Why Is Roshtein Not Streaming Anymore? — Full Story of Twitch’s Crypto Casino Ban

Discover more about how Roshtein and other casino streamers deceive players in our detailed investigation.

To answer on the main question of where is Roshtein, we should look at some twitch statements. On October 18, 2022, Twitch made a change to its rules banning all streams from several offshore crypto casinos.

“We’ll be making a policy update on October 18th to prohibit streaming of gambling sites that include slots, roulette, or dice games that aren’t licensed in the U.S. or other jurisdictions that provide sufficient consumer protection. These sites will include Stake, Rollbit, Duelbits, and Roobet. We will continue to allow websites that focus on sports betting, fantasy sports, and poker.”

Gambling has always been a controversial topic for Twitch, Amazon’s streaming platform primarily focused on video games and therefore an immature audience. However, for a long time, Twitch avoided strong actions against gambling and took them only after a big scandal in the community.

Previously, Twitch introduced restrictions on gambling-related content in August 2021. At the time, the ban only applied to the direct placement of affiliate links to casinos under streams. In addition, the account of Roshtein, the most popular casino streamer on Twitch, was shut down for a few hours, but he was able to get back online quickly.

Why Did Twitch Ban Slot Streams?

According to TwitchTracker, slots used to be one of the top 10 categories in terms of viewers until recently, attracting significant amounts of traffic for Twitch on par with such games as Dota 2, Minecraft, Apex Legends, and FIFA 23. So what prompted Twitch to ban gambling streams after so many years of tolerance, despite all the criticism from the public and fellow streamers?

On September 18, 2022, Lacari revealed that another streamer, a former Team Liquid member going by the moniker ItsSliker, had borrowed $1,000 from him about a year ago. Not having received the money back, Lacari reminded his colleague of the debt on Discord. ItsSliker responded with a screenshot, allegedly confirming the outgoing transaction. Even after that, there was still no money, so Lacari realized that he had been deceived and decided to take his dealings with ItsSliker to the public.

It turned out that Lacari was far from being ItsSliker’s only creditor. Other streamers reported that he had approached them the same way, asking for money and citing a bank account freeze as a reason. Given the ItsSliker’s influence in the gaming community, many of them didn’t suspect a thing and sent him four- and even five-figure amounts. That’s how ItsSliker’s total debt exceeded $200,000. According to the streamers, he was trying to borrow more money until the very moment of his exposure.

ItsSliker had no choice but to confess:

“I used to gamble a lot of my money. Basically, all my Twitch money. I would come across streamers and ask them if I could borrow money. I wouldn’t give them the reason, obviously. Because it was gambling, I would lie to them. My initial thoughts were I will be paying them back. I never intended in scamming anyone, and I will still pay off the people I owe.”

This situation prompted streamers to reiterate the issue of gambling on the platform. Some even called for a boycott of Twitch until gambling streams were stopped. A few days later, the company published a message about new restrictions on casino streams. So, this is one of the reasons why Roshtein was banned on Twitch and the answer to the question of what happened to him. To sum up this section, twitch strictly prohibited casino streams. And this rule was violated by Roshtein and other casino streamers.

Who Is Roshtein?

It is noteworthy that ItsSliker, whose actions apparently became a straw that broke the camel’s back, did not participate in the now-restricted activities. By his own admission, he was first introduced to gambling through CS:GO and then switched to sports betting. However, Twitch’s decision has directly affected another group of streamers, whose fairness has also been repeatedly called into question. We refer to gambling streamers who claim to play with their own money but are actually funded by casinos. 

Undoubtedly, the most striking figure in this regard is Roshtein. On top of incredible charisma, Roshtein is known for his extraordinary productivity. For several years, he spent hours streaming online casinos each day, taking only occasional breaks, while his bets per spin were equal to what most players can only dream to win.

Roshtein’s fame is inextricably linked with reasonable suspicions of him playing for fake money. Take, for example, this scandalous video from 2019 when Roshtein was promoting N1 Casino. He reacted to one of the viewers’ request to open the game in the fun mode, not knowing yet how this would turn out. Instead of a demo balance, which is typically a round amount, like $10,000, the game displayed exactly the same balance as when he was playing for “real” money.

The casino subsequently pointed to a glitch in the interface. But how often do you encounter glitches like that? And this is not even the main thing. Just think logically, and you will see that playing for so long and at such stakes as Roshtein will inevitably lead to a complete financial disaster, even for a player with a multi-million dollar fortune. But things were going incredibly well for Roshtein, which can only be explained by tacit agreements with casinos.

There are many other moments in Roshtein’s behavior discussed in great detail on online forums that contribute negatively to his credibility. For example, how would you explain an extremely narrow selection of casinos for streaming throughout his career and repeated refusals to show the deposit history?

What Are the Terms of Cooperation Between Roshtein and Stake?

Cooperation between casinos and streamers is typically beneficial for both parties. One side attracts players, the other one gets a reasonable income. Players, in turn, are invited to watch an exciting show. An actor like Roshtein would entertain them by betting hundreds or thousands of dollars per spin and occasionally winning millions but losing dozens of times more. This always happens when someone plays long enough, but who keeps track of fake money?

This kind of engagement is considered fair to the public when streamers play with their own money in order to attract players to a casino through an affiliate program. However, you shouldn’t expect famous streamers to do that.

Casinos see big streamers as a valuable source of traffic and therefore offer them individual, especially favorable terms. For example, a casino may provide a bonus, so a streamer doesn’t have to make a deposit. All the money won during the stream can be withdrawn later. What’s more, casinos may offset a substantial part of deposits or pay a fixed amount for a stream while also providing funds for gambling that are not withdrawable.

It is expected that streamers of Roshtein’s level would get much better deals than anyone else. For sure, they would not work for a bonus with vague withdrawal prospects. Having examined various options throughout his career, Roshtein stopped at the Stake casino, which places a special emphasis on promotion via streams. Naturally, the terms of their cooperation will never be revealed, because otherwise future streams would not make sense. You will be surprised to learn how much money may be involved.

What Is Roshtein’s Net Worth?

There is no exact information on Roshtein’s net worth. Various sources publish figures ranging from $27 million to $130 million. These are all very rough estimates. Since there is no reliable input data, it is almost impossible to calculate the net worth of Roshtein.

On the other hand, players are encouraged to believe that Roshtein’s biggest win to date is $18.7 million, while winnings of several million have become commonplace for him. Taking into account Roshtein’s activity, it is quite possible to occasionally land multipliers like this. But if you play at a casino regularly, you should know that this kind of activity requires a player to lose much more money than they win. To our knowledge, Roshtein makes a living by streaming at online casinos and not losing money he gets somewhere else.

To better understand what amounts Roshtein typically deals with, let’s take the case of another streamer – Trainwrecks. In 2021, he was named the second-highest paid casino streamer after Roshtein. In October 2022, Trainwrecks claimed to have made $360 million (three hundred and sixty million US dollars) in 16 months of casino streaming. Although Trainwrecks has twice as many subscribers on Twitch as Roshtein, a significant portion of his airtime is devoted to video games and chatting, while the latter is unconditionally recognized as the most popular casino streamer. You can draw your own conclusions.

When Will Roshtein Be Streaming Again?

Roshtein doesn’t stream video games and is not in the habit of chatting without reels spinning in the background. Therefore, he had to suspend his activities upon the Twitch ban. On his channel, he has left the following message: “Slots streams are coming back – very soon.”

When exactly should we expect a new stream from Roshtein? Trainwrecks gives us another clue. Since the ban, he has spoken on multiple occasions about the creation of his own streaming platform. According to the streamer, its launch is scheduled for November or early December.

Like Roshtein, Trainwrecks is a Stake casino streamer. When Trainwrecks describes the new platform, it feels like he is unsure how it will work. Originally, he stated that he was uncertain whether to start the platform at all, as if he had not received final confirmation from its real initiators. Therefore, the streamer may be only the face of the platform, while the whole undertaking actually belongs to the casino. If so, we can expect to see new streams from Roshtein and other popular Stake streamers very soon.

However, the idea of a standalone gambling platform has already caused a lot of controversy in the community. Twitch had a vital advantage due to its large user base that came to watch video games and ended up in online casinos. If only experienced gamblers come to the new website, it will be much harder to find new customers among them. However, Trainwreckstv promises to make something “revolutionary”. Let’s see.

Conclusion

Shortly after the exposure of ItsSliker, another controversial video was brought to the public’s attention. It shows Trainwrecks giving out tens of thousands of dollars to Twitch employees.

This story is another reminder of why Twitch may be interested in keeping gambling on its platform. djWHEAT, one of the first Twitch employees who left the company in January 2022, called the behavior of his former colleagues “absolutely disgusting” and “100% in violation of Amazon Business Conduct & Ethics Policy”

Obviously, Twitch is reluctant to touch upon the gambling topic, since many elements of gambling are present in modern games. The abovementioned CS:GO with its skins and cases is probably the most striking example. And streamers also naturally tried to avoid the bullet. In the course of his confession, ItsSliker revealed that Trainwrecks borrowed him $100,000. Trainwrecks was quick to correct his debtor, saying that he had simply “gifted” the money. xQc, another top Twitch casino streamer, pledged to recoup ItSliker’s debts together with Trainwrecks.

But none of this worked. Seemingly, Twitch simply decided to use crypto casino streamers as a bargaining chip to appease the public. This is how the era of Roshtein, a slot fan and a talented showman, whose story contains many dark spots, on Twitch comes to an end, in a completely unforeseen way and for reasons beyond his control.

Even though regulated gambling is still permitted on Twitch, doing streams in Roshtein’s style is impossible now. Casinos’ shady relationships with streamers and multimillion-dollar winnings with money from obscure sources would immediately trigger an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for both parties. No regulated gambling website would take a risk of that kind, no matter how many players a streamer could attract to them.

As for the smaller offshore casinos, they are still available on Twitch, but it is unlikely that any of them could offer a deal that would interest Roshtein. This can be seen in the audience of the “Slots” category on Twitch which has decreased multiple times since the ban. It is also possible that the current restrictions are just an emergency measure – Twitch’s announcement leaves room for further maneuver, up to a total ban on unregulated gambling.

“We may identify other websites as we move further. We consider many factors in determining whether a site is allowed, including whether the site includes verification systems. We also take into account whether streamers use or encourage VPNs to evade geoblocking.”

LTC Casino still allows using a VPN to access our website or games on it, does not require verification, and guarantees instant withdrawals to all of our players.