In 2022, Twitch issued new guidelines for showcasing gambling on the platform. Matthew “Mizkif” Rinaudo advocated for the change back then, but now he says: It was a mistake.
Which streamer is being discussed? Matthew “Mizkif” Rinaudo was part of a group of streamers who threatened Twitch with a boycott if the platform did not take action against gambling. Mizkif sharply criticized Twitch for allowing such content at that time.
Now, exactly 3 years later, the streamer announced a new partnership with the online casino Stake – the very platform that Twitch had banned from showcasing gambling in 2022 as part of new regulations.
Numerous so-called casino streamers then migrated to Kick, the new streaming platform by the founders of Stake. Just in June 2025, Mizkif had expressed his strong opposition to such a move to Kick, citing bad experiences with one of the owners.
Now, on his Instagram account, the streamer is promoting Stake.
xQc was the number 1 on Twitch for years and was one of the streamers showcasing gambling there.
“Better gambling on Twitch than all the ads”
What’s behind the change of heart? Mizkif seems to see the partnership with Stake more as a benefit for his viewers. He explained that he has now disabled his sub-goal, a type of target value for paid subscriptions on Twitch. He no longer wants to complain about subscriptions as much.
At the same time, Mizkif accuses Twitch of ruining the platform with advertisements. Streamers should not be allowed to run more than 8 minutes of ads per hour. At the beginning of September, Mizkif apologized to fans on X for apparently accidentally showing 22 minutes of ads per hour.
Mizkif even states that he was wrong about gambling: “Screw the ads, I’d rather have gambling on Twitch than all the ads.”
A video in the subreddit LivestreamFail shows Mizkif’s announcement:
How is that being received? Quite mixed. In Mizkif’s own chat, viewers express surprise and amusement about the unexpected partnership, with messages ranging from “finally” to “screw Stake.”
In over 500 comments under the clip on Reddit, the verdict is clearer. One response with more than 2,300 upvotes states: “The money was bigger than ethics.”
At the center of the discussion is the controversial online casino Stake. Before the restrictions on gambling on Twitch, streamers had entered lucrative deals with the platform to showcase how they burned through a lot of money there: Twitch streamers earn millions € with gambling deals – their viewers go bankrupt
