Mizkif has weighed in on the gambling saga that’s been consuming the livestreaming community once again, taking a ‘don’t hate the player, hate the game’ attitude, and placing blame on Twitch as a platform.
Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel’s recent move to Canada amid doxxing issues and a lucrative gambling sponsorship deal has poked the proverbial bear of the livestreaming community. With a loud minority condemning his actions while others, including Asmongold, hop to his defence, plenty have been chiming in with their take on the situation.
Talking to his chat on May 17, Matthew ‘Mizkif’ Rinaudo brought a middle-of-the-road approach to his discussions on the topic. Making it clear that he believes the rise of gambling online has been an inevitability, citing the combination of money and viewers as a ‘perfect storm.’
Mizkif claimed he “spoke to the top people at Twitch,” and they’ve allegedly made it apparent the gambling meta is here to stay.
Talking directly to the hatred that xQc taking a sponsored gambling deal has stirred, Mizkif expressed that he felt it’ll make little to no change to xQc’s actions.
“He’s got two massively disgusting hate threads on [Reddit] right now with 7,000 comments and 40,000 upvotes, but he’s on 102,000 viewers playing casino slots. Is it really going to do anything?”
Focusing his conversation on the moral stance that all gambling should be outright rejected by streamers, Mizkif shot down the idea as unrealistic, and that it assumes a level of ignorance on the part of streamers.
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“Everyone knows casino gambling is addicting as sh**. xQc’s not an idiot, he knows it’s addicting as sh**. What’re you gonna do? What is there to do? Twitch allows it and he goes up in viewership.”
Continuing his tirade on Twitch’s place in the gambling controversy, Mizkif made it obvious that his belief is that Twitch is a huge part of the gambling problem. “Do I wish Twitch would get rid of it? Sure, I think it’d be better for the platform.”
Declaring that “it makes the website feel very fake,” Mizkif claimed “the genuineness of streaming is slowly deteriorating, it’s felt like that for a while.” Rinaudo went so far as to say that the prevalence of gambling onsite is damaging the authenticity of the livestreaming experience.
Despite the supposed damage of gambling for the predominantly gaming-based platform, Mizkif talked to the human nature of temptation overcoming any moral opposition.
“Everyone has a price. Even someone like Asmongold who holds himself so true, does have a f**king price,” he said.