The Potential Harm of Gambling Streams to Minors

Abstract

Video games are designed to attract the attention of a potentially diverse audience. One of the most popular video game-related content distributor sites is Twitch, which provides daylong access to all kinds of gaming-related content through independent content creators. This platform, compared with YouTube (the world's popular video-based content distributor), has one important difference. Namely, it dominantly provides real-time video content sharing (ie, streaming). The total audience of gaming live streaming in 2021 was approximately 810 million gamers worldwide, expected to grow to 921 million in 2022. While most of the viewers are adults, 17% of male viewers and 11% of female viewers are minors, between 10 and 20 years of age.¹ Risk assessment in this field is still missing, while some dangers are presumably related to the type of content shared. As gambling-related videos draw more and more viewers, the possible risk of age-inappropriate content access has appeared. Future research and policy making should consider exploring this area to protect young consumers.