning why fans were interested in watching the content at all.

“How is this even entertaining?” Ethan posited. “A dude playing Slots. Hello, if you go to Vegas, this is what grandmas do for entertainment. This is what my grandma up until her death would go to the casino and bet one penny and click a button all day, and y’all are watching this? I don’t get it.”

Shortly after in the new H3H3 show, Ethan interviewed Adin Ross about a variety of subjects, and the elephant in the room of Twitch gambling came up. Not only did Ethan force Adin to reveal that FaZe Banks was the owner of CSGO Wild, a skin gambling site that he widely denied involvement in at the time, he also exposed exactly why it’s an issue for Ross to gamble on his stream, despite not using his own money to do so.

“Even though it’s not your own money, the problem is you are out there playing, you’re getting people interested, you’re driving people to their site with your promo code. You don’t know how old they are, you don’t know their financial situation, and most likely it’s illegal. Nothing good is going to come out of your viewers watching that. THere’s a reason you have to be 21 to gamble – it’s a vice. When you’re too young, you can’t handle that stimulation, that addiction, it’s just too much to handle.”

Adin Ross, for his part, seemed to understand the criticism H3H3 was leveling at him and his Twitch gambling streams.

“I didn’t really think about what that would do as an aspirational thing for people who see me win, that’s an angle I didn’t think about,” Ross said, in response to the critique, but acknowledging that gambling companies are paying as much as $2 million for the service.

No Age Check Is a Concerning Problem


The biggest issue with these sites, as members of the podcast pointed out, is that you don’t need to be identified, cleared, or age checked to play. You just need to have a cryptocurrency wallet, which, admittedly, can be hard to set up if you’re underage, but many do not have age checks on them. With how savvy young people have become with cryptocurrency, it’s small wonder that more young people haven’t been caught gambling in this way, or even maybe being influenced by the trend in crypto gambling.

Twitch has remained fairly silent on the issue, and while these broadcasts are usually flagged for mature audiences, that remains easy to get past for minors viewing their favorite streamers. Trends like these, and the hot tub/ASMR controversy, remain massive growing pains for Twitch, which is now entering its second decade in business.

 

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