Twitch Streamer ItsSliker Accused of Repeatedly Scamming Other Streamers for Gambling Money
Several of the biggest streamers, including HasanAbi and Mizkif, have accused fellow streamer ItsSliker of scamming them out of thousands of dollars he went on to lose to an alleged gambling addiction.
These streamers, alongside many of Sliker's viewers and mods, have revealed chat logs that show Sliker borrowed money from more than a dozen people. He told many of his victims his bank account had been frozen, and that he needed money to pay bills until his bank restored his access. Streamers and viewers alike would send him the money expecting to be paid back, but repayment would take months or years, if it ever arrived.
Streamer lukeafkfan told his stream he lost $27,000 to Sliker, while Trainwreckstv said he gave Sliker around $45,000 in one instance, and then another $55,000 when Sliker returned for more help. Sliker also reportedly asked Kaceytron, Ludwig, Mizkif, Fedmystery, lacari, Alexandra Botez, xQc and more for money.
Sliker went live on Twitch on Saturday to address the accusations, and copped to many of them. He said he began gambling via skin betting in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, then moved on to sports betting. He used his income from streaming to bet, but his losses soon outpaced that income. That was when he began asking other streamers for funds.
HasanAbi and Mizkif confronted Sliker on their streams this week, extracting more details of the story and pushing him to seek therapy. Sliker appeared reluctant to do so.
Several top streamers, including Mizkif, Ludwig and xQc, have said they would help to make Sliker's victims whole.
Pokimane, Mizkif, and Devin Nash talking about early plans to make a joint statement with other top streamers that unless @Twitch takes action on gambling, they will hit them economically during the holiday season (peak ads).#TwitchNews #TwitchStopGambling pic.twitter.com/pyQPINTOu3
— Zach Bussey (@zachbussey) September 19, 2022
Gambling on Twitch has long been a hot-button issue, with critics saying slot gambling streams normalize problem gambling, particularly among young viewers. High profile streamers such as xQc have admitted to losing enormous amounts of money on stream.
In the wake of the Sliker revelations, Pokimane, Mizkif and Devin Nash discussed taking a week off from Twitch to push the platform to ban gambling from the site, but no official plans have been made. Twitch itself has yet to comment. Sliker remains unbanned on the platform.