A handful of prominent streamers claim they were scammed by ItsSliker, who recently admitted to having a gambling addiction. Now, Ludwig Ahgren and Felix “xQc” Lengyel have stated that they want to repay anyone who has lost money to ItsSliker, which has been met with frustration from some in the streaming community.
ItsSliker currently owes around $300,000 to a variety of streamers and fans, including an alleged $100,000 to Tyler “Trainwreck” Niknam. As more and more streamers claimed they had been scammed by ItsSliker, the streamer took to Twitch on September 18 and stated that he was suffering from a crippling gambling addiction and that he was lying to others in order to fund his habit.
ItsSliker added that he will attempt to pay back the debts, but Ludwig and xQc have decided to take on that burden themselves. The pair discussed the situation on their social media channels and discussed plans to help those affected.
After hearing all of the stories from the victims scammed by ItsSliker, xQc tweeted that he planned to “get money back to those people” along with help from Ludwig. xQc added that the situation was “heartbreaking.”
“This is about the victims. Only them,” xQc added
While xQc and Ludwig had good intentions, many in the streaming community felt that the two wealthy streamers were basically letting ItsSliker get away with stealing by paying off the debts themselves. Now ItsSliker wouldn’t have to pay anyone back himself after scamming them, some argued. xQc said that everyone should stop making the situation about ItsSliker and instead think of the people that were wronged and “need those funds to survive.”
“We only have the victims in mind,” he said to one follower. “Those people are part of our tight communities and we won’t fail them.”
As more and more stories have come out about streamers being addicted to gambling, fans have rallied around some streamers’ mission to make Twitch take action. The hashtag #TwitchStopGambling has started to trend, causing streamers like Imane “Pokimane” Anys and Matthew “Mizkif” Rinaudo to contemplate a strike to get Twitch’s attention.
xQc himself has been a central figure in the growing gambling discussion on the platform. He has admitted to being addicted to gambling himself, but Pokimane is hoping he will join the fight to get gambling off of Twitch.
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