Pokimane Calls Out Streamers for Promoting Gambling Sites

Imane "Pokimane" Anys has joined the gambling stream debate by chastising the promotion of "sketchy" gambling sites.

Pokimane discussed her opinion during a Just Chatting stream Saturday on Twitch. While browsing the LivestreamFail subreddit board, she came across a clip of fellow streamer Felix "xQc" Lengyel. The stream briefly took a turn toward the recent "gambling meta" from there—as xQc has been involved in defending it.

"I haven't been following the gambling meta," she said, "but the one thing that I did see was this clip of someone leaking that they were getting paid like one or two million per month to play on these websites."

She continued, "The way that I would perceive something like that would be: these casinos are getting at least one to two million of a return on their investment in me...So one to two million dollars of my audience's money is technically going to the casinos. That's crazy."

According to clips taken during the stream, her position was that streamers who are already "multi-millionaires" should be willing to search for more ethical avenues to amass further income. She stated that in order for streamers to be receiving offers to work with casinos—and, potentially, similar outlets—they are likely already well-off.

"I feel like once you get to a certain point of wealth you have so many options available to you in order to generate more income," Pokimane explained, "It would be a good idea for people to sit down at that point and think...'What am I okay with doing? What is ethically or morally...not worth it'."

xQc made a response to her comments on stream in which, it seemed, he misinterpreted her opinion. She clarified her words in a follow-up stream Sunday, when she encountered a clip by him on the LivestreamFail board.

"The argument that 'if you have money and you're going for more' applies to everything. Literally everything. You shouldn't take sponsorships...You should turn down everything," he said.

"My point was that once you're a multi-millionaire streamer, you have so many potential sources of income that you can opt to choose the ones that are less ethically ambiguous than promoting gambling sites," she said, "You literally have so many options. You can promo a game, make decent money—it doesn't really hurt anybody versus making money in sketchier...more negatively impactful ways."