Is Kick Becoming a Safe Haven for Criminals?

As in any business segment, online casinos have the good and the bad – and the ugly. It is not exclusive to iGaming that some operations are dirty, yet, most are legit and reputable. However, regardless of how good and serious most operators may be, many suffered throughout the past years with bans from social media platforms. Not only legit businesses were hurt by such bans, but also influencers. In this article we will review the rise of Kick, a new safe haven for casino streaming and why, if not well moderated, it risks becoming a haven for sexual abusers and scammers.

It was October 18th 2022 when Twitch issued the following statement:

“Gambling content on Twitch has been a big topic of discussion in the community, and something we’ve been actively reviewing since our last policy update in this area,” the streaming platform said in a news release. While we prohibit sharing links or referral codes to all sites that include slots, roulette or dice games, we’ve seen some people circumvent those rules and expose our community to harm.”

The statement goes on and it ends with a clear resolution: to stop casinos from streaming on the platform as well as to ban influencers that insist on doing so. Before that, crypto casinos such as Stake and Duelbits had already been banned. 

With the ban from Twitch, Stake found itself blocked from streaming gambling since Youtube does not accept content from Curaçao licensed operations and without Twitch there was little room left for online gambling shows. The solution was to create its own platform and this was how Kick was born, on December 1st 22. With some heavy weight streamers moving to the platform, it soon became a haven for online casino operations to stream their content there. Yet… Not all is fun and games when it comes to Kick. And not only the healthy players moved there.

The first obvious black hat trick on Stake’s sleeve is not so obvious: if they control the platform, it is clear to anyone with a minimum notion on game theory that they will end up owning the traffic from any streamer there and any casino streaming on its platform will end up bleeding traffic to Stake – not only because Stake owns Kick, but because it owns the biggest streamers (or has contracts with them). Therefore, if any operation streams there, it is putting itself on the pockets of Stake willingly or not. We must remember this is a well segmented streaming platform, not an open platform as Twitch. After one stream ends and is being sponsored by any casino, it is likely the user will keep on watching streams and it is likely that other stream will be owned/managed by Kick.

One could argue that if Stake owns it, it has the right to benefit from it. This is a capitalist world and that’s how we like it. Yet, there are other problems looming and crawling in the dark: desperate for views, Kick is raising ghouls and criminals from the dead. Streamers that have been banned and that are, in some cases, abusers being persecuted by INTERPOL or their home states for crimes. Have you ever heard of Mellstroy?

Mellstroy was permanently banned from YouTube after a livestream where he sexually harassed a top model in 2021. By sexual harassment we understand any form of aggression directed by the gender of an individual. The model was left with bruises, blood, and a trauma that will never go away. He is now being chased by Russian and Belarus police.

Alena Efremova was mocked by Melstroy, whose name is Andrey Burim, in the aftermath of the event. As a result, Andrey can’t go back either to Russia or Belarus. Besides having an open case against himself by the legal departments of both countries for the harassment and other crimes.

Over 600k viewers were exposed to his acts of violence and, as already mentioned, he is banned from YouTube and other platforms. Why, then, is Mellstroy allowed to stream on Kick? Why is a man that is a known criminal, a man that can’t go back to his country and that publicly attacked a woman for views allowed to work on a platform that should promote entertainment? What kind of entertainment is Kick promoting anyway?

The story is not new and nor is it one that was just recently uncovered. It was published in many different news outlets, including names as The Sun, which exposed a dangerous Russian trend known as “thrash streaming” and Mr. Burim was one of its leading stars. 

As reported by the Sun, the incidents have seen sick YouTubers inflict torture, bury people alive and even kill for cash. In a very serious case, a YouTuber, whose girlfriend was killed in a sickening live stream, was jailed for causing her death.

More recently, while this article was being written, Mr. Burim, also known as Mellstroy, Kick streamer, was added to a “wanted list” by running away from military conscription. This was reported on eastern media portals, such as Tochka.

Kick is giving gambling a bad name when supporting this kind of streamer, that’s the bottom-line. And if on one side it sponsors F1 Formula teams and even Drake, the famous rapper, on the other side, the dark side, Stake is involved with criminals. What ‘s next? How low can and will the platform go for views? Is it so desperate for it and so far away from being relevant that it needs to use such a streamer for views? If it started as a safe haven for legit casinos, now Kick is becoming a safe haven for criminals – adding only negativity and more bias and prejudice against legit operations by supporting streamers such as Andrey Burim.

One thing is certain: the industry needs decency back. We need Kick to stand for what is right. Kick needs to reclaim its reputation and rescue the reputation of all its partners streaming content on its platform. As long as Stake and Kick allow criminals to stream, no one will trust casinos. We don’t know if Stake is or not in a difficult situation when it comes to traffic, we don’t know if they are failing or succeeding – and it doesn’t matter. This is not what this article is about. What matters for the iGaming industry is that we stand beside what is right and protect our name, our work, our dignity and our industry. This is why we need to uphold high standards and this is why, if not well moderated, Kick will become the Silk Road of this decade, taking down with it all the ones that chose to trust it.

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✅ Autor:

Rafael Ávila, psicólogo, atua na indústria de apostas com promoção do Jogo Responsável e assuntos relacionados.

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