CSGO community praises Twitch as platform cracks down on skin gambling promotion

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For as long as CSGO has been a part of the gaming community, skin gambling has been there right along with it as the game’s plethora of eye-catching skins have often been used by its players as a form of currency they can use to get rich quick. With numerous content creators and Twitch streamers continuing to promote this high-risk endeavor, the market for it has continued to grow – that is, until Twitch’s recent decision to ban skin gambling on their platform.

Now that the Counter Strike 2 release date window is closer than ever, it seems that Twitch has decided to tighten up on one of the more controversial aspects of Valve’s FPS series after they updated their community guidelines on promoting gambling websites. One question under the page’s Prohibited Gambling Content FAQ asked: “Is sponsorship of skins gambling, such as for CSGO skins, allowed on Twitch?,” to which the answer was: “No, promotion or sponsorship of skins gambling is prohibited under our policy.”

Naturally, some within the player base are still highly skeptical of these rules as Twitch has notoriously been lenient in the past when it comes to implementing their own rules. Over on Twitter, a content creator named Gabe Follower said: “Keep in mind that Twitch doesn’t always enforce what they say in the ToS. This can be a simple PR trick, [as if to say] “look, we care” (no, they don’t).” “Let’s wait until they actually do something,” they finished.

Over on Reddit, a commenter named FortuneSoft claimed: “These sponsorships were already violating [the] ToS, and it [still] wasn’t enforced.” They would go on to note that “this clarification would seem to imply that they are giving people time to adjust before an enforcement wave,” though this is still merely speculation for the time being.

Some players, however, are much more optimistic about these recent guideline changes as jpaynethemayne said: “Thank God. The amount of times I have 10+ streamers in my follows that are playing CSGO but actually gambling is annoying AF.” Another responder named pajliada remarked: “For those not in the know, this is massive.” “Gambling sites have every single CS:GO streamer on their payroll outside of flom, ohnepixel, arrowcs, and psp1g,” they finished.

With these guidelines having only been added recently, though, it may not be a while until Twitch actually enforces these rules. So while you wait, check out our pages on the Counter Strike 2 tick rate changes, Counter Strike 2 system requirements, and Counter Strike 2 smoke changes in the meantime.

About the Author

Nico Vergara

Nico Vergara is a Trends Writer for VideoGamer.com. When not writing about or playing RPGs, he spends time playing basketball, watching the latest movies, and brooding about his favorite sports teams.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

  • Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
  • Genre(s): Action, First Person, Shooter
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