Gambling content: o2 blocks Twitch

In Slovakia, O2 temporarily blocked the Twitch streaming platform due to unauthorized gambling content. As local media report, the network provider had punished a alleged offense against Slovak gambling legislation as part of a poker stream of the Twitch user “The Dandis”. In the meantime, the access lock has been lifted again, but the national gambling supervision Urhh was suspected behind the blackout as part of the events.

Streamer is targeted by gambling supervision

The online gambling is generally allowed in Slovakia, but the industry and its representatives in the Eastern European state seem more inhibited. This is mainly due to the allocation of license by the National Gambling Authority Urhh, which has linked state concessions to very high requirements. Many companies from the gaming sector are not able to do justice to the applicable standards. As a result, only a relatively few licenses are awarded, which conversely a low legal range of games.

The example of the content creator “The Dandis”, which with his poker stream on Twitch, showed a temporary access lock, recently showed how strictly the Slovak gambling market is regulated and how quickly an offense is punished. According to local media reports, Slovak Internet users would have had no access to the streaming platform for around a week. So “The Dandis” was accused of with his content violate the national gambling law to have. In the course of this, his Twitch account was placed on a black list by the Urhh because Illegal gambling was suspected.

However, the actual access lock is Only users of the provider O2 affected been. Since, according to the Slovak media landscape, the national gambling supervision is only limited to the black list and no further measures are said to have taken, the lock was solely assumed by O2. Twitch was easily accessible via other providers.

Illegal bets the reason? Why exactly the Urhh illegal gambling suspected and O2 imposed on a Twitch access lock in the course of this cannot be said precisely until the current date. Nevertheless, it is assumed that not only the poker content should have been the decisive reason. Rather, in addition to his regular gambling stream, “The Dandis” offered paid bets that he is said to have handled through his Discord server. This combination is said to have been crucial for why the content creator’s Twitch account was classified as an illegal gaming page.

O2 gives mistakes

Even if the duration of one week was rushed by the Slovak media reports, O2 claimed that Twitch only blocked for around four days. Compared to the news portal zive.sk, the provider stated that the procedure against “The Dandis” and Twitch was based on proceeding against websites that violate the applicable legal framework. The ultimately decision to prove Twitch with an access lock would be on the recommendations of the Slovak gaming authority and the Ministry of Finance have been.

Although O2 cannot be fully held responsible for the mishap alone, the telecommunications service provider admitted his mistake in an official statement. the Twitch lock is too hasty and falsely according to the current findings. The Slovak gambling supervision also hits the same notch. The corresponding Twitch account is still on the black list, but the closure of a website would not be at the discretion of the authority. The same applies to a provider. Only one court has the powers to take a homepage off the network.

Gambling streams in USA. Not only in Slovakia, streams with gambling content ensure a media and public echo. Gambling content is also repeatedly discredited in USA. Above all, the two streamers “Montanblack” and “Knossi” are regularly discussed publicly. Even seasoned media people like Jan Böhmermann did not hold back with criticism. The accusation: The public viewing of gambling would tempt minors to play and trivialize the potential dangers.

Blackout because of digital infrastructure

In the course of the events, the Slovak gambling supervision emphasized that one could still not understand, Why O2 blocked the entire Twitch access And not exclusively refused to access the “The Dandis” account. In this regard, the provider indicated that it does not allow the digital infrastructure to block only a subtle -thread of a platform. Accordingly, one was unable to block a single underside or a separate account. For this reason, one was forced to completely remove Twitch from the network.

Output uncertain. Even if O2 users in Slovakia can access Twitch as usual, the future remains uncertain for “The Dandis”. To date, the Urhh has not removed the account from the black list.