The Twitch streamer Jens “Knossi” Knossalla spoke in a stream about his past with online casinos. He concludes that he is not comparable to casino streamers and does not see himself as one.
What connection does Knossi have with gambling? In 2016, Knossi began streaming gambling on Twitch. His reactions to wins with the “slots” – digital one-armed bandits – were exaggerated and caused a lot of excitement from 2018 to 2019, leading the Twitch streamer to his breakthrough.
In 2020, however, the first voices began to criticize Knossi’s gambling content. At that point, he was the largest streamer worldwide on Twitch.
Twitch implemented stricter guidelines on the platform in 2021. Gambling content was only allowed to be shown with restrictions. In the same year, Knossi eventually withdrew from gambling content and did not want to host such live streams in the future.
In a YouTube video, in which he announced the change, he stated that he recognizes the danger that his viewers might imitate his behavior and start gambling themselves. He is aware of his role model function and wants to be able to look back on his content with a clear conscience in the future. Instead, he organized events and streamed other content to entertain his viewers.
You can find a compact summary of Knossi’s career in our video:
Knossi: “Viewers do something I never wanted”
What does Knossi say about his casino past? A few days ago, Knossi described his past with online casinos in a Twitch stream as an “incredible time” (source: twitch.tv from minute 00:47:50). He was currently watching his music video for his song “Bücher,” inspired by his time when he regularly played slots, and the book symbols meant success in the game.
Knossi adds: “I was never a casino streamer for myself.”.
He justifies his view by saying that he “immersed himself in the games,” something that casino streamers would not do: “I was in there, I lived it. For me, it was alive.” This “passion” is not seen among casino streamers.
Eventually, it became too much, Knossi said, and the viewers “do something that I never wanted.” Even though he repeatedly said in his streams that viewers should only watch him, not play themselves.
According to Knossi, the term “casino streamer” only emerged after his departure, and that there would be a difference between himself and them. Finally, the Twitch streamer states that if it had really been about the money for him, or still was, he could have done completely different things.
Knossi’s past triggered a hype around casino content
What is behind the casino streamers? From 2020 to 2021, a wave of casino streamers emerged. Streamers entered into deals with online casinos. In such deals, significant sums are paid for Twitch streamers to show casino content in their streams. They stream how they play, win, and celebrate.
Additionally, Twitch streamers are allegedly provided with an affiliate link from the online casino, which they use for their viewers. If viewers click the link, sign up on the site, and gamble, the Twitch streamers are said to have received a share of their viewers’ losses. This was reported in a report by the Y-Kollektiv on YouTube. However, it is hard to prove whether such an affiliate link is available to all streamers and whether they could potentially profit from their viewers’ losses.
Examples of casino streamers include the streamers Scurrows or orangemorange, who had to switch to another platform when Twitch further tightened its gambling guidelines in 2022.
You can read more about casino streams and how streamers benefit from their viewers in this context in the following articles:
Knossi distances himself from this approach. He has never seen himself as such a casino streamer and has not entered into such a deal. The Twitch streamer thus had no particular advantage when viewers signed up for the shown online casinos because of him.
Knossi is not only active as a Twitch streamer on the internet. He also often finds a place on television, such as in the reality TV show Big Brother. Here he organizes his own little season, inviting his Twitch colleagues: Knossi wants to confine the biggest brawlers from 7 vs. Wild in a container and watch live what happens
