Slot King Reveals $250K Secret: Social Media Gold Mine | Vegas Matt DSH #941

Summary

Digital Social Hour Episode Summary

Episode Title: Slot King Reveals $250K Secret: Social Media Gold Mine | Vegas Matt DSH #941
Release Date: December 2, 2024
Host: Sean Kelly
Guests: Matt and EJ

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Introduction

In episode #941 of the Digital Social Hour, host Sean Kelly welcomes recurring guests Matt and EJ, known for their influential presence in the gambling and social media landscape. This episode delves into the intersection of gambling, social media marketing, cryptocurrency investments, and community building, providing listeners with a comprehensive look into how digital strategies can transform personal brands and business ventures.

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1. Evolution of Social Media in the Gambling Industry

EJ opens the discussion by highlighting the significant shift in how casinos perceive and engage with social media influencers:

"We've come a long way in this whole gambling influencer thing from getting kicked out of hotels for bringing our phone out and filming to the point where, like, there are properties that'll send a jet to pick us up to bring us into their casino." (01:33)

This evolution underscores the growing recognition of social media's power in driving traffic and brand visibility within the gambling sector.

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2. Successes and Challenges in Gambling Ventures

The conversation moves to the financial aspects of their gambling activities. Matt and EJ candidly discuss their profits and losses:

Matt: "P and L is looking good. I mean, you know, certainly gambling is a losing proposition... we're fighting the good fight." (03:48)

Despite experiencing significant losses—EJ mentions being down approximately $250,000 in the past year—they view these as the cost of maintaining and growing their business. They also touch upon the complexities of tax regulations related to gambling losses:

EJ: "You can't write off your losses except against winnings... we just kind of just take the loss. Suck it up." (04:20)

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3. Cryptocurrency Investments and Anecdotes

Cryptocurrency emerges as a pivotal topic, with both guests sharing their investment journeys and humorous mishaps:

EJ: "I was involved in it off and on... now I have a reasonable percentage of my portfolio and it's just kind of a long-term hold." (13:10)

They recount stories like mistaking Dogecoin storage for a USB and inadvertently selling valuable holdings, illustrating both the volatility and opportunities within the crypto market.

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4. Managing Online Presence: Scams and Fake Accounts

A significant challenge they face is the proliferation of fake accounts impersonating them to scam their followers. Matt shares strategies to combat this:

Matt: "I'll put them on my story. I say report this page, they're gone within an hour." (18:39)

However, EJ expresses frustration with platform responses:

EJ: "We have a full-time person on it... but getting help from the platforms themselves is minimal." (17:57)

This highlights the ongoing struggle influencers face in protecting their brand and their audience from fraudulent activities.

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5. Merchandising and Community Engagement

Their merchandise line, particularly the "Sando" shirts, has become a significant revenue stream and a symbol of their brand:

EJ: "Our Sando shirt... our merchandise is just incredible. We're looking at buying a big warehouse now for our merch business." (20:15)

The strong community of fans not only purchases merchandise but also actively participates in their events, fostering a loyal and engaged audience.

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6. Upcoming Events and Future Plans

Looking ahead, Matt and EJ reveal ambitious plans to expand their presence through live events, tours, and collaborations with other celebrities:

EJ: "Our plan is to be doing a tour this next 12 months and... selling out theaters for our meet and greets." (26:34)

They emphasize the importance of face-to-face interactions in strengthening their community and expanding their reach.

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7. Personal Reflections and Work Ethic

The guests share personal insights into their work ethic and managing success:

EJ: "I'm 61 years old and I haven't probably worked this hard my whole life." (19:56)

Their dedication is evident as they describe a rigorous daily routine involving content creation, gambling sessions, and business management, underscoring the demands of maintaining a successful digital brand.

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Notable Quotes

• EJ on Social Media Evolution:
  "We've come a long way in this whole gambling influencer thing from getting kicked out of hotels for bringing our phone out and filming to the point where, like, there are properties that'll send a jet to pick us up to bring us into their casino." (01:33)

• Matt on Gambling Finances:
  "P and L is looking good. I mean, you know, certainly gambling is a losing proposition... we're fighting the good fight." (03:48)

• Matt on Handling Fake Accounts:
  "I'll put them on my story. I say report this page, they're gone within an hour." (18:39)

• EJ on Work Ethic:
  "I'm 61 years old and I haven't probably worked this hard my whole life." (19:56)

---

Conclusion

In this episode of the Digital Social Hour, Matt and EJ provide an unfiltered look into the intricacies of building and sustaining a digital presence in the gambling industry. From leveraging social media and managing cryptocurrency investments to handling the challenges of online scams and expanding their merchandise line, their experiences offer valuable insights for aspiring entrepreneurs and influencers. Their dedication and strategic approach underscore the importance of adaptability and community engagement in navigating the fast-paced digital landscape.

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Timestamp Reference:
For key moments and quotes referenced above, refer to the provided transcript timestamps.

Transcript

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[EJ]

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[EJ]

But I don't like to give a lot of whole. A lot of free advertising out. You know, there's. But there are certain hotels that really show the love and they understand social media. You know, we've come a long way in this whole gambling influencer thing from getting kicked out of hotels for bringing our phone out and filming to the point where, like, you know, there are properties that'll, you know, send a jet to pick us up to bring us into their casino. I mean, it runs the gamut.

[Matt]

All right, guys, Vegas Map, Part 3. Former Celebrity Pour winner in the building.

[EJ]

Whoa.

[Matt]

Just won the last event, right?

[EJ]

Yeah. Imagine that.

[Matt]

That was crazy because you don't really play that often, so.

[EJ]

No, I mean, even a broken clock's right twice a day, they say.

[Matt]

But if you do it this time.

[EJ]

I mean, this could be the other. The other 12 hours. I'm, I'm, I'm feeling pretty good.

[Matt]

You've been practicing?

[EJ]

No, I haven't played since then.

[Matt]

That didn't invigorate you to get better at poker?

[EJ]

I mean, it's just. It's just, you know how the gambling gods are Smiling on you. You know, I just was on a roll that day. I'm feeling pretty good. Got up, went for a walk, you know.

[Matt]

Nice.

[EJ]

I learned most of my health news, it seems, from clips of your podcast. That's all I see on my newsfeed. Yeah, you've had some interesting ones. You. You've grown a lot since I. It seems like really early in our career when we came on your show, and then. I mean, you have a lot of cool guests. What was this deal with all these aliens? Like, you're interviewing people with aliens.

[Matt]

A lot of alien experts. Well, now that the government has basically announced that there's UFOs and stuff, it's. It's inj. Interesting to me.

[EJ]

That's official.

[Matt]

Well, they released all the videos, and they're blurry, but, I mean. Yeah. They officially released UFO footage.

[EJ]

Really? What about the. The oceans? I heard there's UFOs in the ocean.

[Matt]

Yeah. Had a guest basically said 95 of the ocean is unexplored, and he theorizes that there's aliens that live there and they come out of there.

[EJ]

Yeah.

[Matt]

And if you look at where a lot of sightings are, a lot of them are by large masses of water.

[EJ]

I get all my news from the Digital hour.

[Matt]

Have you had any UFO sightings or experience?

[EJ]

I have not. They don't. They ignore me.

[Matt]

Damn.

[EJ]

Yeah.

[Matt]

Believe in aliens, though?

[EJ]

I don't know. I. I mean, I guess I. I really don't know. I mean, it's like I don't have a strong opinion. I. I would imagine that in all the vastness of the universe, to think that we're the only, you know, beings. That's a stretch. So.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[EJ]

Yeah. But I'll leave that up to you and your other guests. I'll focus on the slot machines. That's my expertise.

[Matt]

How's the. The P. L looking this year for slots?

[EJ]

P and L is looking good. I mean, you know, certainly gambling is a losing proposition. I don't know if this is, you know, new information for people. The house has an advantage. Every time you push that button on the slot, you are giving them a percentage mathematically, but we're fighting the good fight. I think we're down, I don't know, in the last 12 months or so, probably down like 250,000. Like that. A little less, maybe. So that's just a cost of doing business.

[Matt]

Yeah. Losing 20k a month.

[EJ]

I wish the IRS saw it that way.

[Matt]

You can only write off, like, 8K, right?

[EJ]

Well, you can't write off Your losses except. Or you're except against winnings. You can't say, like, oh, you know, I have YouTube revenue, and it was. I have $250,000 of gambling losses. I'm going to write that off. My active income, like, my understanding, you know, and I'm not a tax expert, is that. That's. That's not the case. I think there's some people that are challenging that right now, but for the time being, we just kind of just take the loss. Suck it up.

[Matt]

Damn. Yeah. I feel like someone like, you could get away with it, but why risk it, right?

[EJ]

I mean, there's one very, very smart person in the space who, rather than do what a lot of people are doing and writing off their losses as against ordinary income, and then, like, say five years from now, they get audited, and then they go back and then they say, no, you can't do that. And they get just going to owe massive penalties and additional taxes. There's one guy who's going back and filing amended returns for previous years, and. And then he's going to challenge it, and he's already paid the taxes, so there won't be any penalty. So that's a smart way of doing it. And if goes all the way through the tax courts and he wins, which I think is unlikely, then that would be a, you know, big for all of us.

[Matt]

Interesting. Well, shout out to him for taking that risk, because I wouldn't want to do that.

[EJ]

Yeah.

[Matt]

You've been gambling all over since you last came on. I saw you went on a cruise.

[EJ]

We have. We. We've gone on two cruises now. Really fun. You know, it's one of the most fun things about it is the fans that we've attracted are just absolutely amazing. And it seems like, you know, our show's kind of like a podcast. You know, we're gambling, but we're also talking about everything, you know, current event, whatnot, and your vibe kind of attracts your tribe, and we just have the nicest fans. So, like, my first cruise, I was a little scared. I'm, like, wondering who's going to show up. You know, is it going to be like the misfit brigade or something like that? And. And everyone was cool. And second cruise, same thing. Just like the greatest group of people. And so we gamble. Do group polls play on the ship the whole time? You know, go on excursions together and a lot of fun. And we just did a big event in Michigan, our first ever. We sold out a theater like, where, like, you know, like Theo Vaughn or whomever would go and like for a concert or whatnot. And we had a 13.

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[EJ]

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[Matt]

Sold out 1300 seats.

[EJ]

Yeah. With a thousand person waiting list.

[Matt]

Holy crap.

[EJ]

Yeah.

[Matt]

Just to watch you gamble.

[EJ]

Well, we, we just to kind of meet and greet, talk, answer questions, try to throw out a few, you know, some entertainment. Wow. And then we had in Michigan, online gambling is legal. So we had FanDuel. Did a great job putting the event together, or FanDuel Casino I should say. And we gambled live on stage on our computer and then the audience was playing along and we played a game called Crazy Time, which is a lot of fun and we bought some bonuses and we, yeah, we played a couple of our favorite games. Just kind of live with a big audience. It's awesome. I don't think anyone's ever done anything like it before, but we're definitely planning on a world tour that's amazing, man.

[Matt]

It's been cool to see your growth because I remember the first time you came on, you were just losing money, doing this for fun.

[EJ]

Yeah.

[Matt]

And now to see where you're at now, it's incredible.

[EJ]

Yeah, thanks. You too, man. It's like, it's just fun. Social media is the new horizon. I mean, I literally don't watch tv. I don't think a lot of people watch tv. We're looking at our phones, we're looking at those reels, looking at that tick tock. And. And it's just, it's incredible. And then to be in, you know, like, we're here at the celebrity poker tournament right now, and to be a celebrity is a trip.

[Matt]

Unreal. It's cool to see you embrace that. And I think you and EJ are a really good pair together in business.

[EJ]

Yeah. It's unusual for me to be alone without EJ on the pod. Hopefully I won't say anything dumb.

[Matt]

He's watch you right now.

[EJ]

Yeah, he's over there. You know, compliance.

[Matt]

PR crisis.

[EJ]

Yeah.

[Matt]

You have any PR crisis moments yet?

[EJ]

Nothing. Nothing to speak of, really.

[Matt]

No cancellation attempts?

[EJ]

No, I. I've been. I've been behaving myself. And then he. We don't do much live stuff, so if I say anything inappropriate, he edits it out. I mean, I'm smart enough to know. I mean, you know, these days you can't really say whatever comes to mind. You got to be conscious. And I'm, for the most part, I'm conscious.

[Matt]

That's good. Yeah. You got to be careful once you're a celebrity, man.

[EJ]

Yeah. How about you? Have you been behaving yourself?

[Matt]

No. Anytime I am part of a cancel attempt, it's my guest. It's usually not on me.

[EJ]

Yeah.

[Matt]

So I'm good.

[EJ]

But that doesn't, like, blow over to you.

[Matt]

Sometimes I'll get heat. Like, Bryce hall came up to me yesterday at the dinner and he was like, why do you have Harry Sisson on the podcast? Like, you folded. I was like, you know, I like having on both sides.

[EJ]

Like, oh, I've seen. I saw a lot of his stuff during the election cycle.

[Matt]

Harry Sisson.

[EJ]

All I care about is that I don't talk politics. But I do, I do like politics in regards to. October is a huge month for YouTube revenue.

[Matt]

Oh, because of politics.

[EJ]

A lot of ads.

[Matt]

Actually, you're right. My October numbers were pretty nuts.

[EJ]

Yeah, it's all election. The spending was ridiculous. I mean, it was. It was insane. So I. Look, I love elections. I'M neutral. I don't talk politics.

[Matt]

You got a good PR team. I love it. So you've gambled with some big people lately. Steve will do it. Dana White. Who's next?

[EJ]

I'm doing a couple of collabs. I have. My agent arranged a couple of. Couple of celebrities. I. I mean, I don't. I've never heard of anybody. I mean, there's all these, you know, famous athletes. I don't watch a lot of sports. I don't really know anything. That's. I guess it's part of my charm. But I. There's a couple of celebrities that we're going to collab with tomorrow for F1. Nice guys with big followings on Instagram. EJ knew him, but I didn't.

[Matt]

Okay.

[EJ]

Yeah. And. But, yeah, Steve was a lot of fun. I mean, he. He was probably a real big shot in the arm for us when we started streaming with him. And then we did that one video with Dana where he's like, slots are stupid. And. And then Steve was, like, fast spinning $250. I'm like, slow down. You know? And then we hit a $44,000 bonus, and Dana was like, what the heck?

[Matt]

Of course it's the one day Dana's there, too.

[EJ]

That's crazy. Well, that guy's got. I mean, he's lives a charmed life, it appears. You know? I mean, he can do no wrong. I mean, he's one of those rare individuals who can, you know, open up a Trump rally and still doesn't get very much heat.

[Matt]

And he's uncancelable.

[EJ]

He's. Yeah, he's uncancellable. Is that the word?

[Matt]

Yeah, there's a few people, like, maybe like, a handful.

[EJ]

Yeah, he's uncancellable. I like it. Did you make that up?

[Matt]

Nah. There's a few people, like Dave Portnoy from Barstool Sports, I would say is uncanceable. Nelk boys. Pretty uncancelable. And, yeah, there's a few people on that list.

[EJ]

Joe Rogan.

[Matt]

Joe Rogan, I'd say, too, because he endorsed Trump. That was a big move for him.

[EJ]

That was. That was. That was an incredible thing. It was like watching a movie, the whole thing.

[Matt]

Yeah, it was a pretty wild election. I never really cared about politics up until this one.

[EJ]

Yeah.

[Matt]

You know, well.

[EJ]

Yep, there you go.

[Matt]

You into crypto at all? You gamble on that?

[EJ]

I love crypto. I would love that. It's at. I mean, not that I check it every 15 or 20 minutes. 939393327 As I walked in the door.

[Matt]

Hit an all time high yesterday.

[EJ]

Yeah, that's fun. I mean I've just been a holder a hodler for the longest time. I mean if I look back and I could just, you know, I was for a while there I had a lot of ethereum and I was just like using it to live on and you know, selling it at like $300 a coin. Like damn. I had probably if I kept every coin I ever owned, I'd be very wealthy.

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[Matt]

So you were in it early. Why were you in it that early?

[EJ]

A friend of mine came over to my house one time in like 2014 or 15 and said I gotta tell you about this thing, it's called bitcoin. And I'm like oh whatever. And he goes just buy one. I bought one, I think it was 5 or 600 bucks or 380 bucks like somewhere in that range. And then probably sold it at a thousand and bought back and forth and, and. But I was involved in it off and on. And then EJ really was smart about it and we did quite well.

[Matt]

Nice.

[EJ]

And now I have a, it's a percentage, a reasonable percentage of my portfolio and it's just kind of a long term hold. I hope Michael Sailors write. I was watching a clip this morning and you know he was Talking about a 13 million dollar Bitcoin in 20.

[Matt]

Years or whatever on Patrick by David show. Right.

[EJ]

I do not show it was okay.

[Matt]

But I, yeah, I saw that. I mean he's either going to go down as the best investor of all time or the biggest loser.

[EJ]

Right. I hope he's the best investor of all time.

[Matt]

It's hard to bet against him. Yeah, he's already up so much.

[EJ]

Yeah.

[Matt]

It's like crazy. And he's still buying it.

[EJ]

What about you, you like crypto?

[Matt]

I love crypto. Yeah, I love it. I mean changed my life.

[EJ]

Yeah, XRP had a little bump.

[Matt]

I didn't get in that one.

[EJ]

No.

[Matt]

But my friend got in at like 10 cents. Oh, it's like a dollar now.

[EJ]

Yeah, I mean I remember I bought my first at like 3 cents a long long time ago. Went up to $3 in that first run in 2018 and. And yeah, so there's been so many. So many. EJ had a funny one. We, we had a. He had bought a bunch of dogecoin at like, you know, one. One millionth of a cent, you know, and he had like literally millions of them or something and damn, he had hundreds of millions of them. And it was on a usb. And in one of his attempts to organize everything he was, he said, oh, this is a dog. And got rid of it for like $13 or something like that. That will literally. How much would that be worth now?

[Matt]

It's six, it's 60 cents now. So that would be worth $50 million.

[EJ]

Yeah. So we've had a couple of those oops moments.

[Matt]

Wow.

[EJ]

Not as bad as the pizza guy, but.

[Matt]

Oh, that guy. He must actually I did see an interview about him recently. He said he doesn't regret it. Yeah, well, because it's one of those things like. Yeah, you see the price. But would you have sold it along the way up too? Probably. I mean like you're not going to hold all the way.

[EJ]

You never know. You got to live a life with no regrets.

[Matt]

Yeah, well, you've always been pretty diversified. I know you got real estate too.

[EJ]

Yeah, and love the real estate. I have a lot of real estate down in Costa Rica and I still have a property management company down there. It's funny because like that used to be my whole life, you know, in my semi retirement and now the business, I never even have time to go down there anymore. I've been there once this year and the business is still doing just as well without me paying any attention to it. So it just shows. I was just goofing off before and now I mean we're literally working all day every day. I mean it's amazing. I'm 61 years old and I haven't probably worked this hard my whole life or I'm working as hard as I've ever worked, you know, as. I mean it's work. Right. I mean we get up, we are looking at stats and coming up with new title for our post which is 1145 every day and then go to a casino, decide what machine to play, play film an intro, take a profile or what's it called, a thumbnail pick. And then you know, do the wrap up, you know, play that, film the shorts. Then you know, change shirt. Maybe try to film two some days so we don't have to work seven days a week. Yeah, most for the Most part, we work seven days a week and. Yeah, but it's always fun. And more and more, you know, we'll go to a casino and we'll see like so many people wearing our merchandise. Like my, let's enjoy this shirt, you know, that I've got on Sando hats. I mean, we. It's just like there's this whole community of gamblers and it's just so fun to bump into them in the casino, take pictures, you know, so it just. We end up usually in the casino for about eight hours a day and then add all the other work and calls with lawyers and what. I mean, one of the things that's annoying is there's so many fake, you know, fake accounts and there's this, you know, then there's people in the comments that are like saying stuff that's not true or pretending to be us and messaging our fans. It's just like a constant battle dealing with the scammers online.

[Matt]

Wow. So what's their, what's their scam pitch? Like, how do they get people, you.

[EJ]

Know, that they just pretend to be me and then they engage with the fans and then say, oh, you know, send money for this or that. And then they just beat them, beat them for money. And we have a full time person on it, like an IP person on it.

[Matt]

Holy crap.

[EJ]

Get very little help from the platforms themselves. I think that that's, you know, an area influencers should somehow unionize because it's impossible to get a human being, you know, any particular platform under the bus. But some of them are particularly bad. And you just can't get a human being, can't get any help. You know, you could tell them and you know, there's biggest horror story in the world, biggest scam, biggest ripoff in the world. Just crickets. No help, no reply.

[Matt]

No, I put them on blast. Like, I'll put them on my story. I say report this page, they're gone within an hour. Because if you get like 50 to 100 people reporting them quick, they'll take down the page. Oh, try that out.

[EJ]

Got that, A.J.

[Matt]

I don't know if that still works. I used to do that years ago when I was in crypto heavily, people were trying to scam using crypto.

[EJ]

Well, it's a, it's a constant battle. I don't know how I got on that topic, but that, you know, there's a lot, there's a lot going on, but it's, you know, focus on what's fun. I mean, like, events like this are so much fun. You know, events like we did in Michigan last weekend. So much fun. The cruise is so much fun. I mean, it's just like, what a neat. You know, rather than just being like this boring old retired guy, now I'm like, you know, just living the dream, gambling, doing what I love. And it's funny, I still gamble. Like, we'll get done gambling and then sometimes I'll call my wife. I'll be like, what do you want to do? It's like, I don't know. Well, let's meet down at GVR and go, go, go play a little bit. And you just play for fun without even a camera rolling. Like, I still enjoy it. So I think that that's thing. I mean, if you can get paid to do what you enjoy, then I think you're really winning the game of life.

[Matt]

I love that. Took you 60 years to find it.

[EJ]

Yeah, well, I think I've been doing it most, for the most part my whole life. I mean, I've never. I've never really been a big job person. You know, I've usually like, find something I'm into and then promote that or put deals together, connect people. I've always just been pretty good that way about not having to have like a nine to five. I'm way too ADD for that.

[Matt]

Yeah, I have ADD too.

[EJ]

Yeah.

[Matt]

Yeah, I got diagnosed last year.

[EJ]

All right, well, that's good. I've never gotten diagnosed. I just throw it out.

[Matt]

Self diagnosed.

[EJ]

Yeah, when I was a kid, they called it bad. Yeah.

[Matt]

Oh, bad.

[EJ]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a joke. How'd you like it?

[Matt]

I got it. Took me a second. Took me a second. What's the Sando stand for?

[EJ]

Well, this. The CPT did these hats for us. So sando is kind of like a word that is now, I think, in the urban dictionary and Wikipedia and whatnot. I started saying, like, we'd get a bonus. You know, playing a game like Dragon Link, real popular game. And you know, you get the three pots bonus, and you're like, yeah, bonus. You know, I'm down $2,000 and I get a bonus on a 50 bet. And then the bonus is like $32. You know, that's. That's a real bad bonus. And then so instead of saying sandwich, I started saying sando, and it just caught on. So we made a Sando shirt kind of with this stardust design. And I mean, now our merchandise is just incredible. I mean, we sell our merchandise at El Cortez, seller merchandise, dice, online. We sell at the Peppermill in Reno. And I mean we sell just a ridiculous amount of T shirts, coffee mugs, you know, hats, hoodies. We got some really good hoodies. And yeah, so that's a whole nother business. We have to. We were doing it out of one of EJ's rental properties and it's literally bursting at the seams, bins floor to ceiling. We're looking at buying a big warehouse now for our merch business. Geez.

[Matt]

Yeah, that's incredible because a lot of creators have a following. But to be able to sell merch is a whole different level of engagement with your fans.

[EJ]

You know, I look at sometimes, you know, a lot of people look like, oh, I've, you know, millions and millions of followers. And then I look at the amount of views that they get and stuff like that and the numbers just don't seem to match. You know, we have only 860,000,000 followers on YouTube. But our watch time is just ridiculous, you know, because our average video is about 40 minutes long.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[EJ]

And I mean we have about 350,000 core fans that watch all 40 minutes. So our view time is just off the charts. Comments, Likes are ballistic. So yeah, we do have a real special relationship with our audience. They, we hear all the time. People come, they say, I feel like I know you, you know, because they know we talk about everything. Like they know about us, they know about our family, they know about, you know, every probably too much. And they really feel like they know us when they meet us, which is really fun. I feel the same way. You know, I really, we really do have a great audience.

[Matt]

Yeah, that's real cool. And you're diversifying the content. I see you're doing other games now like baccarat and stuff.

[EJ]

Yeah, we coined this phrase, the get even or get even worse. So like let's say we're gambling on slots and we're down three thousand dollars. We'll go over to Bachra and play a three thousand dollar hand to get even or get even worse. And so that's now one of our best selling T shirts, get even or get even worse. And yeah, earlier today I played a, what was it? A $5,000 get even or get even worse hand. And didn't work out so well. So we went from down 5 to down 10. But then we fought back and ended up only down four for the session.

[Matt]

Well, if you win tonight, it's a 100k tonight, right? Or 50k, I don't know. 50k?

[EJ]

50K.

[Matt]

There's 100k field.

[EJ]

Okay.

[Matt]

So the winner gets 50. Oh.

[EJ]

Because I think it was only 20 or 25.

[Matt]

Each event's been getting better and better with the lineup and the prize pool.

[EJ]

We figure with all the different people, like, you know, as they call celebrity. It was more like Internet Celebrity Poker Tour, really. And, but if you look at the followings of everybody in this room, you know, many of us are like, our worst. Streaming it on Twitch, Facebook, and X, I believe. And, you know, I think last time was one of the most viewed poker events in online history in all time.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[EJ]

Yeah. So tonight, I think, will be even more. And I really hope I win again.

[Matt]

Yeah, Tonight might break the record. I mean, we got sketch tonight. Ninja always sketch here. Yeah.

[EJ]

Oh, he's funny. I did. What's up, brother? Did a, did a $10,000 hand of blackjack at Red Rock with him. And, and we lost. Oh, yeah.

[Matt]

And it was his money or your money?

[EJ]

Our money.

[Matt]

Okay.

[EJ]

But he said, brutal. It was great. It got, it got a lot of views. I don't know if we made the 10,000 back, but it was fun. He's a nice kid.

[Matt]

I love that. I saw you on Howie Mandel show. Have you gambled with him?

[EJ]

We did. We, we did. Deal or no Deal. Oh, the slot machine with Howie, and then we were on his podcast.

[Matt]

That's cool.

[EJ]

Yeah, he's very nice. He has a really cool warehouse studio in Hollywood. It's like the museum. He has, like, the original, the last cue cards from the Johnny Carson show, and he has some of the chairs from the set, and he's got all kinds of memorabilia, some AI company that he invested in, and just some real neat stuff. He's a cool guy.

[Matt]

I love it. Which hotel have you been gambling at the most lately?

[EJ]

Well, it's an interesting question. I, I, I'm, I'm not trying to be like Mr. Monetization, but I don't like to give a lot of, a lot of free advertising out, you know, but there are certain hotels that really show the love and they understand social media. You know, we've come a long way in this whole gambling influencer thing from getting kicked out of hotels for bringing our phone out and filming to the point where, like, you know, there are properties that'll, you know, send a jet to pick us up to bring us into their casino. I mean, it runs the gamut. I, I tell, you know, I guess if I was, if push came to shove and someone said, you know, what's your favorite casino? There are two that I really, really like. I I wish I lived in Reno. I, if I could, I'd play at the Pepper Mill every day. They just have a really good player friendly philosophy. It's just a great property. They just take incredible care of us. They understand social media. They got a great social media team. So.

[Matt]

Nice.

[EJ]

I don't mind giving them a plug. Adam down at El Cortez has been amazing. I mean that, you know, we have our merch there and the number of people that come down to little El Cortez, you know, from Aria, from the Wynn, from the bigger properties, big money players coming into the El Cortez to buy our merch or hope to watch us filming. So I tend to, you know, I tend to support the casinos that support us and there are some good ones and there's some that still don't get it. A lot of these companies, they're so like syrup, you know, like they, it's just impossible to get anything done. A lot of these executives and these big companies is like working for the government. Their favorite thing to do is just say no and not take any risks whatsoever.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[EJ]

But I mean the reality is is we have an audience of 3 million gamblers. Those 3 million gamblers are the same 3 million gamblers that play in their casinos. So I, I think eventually, gradually, more and more we're going to start showing the love. So I never speak ill of any particular place and I love all the casinos that some have caught on quicker than others. I will say 100%.

[Matt]

Well, Matt, what events are next for you and where can people watch your stuff?

[EJ]

Well, I mean we have a website. It's actually pretty good now. Finally, Vegas matt.com kind of has everything. All of our socials and stuff are, you know, our main focus is YouTube and it's a Vegas Matt on YouTube, Vegas Mad on Tick Tock and so forth and just, you know, we're, we're all out there and we'll be doing events. Our plan is to be doing a tour this, this next 12 months and you know, selling out theaters for our meet and greets. Our night with Vegas Matt, if you're watching, I hope you come out and say hello in person. I'd love to meet you. And what else? No real big events. You know, we're gonna do another cruise probably in the spring and things like the cpt. One of my favorite events. This is my third one, I believe. And yeah, and I'm open to anything.

[Matt]

Love it. We'll link it below. Thanks for coming on again, brother.

[EJ]

Yeah man, thanks a lot. It was fun. Keep up the good work.

[Matt]

Thank you.

[EJ]

All right, bye.