08:31
04 Feb
Brad Owen, one of the poker industry’s most popular vloggers, received some bad news when visiting the Bellagio poker room on the Las Vegas strip. Owen tweeted that the floor supervisor informed him that MGM properties, including the Bellagio, have banned filming for poker vlogs in all of their properties.
Big Surprise
This news came as a surprise to Owen, as he has recently been approved for filming at an MGM property in Mississippi.
Poker vlogs have become increasingly popular in recent years, and many poker rooms have embraced them as a way to market their rooms and attract fans of the vloggers. Vloggers like Brad Owen have brought great exposure to the game, helping it to grow . But the news of this ban has left many fans and vloggers disappointed.
Filming in casinos has always been a controversial issue, and some properties have taken a firm stance against it in the past, though that position has become more rare as vloggers’ fans have flocked to rooms where the big names play, making it a win for the players and the casino.
Owen revealed that the reported vlogging ban didn’t seem to originate from the poker room, but rather from controversy surrounding live-streaming slot machine play on Twitch. He stated that the decision was not a poker-specific rule change but rather a blanket response to Twitch streaming. The Amazon-owned platform recently cracked down on a variety of games and websites following an outcry surrounding a streamer who admitted to scamming followers out of $300,000 to gamble with.
This is a disappointment to the poker community as poker is a game of skill and should be treated differently from gambling on slot machines, which Twitch did agree with, luckily.
As the situation remains unclear, poker fans and vloggers await further clarification and hope that the ban will eventually not extend to poker vlogging. It is also uncertain whether the Commission issued any mandate, ruling, or advice to operators surrounding the issue.
The “Poker Boss” Sean McCormack, the Director of Poker Strategy at MGM Resorts International, has yet to comment on the vlogging ban.
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