Recently, streamer Prophetting, who was part of the CasinoGrounds team, honestly admitted during a live broadcast that BitStarz awarded him a $500 no deposit bonus that cannot be withdrawn and can only be used for playing. In fact, this is the same as candy wrappers, only for the audience the appearance of real funds is created.
The streamer noted that the affiliate manager contacted him and offered this bonus. After some hesitation, the streamer agreed, since the question was either he does not stream at all temporarily, or he takes this bonus. As soon as he had the opportunity, he planned to make a deposit and no longer accept such bonuses. He had no intention of hiding from the audience where these loans came from and under what conditions he received them.
Link to video
Dismissed from the CasinoGrounds team
The problem is that CasinoGrounds stands for real money play. They must be taking bonuses, but the usual deposit ones that can be withdrawn. And when this became known, streamer Prophetting was expelled from the team.
Streamer LetsGiveItASpin, one of the founders of CasinoGrounds, said he was not aware of this. On Twitter, he writes:
I had no idea, to be honest, he says it himself, unlike those who pretend that the funds are real (we all know who they are). However, I'd rather have it clearly stated somewhere on the screen that these are demo credits, or just have to log out of the account for it to be obvious.
I had no clue, to be honest he’s saying it himself not like the ones pretending it has even been real (we all know who they are). I however would prefer if it is clearly stated somewhere on the screen that it was demo money or just log out from the account so that it’s obvious.
— LetsGiveItASpin (@LetsGiveItASpin) July 21, 2020
BitStarz rep translates the conversation
This situation was later discussed on Casinomeister, where the author of the post turned to BitStarz to hear their comment. The representative got in touch, but led the conversation in the other direction. He did not try to explain their position on behalf of the casino, but pretending to be a simpleton who did not understand anything about affiliate programs, he turned his attention from the casino to the streamer.
A BitStarz representative began to claim that he did not understand affiliate programs at all, so he did not even know whether it was good or bad. He asked users to comment:
Do you find it unacceptable to receive bonus credits from a casino in order to play and stream to promote the casino?
Note that he does not ask if they are doing the right thing by giving out such bonuses, but transfers everything to the streamer. Were it not for this clever move, there is no doubt that BitStarz would have received a lot of criticism for this practice. Indeed, in such cases, it is assumed that the streamer will not talk about how he received these funds, and will issue them as his deposit and everyone will win.
At the same time, the statement of the casino representative that he does not understand anything about affiliate programs sounds untrue. He immediately stated that it was not a rare practice to give bonuses to streamers and said that at his previous place of work, at the LeoVegas casino, they also did this.
I always thought it wasn't uncommon for streamers to get bonus credits from casinos to play with. Before BitStarz, I worked for LeoVegas and they did it too.
