Starting on February 1, popular streaming platform Kick will no longer allow streams of gambling sites that do not use ID verification to ensure users are at least 18 years old.
The change signals an important shift in policy for the site. Kick has become a haven for streams promoting crypto gambling sites, sweepstakes casinos, and similar operators. Conversely, its primary competitor, Twitch, banned most gambling streams in 2022, except for domestically regulated sites.
Kick announced the change in a tweet earlier this week.
How Kick’s rules about streaming gambling differ from Twitch
Per Kick’s community safety standards, “gambling-related content can only be streamed from gambling sites that use ID to verify users are 18+.”
Twitch, on the other hand, prohibits “any streaming of listed sites that contain slots, roulette, and dice games and are unlicensed in the U.S. or other jurisdictions that offer consumer protections like deposit limits, waiting periods, and age verification systems.”
In other words, Kick’s policy is much narrower. Some sweeps casinos and gambling sites might fall afoul. However, they only have to worry if they don’t do enough to verify that their users are truly old enough to gamble. Many will still make the cut.
Conversely, Twitch banned streams of all gambling and gambling-adjacent content if it’s not formally licensed by a gambling regulator in the country it’s directed towards. That means sweeps casinos, cryptocasinos, and all offshore gambling is out of the question.
Twitch faced serious fallout for its rule change, losing a lot of popular streamers. Kick reaped the benefits because of its comparatively relaxed content rules. However, it has had to tighten them up somewhat over the years to stay out of trouble.
Will the site’s 2025 rule update spark an exodus of sweeps streamers and their fans? Most likely not, as Kick will still provide more lenient rules than Twitch. However, Kick’s “Slots & Casino” category is among the most popular on the site. There are sure to be some streams that change or disappear as a result—if there weren’t any promoting these less-diligent casinos, there’d be no need for the rule.
What Kick’s new rules mean for sweeps casino streams
In general, sweeps casinos require ID verification to ensure users are at least 18 years old. However, sometimes that verification happens as part of the redemption process, rather than on signup. For example, High 5 Casino requires users to provide ID verification if they want to redeem their sweeps coins:
Other online sweeps casinos, such as Stake.us, require you to provide ID verification during account set-up. Notably, Stake.us is one of the few sweeps sites that requires users to be at least 21 years old, not 18. Its strict approach is noteworthy in that Stake’s founders own a controlling interest in Kick.
Based on what Kick has said so far about its rule changes, users should be able to watch streams of all legitimate sweeps casinos using age verification. At this point, the new guidelines don’t differentiate between sites that ask for ID verification to set up an account and those that ask when users try to redeem sweeps coins. However, it will be interesting to watch how the policy is enforced. A strict interpretation of the verification requirement may have the effect of removing some of Stake’s competitors from the platform.
Kick says its new sweeps and gaming rules are essential to protect the younger segment of its users, who can be as young as 13. The only verification Kick itself applies is a pop-up for those trying to view mature content streams, asking them to click a button to confirm they’re over 18.
