Streamer Tyler “TrainwrecksTV” Faraz Niknam (31) has become popular for gambling on Twitch. Usually, he loses large sums, but on New Year’s he won a big jackpot of 5.7 million dollars and scored several other high wins. He decided to distribute one million US dollars (about 880,000 €) to his viewers. However, that was not so easy.
Who is Trainwreck?
- Trainwreck has been on Twitch since 2014, he is a similar streamer to Forsen: He is a staple on Twitch but is a controversial person, addressing a specific niche. Trainwreck emphasizes that he does his own thing and really doesn’t care what everyone else thinks of him. If someone annoys him – like EA recently – he still gets upset about it.
- Trainwreck is “also” a gaming streamer, he can play shooters like Valorant, CS:GO, or Call of Duty: Warzone. However, he is generally more of a chatter who has also done “IRL” streams.
- In 2021, he had his big breakthrough on Twitch: Now, everything revolves around “Crypto-Currency”, investment in high-risk currencies, and gambling. Since 2021 he has spent 1400 hours in the Slots category, where he plays on virtual one-armed bandits for high stakes.
Trainwreck loses for 9 months – now wins big jackpots
That was the bet: Trainwreck says he has been gambling for 9 months and is down by an “incredible amount”, having lost significantly more money gambling than he has won.
However, he had a lucky streak on New Year’s. He won several jackpots, including one over 5.7 million US dollars – with a bet of $1,000 per spin.
Before the lucky streak, he announced: If he really makes 10 million $ in winnings, he will distribute 1 million $ as a giveaway. And indeed, he kept his promise after things went well.
So the giveaway went like this: Trainwreck had to find out that it is not so easy to give away 1 million $ to the people. Once word got out about what was going on, he had such an influx on his channel that the bot he used crashed multiple times. People were supposed to write “21” in the chat to participate in the giveaway. So many did that Twitch had trouble keeping up.
In the end, he managed to distribute the money during the moments when everything was running smoothly.
During the stream, he gained over 21,000 new subscribers, thus breaking into the top 10 Twitch streamers with the most paid subscriptions. His stream peaked at over 70,000 viewers.
As reported by Inven, he apparently distributed the money with a focus on regular viewers and also gave extra money to some of his friends (via inven).
Trainwreck warns strongly against gambling
What is up with gambling on Twitch? It’s not as if everyone thinks it’s great that a streamer indulges in gambling in front of tens of thousands of viewers and apparently displays addictive behavior. Trainwreck is a controversial figure on Twitch. He partakes in excessive gambling in front of thousands of viewers. Some US streamers criticize that sharply.
There is also a constant discussion about whether streamers are playing with their own money live on Twitch, whether they are sponsored by casinos, or if something about the odds is working differently for them – this is not only an issue for Trainwreck but is a topic concerning all gamblers.
Trainwreck often warns his fans against gambling. They should definitely not start, it would ruin them.
Trainwreck warned his fans: they should not believe he really won 6 million $. He only got back some of what he lost:
In Germany, gambling on Twitch has decreased since new regulations came into effect
What is the situation in Germany? In Germany, several streamers have also become big with gambling on Twitch, such as MontanaBlack or Knossi.
However, they have stopped with gambling in recent years. Allegedly, because they have had a change of heart. Knossi said, for example, that he wants to be a “role model”.
In fact, new regulations in Germany regarding gambling seem to have played a crucial role in the change of heart. Additionally, the ZDF extensively examined the role Twitch streamers play in gambling in October 2020.
However, the change of heart does not seem to have been profound. MontanaBlack has already announced that when he moves out of Germany, there will be casino streams again:
MontanaBlack wants to leave Germany: “That’s 400,000 € more in my account”
