Not often i say this – but I see and agree with many of your points here arlonewts. Some streamers are pushing heavily for profit, some streamers are using fake funds and unreasonable promotions to give a one sided view of gambling. Some streamers promote dodgy sites. Some streamers dont look at the responsible gambling site of it. Some youtube content pushes heavily to twitch or external sites full of links and promotions (Look at Craig/Jimbo’s site). Some streamers go after each other to promote vindictiveness and spite (Look at what nickslots said about Reelraiders for example).
The industry as a whole is cast as “seedy” due to the long standing morals behind gambling. Outlawed for ages in most countries, confined to age groups (rightfully) and cast as sinful by religion. The actuality is everything is sinful. Casinos exist as players find it fun. Even addicted players find it fun. The problem is the cant stop.
So the moral and only question is – Is the fact people cant control themselves the fault of casinos offering this service, the people themselves, or society as a whole. In my opinion, obviously biased a bit as I work for a casino group, and have streamed, its all 3. Casinos needs to be forced by regulation to not allow internal funds or special bonuses. Twitch needs to push 18+ content heavier. People need to do more. BUT – people will always find ways of making money. Same as guys who sell fake drugs, fake sweets, same as industry on a whole that looks for traffic – its just a thing. We need to deal with it and regulate it. Global regulation is the only thing that will help now.
