Streamer xQc makes money on his followers losing $119 million on casino gambling  

Streamers on Twitch call for the platform to ban casino gambling streams. This is after xQc revealed that his followers have lost $119 million on casino promotions that he gets a commission on. xQc, on the other hand, defends his earnings by saying that he’s no role model.

Streamers can make millions handing out sign-up codes for online casinos, earning a percentage of the money their followers lose. The whole streaming community has become a roaring sea the last couple of days, with streamers arguing if it’s morally okay to earn money on their followers’ losses.

The debate started after xQc, with the legal name Félix Lengyel, on 19 May revealed that his followers have lost $119 million on his latest sign-up promotion with the crypto casino Stake.

“Oh, it’s not that bad. $119 million, it’s not fucking crazy crazy. It’s not crazy crazy,” said xQc while he was playing a slot game.

The internet is boiling with a lot of negative reactions to xQc’s statement, but the Canadian streaming star, who was the most-watched streamer on Twitch in 2020 and 2021, takes the criticism lightly. He has published a rather long text on Twitter, saying that he’s no role model.

“I’m here to have some fun, so I’ll do so until it becomes boring,” wrote xQc.

He also replied to viewers that said they were going to stop watching him:

“Ok, turn the computer off and go speak with your parents and peers if you want a role model for your moral compass.”

He also later defended promoting online casinos by saying that streamers do a lot of bad things, like playing video games for more than six hours straight, eating at McDonald’s, and going to bed late. 

Imane Anys, more known as Pokimane, the female with the most subscribers on Twitch, became furious hearing xQc’s comparison of online gaming and fast food.

“Why are people trying so hard to make gambling seem less worse by comparing it to other things. It’s like, we can still all agree that this is really fucking bad, right. That’s the point at the end of the day”, Pokimane said in a post with over 59000 viewings on her Twitch Channel.  

She’s one of several streamers who have openly expressed their discontent with xQc’s approach. She also calls for Twitch to ban streams from online crypto casinos. Other streamers argue that it’s up to the streamer to follow their moral compass.  

More about xQc 

The Canadian streamer xQc has 10.8 million subscribers on his Twitch channel. He started as an esport streamer in 2016 when Blizzard released the video game Overwatch. For the last two years, xQc has been the most-watched streamer on Twitch, although he’s been temporarily banned several times during the period.

In 2017, xQc was released in the middle of the season by his Overwatch League’s team, Dallas Fuel, because of controversy and suspensions, and he didn’t compete for Team Canada in the Overwatch World Cup for the same reason in 2017-2019.   

xQc doesn’t only stream different games. Like many other streamers, he’s, for example, been commenting on the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard trial that is being aired online. In June last year, the streamer publicly said that he had a gambling condition and that he would quit streaming casino games. He also apologized for streaming casino games, saying it isn't right.

The break lasted for ten months until May 2022 when xQc returned to internet gambling, promoting the internet cryptocurrency casino Stake. In his recent tweet, after receiving hefty critics, he commented on his previous apology by saying:

"I appologized because people let me to believe there was a problem. I was wrong, there isn't any problem. Sorry for appologizing."

The matter will probably expand over time, and this hot topic will live for a long time on social platforms. Only time will tell whether or not Amazon-owned Twitch will ban online gambling streaming – or if the company will enforce other restrictions for its users.