Money & society · 2025
Why do young adults watch gambling livestreams, and how do they describe their effects on gambling urges?
In interviews with 15 young adults in the UK who regularly watched gambling livestreams, participants described being drawn to streamers’ personalities, high-stakes thrills, and interactive community participation. They used streams to reduce gambling urges but also described heightened urges, and reported increased gambling participation as a result of watching.
Details
Gambling livestreams show content creators engaging with various gambling products. They are an emerging form of both digital entertainment and gambling promotion.
Research has recently begun to examine motivations for watching these streams and associations between viewership and gambling behavior or severity.
The study sought qualitative insight into viewers’ engagement experiences and the value they placed on streams, to extend existing findings and better understand the processes driving viewership. Researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 young adults from the UK who regularly watched gambling livestreams.
The interviews covered experiences of gambling livestreams, motivations for watching, engagement with structural features, and perceived impacts.
The qualitative data were audio recorded, transcribed, and thematically analyzed using an interpretivist epistemology. Three main themes were identified. The first, ‘Social experiences and vicarious excitement,’ described how viewers were drawn to gambling streamers’ personalities through parasocial relationships.
Viewers found thrills in streams showing high-stakes gambling. The second theme, ‘Interactivity and building loyalty,’ described how gamified structural features turned passive viewing into active, community-based participation during livestreams. The third, ‘The urge and harm paradox,’ captured participants using livestreams to reduce gambling urges while simultaneously experiencing heightened urges to gamble.
Participants reported increased gambling participation as a result of watching gambling livestreams, and recognized streamers’ deceptive marketing tactics. The authors concluded that gambling livestreams are highly valued by their regular viewers.
The authors described gambling livestreams as a complex digital phenomenon that entertains audiences while also potentially harming them.
The findings emphasize the need for broader regulatory frameworks and protective measures to address emerging risks in digital gambling environments.
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