Twitch bans CSGO skin gambling sponsors and streams

Twitch's terms of service were recently updated to prohibit the promotion of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO) skin gambling, which means that streamers can be punished not only for streaming the content but also for simply being sponsored by third-party sites.

The details:

• As reported by Dexerto, Twitch's Community Guidelines page has been updated with a new question and answer about gambling with in-game skins on third-party websites. "Is sponsorship of skins gambling, such as for CSGO skins, allowed on Twitch?" the question asks. The response is, "No, promotion or sponsorship of skins gambling is prohibited under our policy." This appears to exclude in-game skin unboxing via Valve's case system, only sites like CSGORoll, which sponsors esports team G2 Esports, seem to fall under the policy.
• YouTuber HOUNGOUNGAGNE investigated the sudden increase in the number of unofficial skin gambling sites and the countless number of streamers who are sponsored and promoting the sites to their audiences in a recent video titled "The Dark Reality Behind CSGO." It was discovered that 226 of the top 300 Twitch streamers in terms of watch time since the beginning of this year (75%) were sponsored by at least one gambling site, with some having up to five different sponsors.
• With the announcement and impending release of Counter-Strike 2, there has been a surge in popularity for not only CSGO, but also its skins, which can be unboxed, purchased, and sold for real money. Before the announcement of CS2, approximately 20 million cases were unboxed each month, reaching an all-time high of 50 million in April following Valve's announcement.
• Skin gambling has been around for a long time, with the now-defunct CSGOLotto being one of the most notable sites. The site was owned by YouTubers TmarTn and Syndicate, who failed to disclose their ownership publicly while creating gambling content on the site, leading to claims of rigging odds in their favor and now-settled FTC charges.

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