Twitch and Kick have been banned in Turkey by the country’s National Lottery Association due to concerns about gambling on the popular live streaming sites.
Both Twitch and its competitor, Kick, have come under fire several times in the past over concerns related to gambling being streamed on their platforms.
In 2022, Twitch famously made alterations to its gambling policy after receiving criticism from top broadcasters like Pokimane when one of its creators, Sliker, admitted to scamming his fans and fellow streamers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars to fuel his gambling addiction.
Kick is also notably backed by co-founders of Stake dot com, a prominent online gambling platform — a fact that has similarly resulted in criticism from Pokimane and other streamers.
In February 2024, Turkey’s National Lottery Association put the ban hammer on both websites due to concerns over gambling.
Twitch & Kick blocked in Turkey amid gambling concerns
On February 21, news spread that Turkey had blocked access to Kick. As reported by journalist Ibrahim Haskoloğlu, Turkish officials “stated that Kick’s entry into Turkey was to attract Turkish youth to roulette.”
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🔴#SONDAKİKA | Türkiye, Uluslararası Kumar şirketine ait olan Kick platformu Kick'e erişim engeli getirdi.Konuştuğum Türk yetkililer, Kick'in Türkiye'ye girmesini Türk gençlerini rulete çekmek olduğunu belirtiyordu. Bu haberi yaptığımda da bazı yayıncılar beni yalancılıkla… https://t.co/CjsVaiw4hY pic.twitter.com/kNNwcfrCNC
— ibrahim Haskoloğlu (@haskologlu) February 21, 2024
Two days later, Turkey has reportedly done the same to Twitch, with Haskoloğlu stating the site was “blocked by the decision of the General Directorate of National Lottery Administration.”
The journalist also stated that access to the site would be cut off in “24 hours,” claiming that the BTK — the Information and Communication Technologies Authority in Turkey — began investigating Twitch after broadcasters on Kick claimed similar content was being streamed on the Amazon-owned platform.
Twitch and Kick have been banned in Turkey, likely related to gambling content pic.twitter.com/sW4r0EBb5o
— Dexerto (@Dexerto) February 23, 2024
“BTK first shut down Kick due to its gambling content,” Haskoloğlu claimed in a now-deleted tweet. “When broadcasters on Kick showed that the same incident was taking place on Twitch, BTK also investigated Twitch.
As Kick publishers said, Twitch was also closed after it was detected that gambling content was on Twitch.”
This isn’t the first time Twitch has been shut down in a country. In late 2023, Twitch revealed that it would be halting operations in South Korea due to “prohibitively expensive” operating costs starting on February 27, 2024.