MAY 20, 2022 —
Dear companies who advertise on Twitch (the largest gaming livestreaming website in the world with a large younger audience),

NVIDIA Corporation
PepsiCo, Inc.
McDonald's Corporation
Adobe Inc.
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
AT&T Inc.
Micro-Star International
Uber Technologies, Inc.
Electronic Arts Inc.
HP Inc.
Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc.
DoorDash, Inc.
Logitech International
The Wendy's Company
Burger King
Lexus
Mars, Inc.
and all other companies who advertise on Twitch,

Your advertisements on Twitch are being played next to Twitch broadcasters who promote unregulated online casinos that disproportionately damage young viewers and racial minorities. In this petition I will explain what is going on and why we need you to encourage Twitch to put an end to unregulated casino livestreams on Twitch because they are complicit.

Twitch broadcasters are promoting unregulated crypto casinos which are viewed by millions every week in the "Slots" section. Large broadcasters such as Trainwreckstv, xQc and Roshtein gamble on unregulated crypto casinos (which are banned in most USA states) to the tune of millions of dollars in front of anywhere from 30,000 to 100,000 live viewers.

These unregulated crypto casinos allow minors to sign up and require no ID verification. Considering 41% of Twitch users are between the ages of 16-24 (source) this puts young viewers especially at risk. This means a 12 year old can sign up, deposit cryptocurrency and begin gambling. This is completely unethical and they have no protections unlike regulated casinos.

These unregulated crypto casinos have terrible self-exclusion protections. If you choose to self-exclude on these online casinos, you can create a new account at any time because of the lack of ID verification. This makes it incredibly difficult to quit if you get addicted. Considering gambling addiction has the highest relapse rate of any addiction, this is a conscious unethical choice on the part of these unregulated crypto casinos. They prey on gambling addicts by allowing them back in easily.

Twitch broadcasters are paid millions by the unregulated crypto casinos to broadcast on Twitch. Even if Twitch broadcasters claim they are not promoting these casinos directly, they are being paid millions of dollars a month from the unregulated casinos. The casino's branding is clearly visible on their broadcasts and viewers find their way to them, some of whom become gambling addicts due in part to the unregulated casino's lack of proper ID verification, self-exclusion protocols and lack of government oversight.

Twitch is complicit in the unregulated crypto casino's destructive influence on young viewers and racial minorities. On August 11th 2021 Twitch announced they would "prohibit sharing links and/or referral codes to sites that offer slots, roulette, or dice games." Yet whether there is a referral code or link is irrelevant. Broadcasters like Trainwreckstv, xQc and Roshtein receive millions of dollars a month to broadcast these unregulated casinos on Twitch. If the casinos were not making profit off Twitch viewers, they would not pay the broadcasters. Twitch has failed their viewers (specifically young viewers, racial and ethnic minorities which I will address in the statistics below). Twitch has the power to disallow these unregulated crypto casino streams on the platform but they choose to stay complicit.

Viewers who watch your advertisements anywhere on Twitch have a high chance of ending up on these unregulated crypto casino broadcasts.

Here's an example of how this happens:

1. Twitch broadcasters such as xQc and Trainwreckstv begin their broadcasts in the Just Chatting section of Twitch.
2. Twitch promotes their broadcasts on the homepage to other Twitch viewers, including people watching your ads elsewhere on Twitch, influencing them to watch.
3. xQc and Trainwreckstv switch to the Slots section and broadcast the unregulated crypto casinos, which they're being paid millions of dollars a month to do so.
4. The viewers watching your ads are now being influenced to sign up for these unregulated crypto casinos. Your brand on Twitch is now attached to this process.

If you're advertising on Twitch you are attaching your brand to these unregulated crypto casinos which disproportionately damage young viewers and racial minorities.

Here are the statistics:

• Problem gamblers are 15 times more likely to take their own life than an average individual (source)
• 1 in 5 individuals with a gambling addiction attempt suicide (source)
• 10 million people in the USA have a severe gambling problem (source)
• 6 to 9 percent of young people and young adults experience problems related to gambling - a higher rate than among adults (source)
• Preliminary research indicates that ethnic and racial minorities have higher rates of gambling problems than the adult general population (source)
• More than two-thirds of compulsive gamblers report committing crimes directly related to gambling (source)
• Problem gamblers are arrested seven times more frequently than non-gambler (source)
• The likelihood of developing a gambling addiction increases 23-fold for people affected by alcohol use disorders (source)
• Whatever recovery path they choose, about 90% of problem gamblers relapse, a higher rate than other types of addicts (source)

Call to action to the companies,

NVIDIA Corporation
PepsiCo, Inc.
McDonald's Corporation
Adobe Inc.
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. 
AT&T Inc. 
Micro-Star International
Uber Technologies, Inc.
Electronic Arts Inc. 
HP Inc. 
Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. 
DoorDash, Inc. 
Logitech International 
The Wendy's Company
Burger King
Lexus
Mars, Inc.
and all other companies who advertise on Twitch,

1. We ask you to research and consider the ethics of unregulated online crypto casinos. These casinos have no oversight, no ID verification and have no proper self-exclusion protocols.
2. We ask you to consider if you want your advertisements shown on a platform that allows the promotion of these unregulated casinos that disproportionately damage young people and racial minorities.
3. We ask you to use your influence as a company to encourage Twitch to put an end to unregulated casino livestreams on Twitch to help protect the vulnerable and do the right thing.

Call to action to the people,

Some believe petitions like this are pointless but that isn't true. Petitions have the potential to create discussion. Discussions have the possibility to cause change and make our world a more just place. Share this petition for the immeasurable amount of people negatively impacted by the unregulated gambling casino livestreams on Twitch. Share it with influencers, the media and with Twitch's Advertisers directly. Twitch's Advertisers will care if enough of us do. Twitch will care if their major advertisers do. Your individual action can change the world.

“One man who stopped lying could bring down a tyranny.”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn