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Comment by jasonwatkinspdx | Hacker News Reader

Way to gloss over those streamers you're mentioning were streaming gambling.

Kick is a front for Stake the bitcoin casino, not a legitimate streaming site. It exists purely because Trainwrecks wanted to keep making money streaming bitcoin slots. It's been an utter shit show with people streaming porn, sex, the super bowl, incredible amounts of racism... Twitch absolutely is not going that direction with good reason.

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Indeed, browsing Kick right now shows gambling is the biggest category by far with 42k viewers.

Chat streams are second with 6k viewers, and the most viewed (non-gambling) game has a mere 1.6k viewers.

I can't imagine why anyone would stream games on there unless they're banned from Twitch.

Not knowing, understanding or having any experience of the "streaming" community of the internet. What is the purpose/fun with watching someone not just gamble as in playing poker or whatever for money, but slots specifically? Feels like watching someone rolling a dice by themselves, but with fancier graphics.

People get a second hand buzz when they see people win and the streamer will react in a way that gets people excited. This naturally leads to playing slots yourself and feeling like you are part of a community. It's incredibly lucrative for gambling sites.

My favourite example of this was seeing a popular gambling streamer who had a permanent overlay reading "DO NOT GAMBLE, YOU WILL LOSE", but still raked in sponsorships from gambling sites regardless. Maybe the overlay helped him sleep at night but the sites know that wasn't actually going to deter anyone.

Then there's the shadier casinos that provide fake balances to streamers so they're never at risk of going bust, and can keep perpetually hitting the big jackpots that entice the audience...

That's the guy behind Kick... it's honestly hilarious he lives in this kind of contradiction which is very interesting to see from the outside.

I imagine the answer to that would be one word:

Schadenfreude

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