← The Iced Coffee Hour
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- [00:02]
Vegas Matt
This episode is brought to you by Amazon Prime. There's nothing sweeter than baking cookies during the holidays. With Prime, I get all my ingredients delivered right to my door, fast and free. No last minute store trips needed. And of course, I blast my favorite holiday playlist on Amazon Music. It's the ultimate soundtrack for creating unforgettable memories. From streaming to shopping. It's on Prime. Visit Amazon.comprime to get more out of whatever you're into. Gambling is probably dumb. Like, you're going to lose. If you played for the rest of your life, you're going to lose money. Like, I think our biggest loss was $140,000 in a session, which was probably three hours.
- [00:40]
Graham Stephan
Where did you get the money to be able to do that?
- [00:43]
Vegas Matt
The best investments I ever made were real estate because it hides the money from me. I have money in the bank. Like, I find a way to spend it.
- [00:51]
EJ
We went out for dinner one night and he was playing video poker. He hit a royal flush for $78,000. And I filmed. And so by the end of dinner, that had 80,000 views. So I knew that you could turn it into something. And so I did.
- [01:04]
Vegas Matt
I encourage anyone that wants to do YouTube to do it. 99% of them fail because it's harder than it looks in here. You're gonna have obstacles, et cetera.
- [01:13]
Graham Stephan
What makes you successful where a lot of other people do what you do and fail?
- [01:17]
Vegas Matt
If I was speaking to any creator or to your question, what really resonates on social media these days is authenticity.
- [01:25]
Robert
Do you ever feel like you were addicted to Gamb Vegas? Matt, you are known for winning or losing hundreds of thousands of dollars per hour. Welcome to the Iced Coffee hour.
- [01:39]
Vegas Matt
Well, thank you. That might be a mild exaggeration, but I don't know. I mean, I have lost a hundred and a couple hours, hundreds of thousands of dollars. But not to disagree with you right out of the shoe, but I, I'm just so sensitive about that. You know, people tend to exaggerate, you know what I mean? Like, we gamble. I could even make it sound better. We gamble millions of dollars per year. You know, I mean, but I mean, hundreds of thousands per talking coin in, you know, coin in for sure, but winning and losing. Like, I think our biggest loss was $140,000. Actually, I know our biggest loss was 140,000 in a session, which probably three hours.
- [02:13]
Graham Stephan
So a lot of people see that and they wonder, where did you get the money to be able to do that?
- [02:18]
Vegas Matt
The amount of money, you know, isn't really all that much. You know, I mean, it's not as much as people think. And yes, we have some big losses and we've had some big wins and we keep really good records and we play as smart as humanly possible. Like, I think we put a lot of effort into like where we're going to play and when we're going to play. And we try to, you know, minimize the house edge, which, you know, on a slot machine probably runs anywhere from 5% to 15% of every coin in. If you played it for an infinite mathematical horizon, that's what you would lose that percentage of your coin in. And so we do everything to try to like make those numbers smaller. But we were just talking yesterday the updated number. As of like Yesterday, we're down $315,000 in approximately the last 18 months when we started really keeping accurate records. So what is 300 divided by 18? And you're smart guys. What's like 20 grand a month? Ish. Is all we've lost. Yeah. So now it's like, oh, 20 grand, like that. It's not like, oh, that's, you know, that's nothing. But at this stage especially, you know, with all the revenue that we're making, it's, that's just a cost of doing business. Now, sadly, the IRS doesn't see it that way. So you can't write off gambling losses against active income. But it's not really that, that much money, I guess, is the question. So how I made it, I don't know that it's necessarily relevant. I mean, I, I was in sales my whole life. I worked really hard and I bought real estate and did some Airbnbs about a property management company and had, you know, some, some, some net worth south of 40 million.
- [03:56]
Graham Stephan
What was your first job?
- [03:58]
Vegas Matt
My parents were awesome. Rest in peace and, you know, really good example. Hard workers. Owned a small business together, an insurance agency. And so even though we lived in like an upper middle class neighborhood and we were far from poor, we were, we were, we were fine. My dad did well, you know, it was, you know, get up when it's freezing cold, you know, and go do this paper route where you have to like walk all the way down this massive hill, every penthouse on one side, then walk back up, you know, the other side. And it wasn't pleasant, you know, for, and, but I, you know, and literally I think I remember it was a once a week paper route. It wasn't too stressful, but once a week. And I think I remember my check for the month was like $7 and something. I'm old as the hills, you know? But it was in, like, the 19, like, probably in, like, the early 70s, you know? And then when I got into high school, dishwasher at a restaurant, then promote, then bus boy. I mean, so like, actual work, you know? And then I went to college, got a degree in business economics. And then my first job was at a bank management training program at a small thrift and loan. So that was. And then that lasted a very short period of time because I absolutely. I felt like a caged animal. Like, it was just not my. My natural state of being to be in a 9 to 5. Like, there's. I just didn't do. I lasted 18 months, and then that was the last of jobs in my career.
- [05:28]
Robert
When in your life would you say you made that jump to being like, okay, like, I'm doing all right, to okay, I'm doing well?
- [05:34]
Vegas Matt
That's a great question. I love all of you guys. In fact, I've done some homework. Very impressive. So how much money do you need to live? Right? You have to look at that. So if you need $20,000 a month, you need to have $240,000 a year after tax, right? I would imagine. Okay, so to get $240,000 a year after tax, and you're then. Depends on what you're making on your portfolio, right? So if you have $10 million and you're making 5% on your money, right. You have $500,000, right? So I guess, like, for a long time, I. That was a goal. You know, it's like, get to $10 million, and then you get $500,000 a year. Even if you get an okay return on your money and you can live on that. So I would say when I hit around 8 to $10 million in net worth, I felt like I had actual money. Then there's like. Then there's like, the next level is, can you fly private? You know, like, and then. Which you probably wouldn't want to do because it's ridiculous, but I absolutely enjoy flying private. Like, some of the casinos have planes, you know, and what. It's like, once you do that, and then you. The next day you're getting, like, strip searched, you know, going through tsa. That's never really happened, but you get the idea. Like, it's like, oh, all this aggravation versus, like, driving up to the plane. It's like, so. But for that, you know, you need to have a net worth more. Like the one that the imaginary Internet people think that I have and that's one of my still, like I still have goals financially. Like I'm still going strong at 61, not giving up. I want to get jet money.
- [07:10]
Graham Stephan
What was the process to getting from, let's just say zero to $10 million?
- [07:14]
Vegas Matt
The best investments I ever made were real estate because it hides the money from me. I have this habit of if like I have money in the bank, like I find a way to spend it, you know. And with real estate you buy it and you hold it and it generates cash flow and then it appreciates, you know. So I mean even like my home in Vegas is a good example. I paid $800,000 for that home in 2012 and at the highest it was worth close to $3 million. I think you mentioned this earlier, there's been a little pullback in the valuations here in Vegas. So I'd say now it's maybe 242526 that range. But that's a pretty nice chunk of change just for living in a home with a, with a $650,000 mortgage at 2.75%.
- [08:04]
Graham Stephan
And why real estate?
- [08:05]
Vegas Matt
I just like it. So like I am a perpetual goof off. Like I'm a kid, I swear I'm like a 16 year old. I just like to have fun nonstop. Like I do not like people telling me what to do. That's why I didn't do well in a job. And so like I liked to buy. I bought a house in Lake Havasu because we used to love going to the lake when my kids were letting me go in Minnesota. So my parents cabin. But at a certain point in time I'm going to get my own, my own lake house, you know. And then that was when I heard about the concept of Airbnb when it was first starting. So we're probably talking early 2000 range, something like that. And I thought, hey, wouldn't that be cool to have a house that you could also just rent out short term, make money on it and then also use it when you wanted to. Now then I bought a place in Costa Rica and I really like going to Costa Rica. So I started buying houses in Costa Rica and the focus there. And so it's another cash flow of property. So what I, my philosophy is like buy stuff where you want to go. And then so that was, I mean maybe not the brightest philosophy in the world, but I just, if I can somehow combine a vacation and a vocation, you know, do that if it's something that's fun. That's always been my overriding philosophy. It's not fun. I'm not doing it.
- [09:25]
Graham Stephan
Why not stocks, but really quick. Before we go into that, you have to ask yourself the question, what does the future hold for business? Because if you ask nine different experts, you're going to get 10 different answers from a bull market, a bear market. The economy is going to crash. It's going to surge. It would be very helpful to have a crystal ball.
- [09:42]
Robert
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- [10:06]
Graham Stephan
Look, when you're able to close the book in days and not weeks, you're spending less time looking backwards and more time on what's next. So whether your company is running in the millions or even hundreds of millions, NetSuite helps you respond to immediate challenges and sees your biggest opportunities. Oh, and speaking of opportunity, right now you could download the CFO's guide to AI and machine learning at net netsuite.com ICED the guide is completely free for you at netsuite.com ICED with the link also down below in the description. Again, that's netsuite.comiced thank you so much NetSuite for sponsoring this episode. And now let's get back to the podcast.
- [10:42]
Vegas Matt
Why not stocks? I like stocks. I, I mean I have a very balanced portfolio managed. But you know, I, I try to just not pay attention to that. Although I still like check bitcoin stocks and everything like a hundred times a day like on my phone. But I have the majority of my money at like a big, you know, financial place and they just do it and I have a lot of stocks and bonds and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, I certainly am not a, you know, a financial whiz kid, but I've done okay for myself and have enough money to go and gamble.
- [11:16]
Graham Stephan
Do you find that you also have taken similar risks with career or with other investments?
- [11:20]
Vegas Matt
Oh, absolutely now. So I had an interesting dynamic in that, like I said, my, my family was very stable. My parents were the complete opposite of me, you know, and I think that we attend to be the opposite of your parents. I heard that and a long time ago and I've, I'VE gathered evidence along the way. Like, for example, EJ is the complete opposite of me. Like, I'm 61 and the other night I went out to Zouk, you know, till 3 in the morning. EJ doesn't ever go out and he has no interest in it. You know what I mean? It's like you, you tend to be the opposite of your parents. So my parents were so strict and like, so restrictive on my behaviors. Whereas, like, I would tell, I'd leave. I'd leave town and I'd tell ej, hey, you should throw a party. We have a sick house with a great pool and a hot tub and a water slide. You should have like the whole, you know, the whole gang over here. And then they wouldn't do that. And then, whereas with my parents would leave and they said, if you have one person in this house, it's gone. You're going to have hell to pay. And then, of course, the minute they leave, I have like the whole school over, like 200 people. And the police come and I get in all kinds of trouble. Somebody throws up, you know, that's a Project X. Yeah. So I digress. So, yes, I take. I have always been at risk. Like, so I think if you're an overprotective parent, you're going to end up having kids that are maniacs. Like, my strategy was just be. Let them do whatever they want. And then they became wonderful children. Both my kids are incredible. So, yeah, my mom's really overprotective and strict. And that restriction on my behavior when I was younger, I think made me act out once I got to college and got free. And so I'm a tremendous risk taker. And then also, because I'm not sitting here trying to rip on my parents, they're also, they offered an amount of financial stability. Like, I think of very lucky in that if I ever felt like I had a problem and I was going to be homeless, I knew that would never happen. It was like, you know, walking on a tightrope. But, you know, you have a net now. I only used the net once in my life and I borrowed $30,000 from them in like 1991, you know, and I was like, so I was what about late 20s? You know, just have a first kid. I got upside down and I was a real pickle. Credit card bill.
- [13:40]
Graham Stephan
What happened?
- [13:40]
Vegas Matt
Man, I just was, I was involved in a business that just went, you know, went tits up. And I had let my lifestyle get ahead of my income or like, you know, I mean, it was Doing things like, you know, like you would probably recommend against, you know, like I had a BMW 733, you know, and I. A car phone, like, you know, like when they first came out, like the built in one with the antenna on the back with a fifteen hundred dollars a month car phone bill. Very important. And then. And then just all of a sudden my income went from like $30,000 a month to zero. And I just. And I just. It just. It just overnight went to zero. And I was like, oh, you know, and I. It took me a minute, you know, to let my lifestyle calm down and realize that, you know, this is a problem, regroup, refocus, find something else to do. And I just got into this, you know, what seemed like an insurmountable amount of debt at the time, which, you know, and I just said to my parents, I said, hey, I just need to borrow some money. And so, like, my point is, is that I was willing to take more risks because I knew I had a safe net. I, like I said, I never really leaned on it because they were the last. Like, it was. It was like the worst thing in the world, asking my parents to borrow money. But I. I knew I'd never be homeless, so I was willing to take more risks, if that makes sense.
- [14:53]
Graham Stephan
How difficult was that, to readjust your lifestyle?
- [14:55]
Vegas Matt
Very difficult. But I think it's what made me who I am, you know, like, I can, you know, you can knock me down. I will, unless I don't ever get up again. You know, like, I'm going to come back stronger than ever before. And that's what I always did. So I was pretty into personal development, you know, and I had learned about goal setting and all that kind of stuff. And. And I. One of my favorites was Tony Robbins. And so when that happened, I was so depressed. So I was like, after I got done feeling sorry for myself, and my wife said, like, you know, okay, what next? You know, I really like Tony Robbins. And I said, well, I want to go work for Tony Robbins, because I think the guy's awesome. And I've been to one of his seminars, and I go, wow, that guy's like the best speaker I've ever heard. So I just kind of put that out there that I was going to work for Tony Robbins. And I found a franchisee, friend of a friend who. He used to have these franchises up in Oregon. And I moved to Oregon, worked for Tony Robbins, got my headspace back in order, and then. And then I ended up getting a job selling like, videos, producing videos and stuff for that industry, you know. So I kind of became a vendor, which kind of distanced me from a little bit. And I did really, really well at that too. Like, every time I made any kind of career change, I always ended up doing better. The most recent of which now all of a sudden I'm a YouTuber. And thanks to my son and my partner WBG Robert, that, you know, these guys are brilliant. We all have incredible work ethics and, and I, and we're doing quite well at this because I'm putting the same 18 hours a day, you know, focused, intensity, all the things I did my whole life into doing this. And I encourage anyone that wants to do YouTube to do it. Everyone always wants this. There's a hundred channels that start every single month. It's just like everything else, 99% of them fail because it's harder than it looks in here. You're going to have obstacles, et cetera.
- [16:50]
Graham Stephan
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- [17:45]
Vegas Matt
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- [17:51]
EJ
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- [17:53]
Vegas Matt
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- [18:07]
EJ
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- [18:09]
Vegas Matt
Without having to make sacrifices. Terms apply.
- [18:12]
EJ
Visit us cellular.com for details.
- [18:14]
Robert
Yeah, so that seemed like it was your biggest net worth swing in the negative direction. What was your biggest positive net worth.
- [18:21]
Vegas Matt
Swing in your life? I don't know. Probably When I inherited my parents money, I mean, you know, that's, that's kind of a, we know sound kind of lame, but I'd say like about half my money came from my inheritance. You know, I mean I inherited a big thing. Most of my parents being working hard their whole life, being smart, you know, probably investing like you. My dad would never have bought a Starbucks in his life. You know, I did inherit a few million bucks and that was, that was really helpful.
- [18:46]
Robert
That lead towards the retirement or was that post?
- [18:49]
Vegas Matt
No, I was post retirement. I had, I had, you know, I had saved a few million bucks and I had a bunch of properties myself. But then, you know, then you layer on another few million and then all of a sudden you're like, you're really comfortable. But then I'm so glad that I didn't just sit there and lead like this comfortable life and go pasture, like try to. Oh well, how can I play video poker every day and you know, lead a small Life with like 10 or $15,000 a month budget to pay my bills? The, I mean this is the greatest thing that happened because I'm like rejuvenated and I'm literally working as hard or harder as I've ever worked in my life and helping my son, you know, get financially independent. I mean I, by the. What are you, 32?
- [19:27]
EJ
30?
- [19:28]
Vegas Matt
Oh yeah, your sister's 32. I kind of knew that he was 30 years old. By the time he's 35 guaranteed, the kid will be set for life all from his own doing. You know, I think that's cool. So that's fun to be able to work with your kid.
- [19:39]
Graham Stephan
When was your first time gambling?
- [19:41]
Vegas Matt
What comes to mind is in junior high, you know, like there was like poker and there was this kid, Jeff, and he had this house that you could just walk up the hill from My, my junior high and I was such a dork in middle school. That was like the worst time of my life. So these guys invited me to play poker with them and I just got wrecked for my lunch money. You like, literally, you know, like I would, I would like. My parents had this change thing and I would take like three bucks out of their change thing and go play poker. And what, what year would that have been? 1975. So like I was like 12, 13 years old or something like that. Playing poker, getting wrecked for my lunch money was my first lesson in, in gambling. And then you know, Vegas trips with a fake ID in the 80s, you know, during college, I think it was the first time I Came to Vegas, totally different city in 1980, you know, four than it is today. And I used to live in California and we would go to Vegas a lot. Like, you know, we even bring the kids to the Aladdin Hotel and, you know, and my wife and kids would be down at the little pool, like in diapers, and I'd be down there playing roulette. Come on, 17.
- [20:48]
Graham Stephan
Do you think it's hereditary that you have, like a fixation with gambling that maybe is, like, you know, genetic to some degree or like there's a reason? Maybe you were drawn to it more than like the average person?
- [21:01]
Vegas Matt
I don't know. I mean, I think gamblers are optimists generally, you know, like, you're a financial guy. As I mentioned, my son's been watching you forever. Speaks the world of you. I hadn't seen it, you know what I mean? But then again, I bumped into Bradley Martin at a party and didn't have any idea who he was at first, you know, Now I know. Getting hipper by the day, you know, But. But you probably. You'll think gambling is idiotic. Like, why would you do something that's a losing proposition, you know, and that's a very logical approach. But gamblers are optimists, so they're like, yeah, but you could get this big win. And it's just, I guess like any other. Let's call it a bad habit again, if it's a bad habit, it's not. I'm not in charge of gambling. People are like, oh, you promote gambling. It's like, then don't let casino put them all out of business. Make gambling completely and utterly illegal. If it's a problem, I'm not the problem. I want to, I want to go on record of saying it, but I think there's a lot of people who enjoy it. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a rush, you know, the thrill of victory, the agony of defe. Um, I don't know. This is a genetic predisposition. I know my dad just like to play video poker, but he would play like 20 for 25 cent single line, you know, and he kept a record. I found it when I looked through their, their stuff after he died. And he had a record of every royal he got, whether it was clubs or parts. It was so cool. Like, he was such a disciplined guy. And he never probably lost more than 500, a thousand bucks. And he figured I got a free hotel room and some free meals and it was probably worth it, you know where he was reckless at all. But I'm. I'm not sure if it's a genetic predisposition. Unless the Department of Government Efficiency eliminates it. Maybe we can have the government do a study and spend millions of dollars as to whether people have a genetic predisposition to gambling. I don't know.
- [22:45]
Robert
Was there a specific moment in time where you had some sort of gambling swing, positive or negative, that actually made a big impact on your overall financial wellbeing?
- [22:54]
Vegas Matt
I think fundamentally I was taught good values growing up, and my parents were really good examples. So I pride myself on being reasonably responsible. You know, like I said, I only really had one time where I. Where I wasn't able to, you know, take care of all my obligations myself. Had to lean into my parents for a loan, which I paid back. You know what I mean? So it's like I would come out though. Like, I met with this guy, Steve Cyr. He wrote a book called Whale Hunt in the Desert. You know, he's a. He's a host here in Vegas. And he became quite famous. He's been on tv, wrote a book and everything like that. And when I was probably 20, you know, 26, 27, 28 years old, like, you know, not making a lot of money, I went to the Las Vegas Hilton and he happened to be my friend's host and he became my host and he just. There was. Things were a lot different. It's not now. It's all computerized. Back then they had the power of the pen and a host could just cop and do whatever they wanted. And he just gave me a $10,000 credit line. And that's probably the modern day equivalent of a 25, $50,000 credit line. It was a lot at the time. And I remember I got hammered drunk and lost that entire 10,000 in one night. I just. I was chasing whatever it was, craps or that. It was a blur, like one of those montages in a movie. And you just wake up in the morning and you have these slips of paper and it's like I owe $11,000 because I lost the whole 10, apparently, and said, I need more. And he gave me a 10% bump. So he gave me $11,000. And it took me like a couple years of making payments to the Las Vegas Hilton to pay that back. And that was super painful. That's the only time I really actually got into any kind of like, trouble gambling. But it wasn't the end of the world when it was painful. Few hundred dollars a month payment and a Lesson. But I would come and I'd get, like, in my 30s, 40s, whatever. I'd come out like a lot of people you see in Vegas. I come out for a weekend, lose five or ten thousand dollars. It stung a lot, but it was fun. You know, I was at the Hard rock in the 90s, and, you know, there were the great parties and you're at the Peacock Lounge, and everyone was there and the celebrities and, you know, it was. It was. It was a lot of fun. So I think it as an entertainment budget, I wasn't a golfer. I mentioned this before, but I think it's a good analogy. You know, if you. Let's say you lose $5,000 five times a year and on your Vegas trips, that's $25,000 a year. And you're a responsible, otherwise human being. I know people that spend 75,000, 125,000 a year on golf. I don't golf. I gamble.
- [25:32]
Graham Stephan
I think the difference with that is that people think they'll get better at golf. Can you get better gambling?
- [25:37]
Vegas Matt
Yes. Also. You have good questions, guys. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's not. It's not something that I do necessarily, but yes. I mean, anyone can Google, you know, advantage play, you know, I mean, there are people who make a living gambling, you know, that you have, you know, these things that, like card counting, I don't really understand, and I can't pay attention long enough to do it. But, you know, you see the MIT card counting movie or whatever, you know, you can count cards and beat blackjack, you know, but they watch, and if you're beating them, they'll ban you. You know what I mean? Like, that's it. That how you can get an edge in blackjack, you know, those things are, I guess, you know, the gray area of. Was that cheating? I don't know. Or is it just a mistake on the casino's part? Then with slot machines, there are things like must hit by jackpots, you know, and some person might be, you know, innocently playing a slot machine, hitting the button for three hours, and they lose, you know, all their money, and they get up and they walk away. Where literally you can walk up to that machine, you can see, oh, my God, that number is at 9,999. It has to hit by 10,000. It moves 5 cents for every, you know, $50 a coin in. I got to just put in $2,000 a coin, and I'm going to make that 10,000. It's a pretty extreme example, but there Are, does that make sense? There are situations that exist on slot machines that a player that plays and has a mathematical advantage. Now it's, now it's such common knowledge and there's so many channels that talk about it and so forth. Finding those things is almost imposs these days. It's somewhat of a thing of the past. So. But yes, you can become a smart gambler. Another example, taking advantage of things. Taking advantage, but things like slot tournaments, things like 10 times points, you know, here, like what's. Do you guys ever go to casinos? Do you ever gamble?
- [27:31]
Graham Stephan
Every now and then.
- [27:32]
Vegas Matt
Okay, yeah. Where do you go? Red Rock or Durango? So on Thursdays and Sundays they have 10 times points. Were you aware of this? Okay, so to get 10 times points as a local, you go there and you have to swipe your players card. If you don't swipe your players card, they don't give you the 10 times points because you're smart. That's why they're multi billionaires, you know, they figure out why. Because they don't swipe their card. They don't know. They obviously don't care. But to get the people who, you know, are playing a lot, give them a little bit of, a little bit back. You swipe your players card, you get 10 times points. So I play at those casinos on Thursdays or Sundays because let's say on a normal session when we're making a video, we might put say $50,000 of coin in, you know, so our expected loss might be $5,000 on that video if, you know, mathematically. And normally we would earn like maybe $60 in points, you know, that you could use for a free Starbucks or whatever, or you could turn it into free slot play. If you go on a Thursday or Sunday instead of 60, it's 600. So now I'm getting $600 back on this expected $5,000 loss. So my expected loss is now 4,400. I'm just starting to give you a couple examples. And then we won a hundred thousand dollars last year in a slot tournament that, you know, so you get these mailers, you know, that come, and most people just probably just toss them. It's like, oh, more junk, bail, whatever. I'll come to the casino when I feel like it. But if you see a mailer, it's like $100,000 slot tournament, you know, this weekend. You know, get a free room and free food and, and blah, blah, blah. You know, we've probably done 20 slot tournaments, let's just say. But we won a hundred thousand dollars at one of them. So that means that I made $5,000 for every one of those slot tournaments that I went to. Mathematically, you know, saying so the answer is emphatically yes. There are smart gamblers and they're just like flat out people that are just, they might as well just burn their money.
- [29:19]
Robert
But before we get into that, let's be real here. Being an adult has its high points. You can eat ice cream for dinner, you can play video games whenever you want. You can even eat ice cream while you're playing video games. But in actuality, it's not all fun. You have to do your taxes, figure out what's for dinner every night, and of course, worst of all, schedule doctor's appointments. But at least for that one, there is our sponsor, zocdoc. That makes adulting that much easier.
- [29:40]
Graham Stephan
For those unaware, zocdoc is a free app and website where you could search and compare high quality in network doctors. Choose the one that's the right fit for your needs and then click to instantly book an appointment.
- [29:51]
Robert
We're talking about in network appointments with more than 100,000 healthcare providers across every specialty from mental health to dental health, eye care to skincare, and so much.
- [29:59]
Graham Stephan
More you could filter for. Doctors who take your health insurance, are located nearby, are a good fit for any medical needs you might have and who are highly rated by verified patients. You could also see their actual appointment openings. Choose the right time for you you and then click to instantly book a visit. Plus, Zocdoc appointments happen fast, typically within just 24 to 72 hours of booking. You could even score same day appointments.
- [30:22]
Robert
Seriously guys, I recommend you try out ZocDoc. It really does make the process of booking appointments that much easier. In fact, I know a lot of people, they get injured or they get sick and they don't even schedule appointments because they think it's more effort than what it's worth. But not with ZocDoc. They really do make it that easy.
- [30:36]
Graham Stephan
So stop putting off those doctor's appointments and go to zocdoc.comiced to find and instantly book a top rated doctor today.
- [30:43]
Robert
That is Z ocdoc.com ICED zocdoc.com ICED.
- [30:48]
Graham Stephan
Thank you ZocDoc for sponsoring this episode. And now let's get back to the podcast.
- [30:53]
Robert
So to, to explain what's happening because we got, we got a couple things going on now. We're going to start talking about the business and you run and manage the business. You're also a Son, you're in the, you're in the videos. This is ej, everybody. You're probably familiar with him.
- [31:04]
EJ
Yeah.
- [31:05]
Robert
We also were talking off camera. Graham got gifted a six figure necklace. We don't know exactly how much it cost, but he got gifted it from Liver King, who it was gifted to him from Kyle.
- [31:16]
Graham Stephan
Kyle from Nelk.
- [31:18]
Robert
And then it was gifted to Kyle from.
- [31:20]
Graham Stephan
Steve will do it.
- [31:21]
Robert
Steve will do it. And so it's kind of followed this just ownership thing. And Liver King gave it to Graham with the contingency of Graham having to give it away to someone else at some date in the future. That's the one contingency. Graham, how many times have you worn this necklace?
- [31:36]
Graham Stephan
Never, maybe. I think I wore it once. It's so like, I don't want to say ostentatious. It's just not my style at all. The word diamond chain. So I've never wear the thing. But I've always thought it would be cool to give it back to Steve, who started this entire cycle of like giving it to somebody.
- [31:55]
Vegas Matt
Yeah, he's such a generous guy and I, and from like your perspective as a finance guy, like, how do these guys, like, like Sketch came and hung out with him and he's like, I bought Sketch of Lambo and he's like, he's constantly just buying these insanely expensive gifts and giving to people. Like, I see a video, he's in a car dealership, you know, and sees like a veteran and he walks up and says, how much is your car? It's like $35,000. He goes, I'll buy it for you. Here's the cash. Like he's incredibly generous guy. That'd be fun to give him something. We, we actually gave him a pendant, a huff and puff pendant, like a diamond pendant that, you know, was like probably $14,000 or something like that. I thought we were being very generous. And then he gets it and he's like, what? There's no chain with it? I'm like, well, I assumed you had a chain. And it's been an, actually a funny joke that would be absolutely hysterical if, if I connected him with you and, and you gave him that, that, that change. So I, I, he's a, he's a great guy and I could definitely make that happen.
- [32:49]
EJ
Cool, let's do it. Yeah, that'd be fun.
- [32:50]
Robert
So we're going to try to, we're going to try to transfer ownership and if he's okay with it, we'd film it.
- [32:55]
Graham Stephan
I'm not trying to do it for content. No, we're not film it just because it be.
- [32:58]
Robert
Because I think most of the transfers are. Have all been filmed so far. All of the transfers of ownership to transfer.
- [33:05]
Vegas Matt
Well, I know he just is moving back to Vegas, so I know he's going to be here, so I will do my best to make that happen. He's. He's a. He's a great guy.
- [33:13]
Graham Stephan
So going back to the gambling, how did you realize you could turn this into. Where did that come up?
- [33:18]
EJ
We went out for dinner one night and he was playing video poker, as you do, and he got a comp at either the M or gvr. Memory is not really clear on it. He hit a royal flush for $78,000. And I filmed it and I was with a few of my friends, we were going to go to dinner and we're like, let's put it on TikTok. Because this was 2021 when things were really blowing up. And so by the end of dinner, that had 80,000 views. And I've always been sort of entrepreneurial and I watched a lot of your videos and I was like, maybe there's something more to this. And so I just started to go with him more and more and I was looking for ways to make more money. So I started posting it and his videos were doing well. And then we just started gambling more and more and more and it just morphed into this whole business. And I knew of the business of social media for a long time. I've been a consumer of social media, so I knew that you could turn it into something. And so I did and it was very fun.
- [34:09]
Graham Stephan
So what machines, when you walk into a casino, have the best odds. I know most people walk in, they hear these stories that, like, the ones closest to the entrance have like the worst odds or the best odds and the marketing, the best odds because they want you to win a little bit. Or there's the, you know, the fallacy that like your first time playing, they want you to win a little bit in the beginning. Like, is there any truth to any of these claims?
- [34:30]
Vegas Matt
No, I believe no. Like, because like, changing the payout on the machine is a good deal of effort, you know, and it's all very regulated. They have to open the thing up and then there's a log and there's a process and it's like a software and it's just not. It's just not. Not that simple. And they don't. They don't change it on like Tuesday mornings. And then, you know, Turn it back tight on Friday night or. And I highly doubt that there's any truth to the ones by the entrance. I. I would take the under on that. The best games in the. In the casino, slot wise, or video poker. You know, I mean, the video poker's way better than slots as far as. So if you want to play and earn comps and stuff, you go play video poker, learn how to play. That's another thing that I, you know, like you asked earlier about the good and bad gamblers. Like, yeah, the people I watch them, the holds that they make that are just mathematically just horrendous, you know, like, they'll be like, oh, I've got a pair of queens, but I also have like ace, jack to the royal. You know, I'm gonna hold that. You know, it's like a 10,000 to one shot or whatever versus like a. For sure pale. Like, like. Anyway, so the best game is video poker.
- [35:43]
Graham Stephan
Interesting. And what about the ones where I see that seem to go viral online? Someone saying they got paid a lot of money, but the casino refuses to honor that because of an error. And they say, oh no, that was an error on the slot. You didn't actually win the money.
- [35:57]
EJ
I think those are probably blown out of proportion more than maybe reality. That doesn't really happen, I don't think.
- [36:04]
Vegas Matt
I mean, maybe, maybe I've seen. I know what you're talking about. And it probably has happened, but maybe there's more to the story that meets the eye.
- [36:10]
EJ
Exactly. There's more to it than the Gaming.
- [36:13]
Vegas Matt
Control Board is very. Like, that's a very serious thing. And it's all very, very regulated. And, you know, I don't know there. If there possibly was some. Some reason. I, I don't, I. They make enough money. I don't think they need to be people. I mean, there was probably like one or two instances of that ever. And. And yeah, I think it's blown. I've always gotten paid. I've never had him say, like, oh, you know, we had $120,000 the other day on a. On a Buffalo Link. And, and they were overjoyed to pay.
- [36:42]
EJ
Us cash in like 25 minutes. I think people always ask, like, are the machines rigged? It's like a very common question. And like, are they che. It's like, well, they are rigged because the house has an advantage. Why would they go out of their way to rig it further? They're already winning. They don't need to cheat. I don't think people need to get that out of their head?
- [36:59]
Graham Stephan
No.
- [36:59]
Robert
Is there ever a time that you don't want to be gambling?
- [37:03]
Vegas Matt
Sometimes I would get tired of losing, you know, like, I mean, one of. One of the. My friends said, you know, that's. That's been a gambler full time forever. Said, you know, winning streaks and losing streaks always last longer than you think is humanly possible. So this is a very streaky business. It just. It's, you know, the math is the math over an infinite time horizon. But there, you know, sometimes you can sit down in a machine and it'll be very hot, you know, and then sometimes you can sit down in a machine and you just can't win anything. So, like, if you have like three or four days in a row where you lose 15, 20 thousand dollars and you just can't seem to get any, and, you know, it gets frustrating. And I've had my moments where I don't feel like gambling. But still to this day, like last night, we were just talking about at the break, I mean, I went out to Red Rock and just gambled for entertainment. Wasn't filming or anything. People walking up to me like, where's the crew? I'm like, I'm just here moving on, playing baccarat.
- [37:57]
Graham Stephan
Yeah, you know, that's it. So how are the machines, though, for slots designed to keep you playing? Because I've noticed there was one machine that really bugged me a while ago. It was the balloon one. I lost so much money. It was Resorts World, and they had this one slot machine that you put money in and you hit, like, certain things, and it made the balloons, like, get bigger and bigger and bigger.
- [38:19]
EJ
We talk about that a lot. Yeah, perceived progression, persistence. So the animation on the screen, the balloon will get bigger, the sparklers will get more full, the piles of gems will get bigger. It doesn't mean anything. It just means that that bonus hasn't hit in a while. It's not more dew than it was before when you started playing it. It.
- [38:36]
Vegas Matt
Oh, really?
- [38:37]
Robert
It just means it hasn't hit.
- [38:39]
EJ
Essentially, it's what it means. It's just a fun gimmick for people to think that they're closer.
- [38:44]
Vegas Matt
Visual representation.
- [38:46]
EJ
We've lost a lot of money chasing that as if that was real. It's not. There is real persistence on some machines, but not. Not those animated.
- [38:54]
Robert
So how can you tell if it's real versus fake persistence? You were saying a guaranteed payout of 10,000. If someone wanted to walk around for, like, three weeks straight to try to find a slot machine that has a guaranteed payout. Like how could they differentiate that?
- [39:07]
Vegas Matt
Well, they'd be competing with about hundreds and hundreds of people that just like walk around the casinos non stop looking for these, you know, six or seven plays that exist.
- [39:16]
EJ
Yeah, you could go to a machine, like we could sit you down next to a machine and I'd say watch how many people come by here and poke this. Like every two minutes somebody will come and poke it. You can Google advantage play, but like I said, it's very competitive and there's not really any money in it.
- [39:28]
Vegas Matt
It, it's the discipline it takes to make money at it. Again, it's like, like everything. It, you'd have to be so smart and work so hard. And it at this point in time, like it's got, it's getting harder and harder and harder as more and more and more and more people know about it. And a lot of casinos are taking out all of the advantage play machines out of the casinos anyway. And even if you play something that has in an advantageous situation, you can still get completely and entirely wrecked.
- [39:57]
EJ
Yeah, just because you're a 1% favorite doesn't mean you're going to win money every time you can. You can still lose $50,000 easily.
- [40:05]
Graham Stephan
So is there a certain machine that you should play or is are the odds better on one machine versus another? And how could you tell that as a player?
- [40:15]
EJ
Slot machines or slot machines just play the ones you enjoy. I think that's what we should preach here is whatever you're having the most fun on, play that and you're never going to get an advantage on it. Playing high limit is another example. Sometimes the household will be 2% less if you play in high limit. So if you're betting $5 a spin and you're max betting a machine on the regular floor, but you can go into high limit and the minimum bets 5 play there because the household might be a little bit less in high limit.
- [40:41]
Graham Stephan
And how do you know when to walk away?
- [40:44]
EJ
Well, we never do.
- [40:46]
Vegas Matt
Well, I mean that's, you know, there's like literally, you know, like those brochures in every casino. Like you know, call 1-800-GAMBLER or whatever it is. I mean it's like any addict, you know, how does that tell the alcoholic when to leave the bar? You know, I mean the reality is they still bars are still legal. Like it's been kind of an interesting topic. I mean because whenever you're talking about anything controversial, it's like, well who ultimately there's self responsibility. Right. Or Is the government in charge of everything that we do, you know, what we do for a living. If we gamble, if we drink, if we do drugs, you know, it's like, oh well, if it's bad, it should be illegal. And then our, you know, I'm not, I'm not, that's not how I really roll. But the answer is how to walk away. You know, if you're losing too much, you know, if losing money, you're playing with money you can't afford to lose, that's a great time to walk away. And we're in a really great situation now in that, you know, we have YouTube revenue, we have merch revenue, we have, you know, endorsement revenue, we have, you know, we can't lose anymore. You know, that's kind of, that's kind of fun. I mean we lose, but net. Net. We're not going to lose, you know, and, but the average person who watches some, you know, we were. Thanks to E.J. i think and, and Robert amongst the first to really show the truth about gambling. Our, our show's more like almost a podcast. These. We talk, we gamble, we talk about all kinds of different stuff. We have the question of the day, we have all our funny sayings. I do my wacky, you know, wrap ups and the gambling is just kind of, kind of happens. But we were the first ones to really show our losses because, you know, it used to just be like, oh, I push the button and I get a big jackpot right away, you know, and it's like, it's like just not true. It's just gambling is a losing proposition. So when you know when to walk away, do not lose your rent money because you could go and get completely wrecked. Like, I mean you can sometimes. It's just uncanny. Like, remember the other day, you lose.
- [42:48]
EJ
Way more than you can, you expect. You can sometimes. Like the other day we, we play.
- [42:52]
Vegas Matt
This mach at Resorts World and we did great. It was a new machine and I mean it was an incredible video and it was like, wow, I love this new machine, you know, And I'm like, man, the machine manufacturer should give us a million dollars for this video. It's so good. So then like a week or two later, you know, it, it showed up at El Cortez and we went to El Cortez to play it. And again, just random. It's a random number generator every time you push the button that the, there's, there's, you know, 10,000 different outcomes that could possibly happen or whatever the number is. And One of those 10,000 outcomes is going to come up. It's a, it's a mathematical random number generator. Then it's, there's a percentage of time or whatever and it, over an infinite horizon, you're going to lose about 5% of what you put in. But the second time we played that machine, we lost $53,000 in the course of an hour. And I think we, we hold the record, I believe.
- [43:45]
EJ
Yeah.
- [43:46]
Vegas Matt
At El Cortez, that the manager, our good friend over there told us, he goes, you guys just set the single machine record for losing the most of anyone in history.
- [43:54]
EJ
So I've at that property.
- [43:55]
Vegas Matt
Yeah, I'm going to call the people at Guinness. This episode is brought to you by Global X. Since 2008, Global X ETFs has been committed to empowering investors with unexplored intelligence solutions. Global X specializes in exchange traded funds that offer exposure to the artificial intelligence ecosystem, including themes like data centers, robotics, semiconductors and cloud computing. To learn more about Global X's entire suite of ETFs from covered calls, fixed income, emerging markets and more, Visit Global x etf's.com this episode is brought to you by AWS. Amazon Q Business is the new generative AI assistant from AWS. Many tasks can make business slow, like wading through mud. Help. Luckily, there's a faster, easier, less messy choice. Choice. Amazon Q can securely understand your business data to help you streamline tasks like summarizing quarterly results or doing complex analyses in no time. Q got this. Learn what Amazon Q Business can do for you@aws.com learn more. Not the bigger.
- [44:58]
Graham Stephan
So I've always been curious about this. Slightly off topic, but when you press the number or when you press the, you know, the go on the, on the slot machine is every time randomized or is it like preset where it's like the seventh time this gets clicked.
- [45:10]
EJ
So the way I've learned to think about it is if you imagine a giant roof roulette wheel with like he said, 10,000 different outcomes.
- [45:17]
Robert
Yeah.
- [45:17]
EJ
Every time you push the button, you're spinning that wheel and you can get one of those different outcomes. So you can get the 0 outcome an infinite number of times, or you can get the spectacular outcome seven times in a row. The household is going to be what the household is over time, just like it is on a real roulette wheel. It's the same kind of thing. Does that make sense?
- [45:36]
Vegas Matt
It does.
- [45:36]
EJ
Yeah.
- [45:37]
Vegas Matt
That's how it is. And, and sorry to interrupt you, but they like what you see. Like the the wolves or the sevens or the cherries or whatever. That's just a visual representation that's pre programmed in when the second you push that button your outcome is determined. And it might be a five minute long bonus with you know, squirrels running around with nuts and you know, out gold nuggets or whatever the case may be. I don't know if you can swear on this, but that was, that was trying to be funny. But my point is, is that that was predetermined that you're going to win $17,412 and the greatest bonus in history on a 120 bet. That that's the one in you know, 10,000 on the roulette wheel outcome that comes up like every 30 days maybe.
- [46:21]
Robert
But it's generated when you push the button because in theory you could randomize it for future, right? Like you could say the next 10 things. Like when you get the 10 free spins, it randomizes. As soon as you press that one button that one time, it knows you're going to get 10 free spins. And it also then randomizes the 10 free spins at the exact same time probably.
- [46:37]
Vegas Matt
I mean, you know, you could, I would, you know, you could invite someone from Aristocrat or Light and Wonder or IGT or one of the different ones. There's a bunch of different manufacturers that are, that make the machines. Who really that would be the real person to ask is like that would be interesting. As a disclaimer, it's like I don't know. I mean we don't know everything. But I've been told what the answers that we're giving you by people that I believe know what they're talking about. And I believe it's a random number generator and it's completely and utterly random. And I believe that, you know, it's all very regulated and that's how it is. And I think your roulette analogy is really, really good. You know, there's 10,000 possible outcomes. Push a button, it's like boom. Oh, that's what it is. And then the rest of it is just fluff.
- [47:17]
Robert
Did you ever feel like you were addicted to gambling?
- [47:20]
Vegas Matt
I don't know. Possibly. I mean, I might also be addicted to sugar. You know, I mean I, I don't know. I really, really enjoy it. It is, it is a, it's a rush. It's like maybe for some people it's snowboarding. You just quite a good snowboarder.
- [47:35]
EJ
Snowboarding is fun.
- [47:36]
Vegas Matt
Or coffee or sex or alcohol or what else do people get addicted to? You know, that gives you that dopamine is kind of a trendy thing on my news feed. You know, like, it's like, what's. What gives you your dopamine phone. You could be tick tock addict or whatever. Like, so the, you know, government's gonna make that illegal too, you know, I mean, eventually it's like, hey, people, people, use your head. That's like, I don't know.
- [48:05]
EJ
And be responsible.
- [48:06]
Vegas Matt
Be responsible. But addicted is kind of a bad word. I'd rather not be addicted to something. I just love it gambling. Like, if I'm bored, like, you know, like, I'll go.
- [48:17]
EJ
The other day when we were in Arizona because my sister's having a baby, we were there and it's like, well, what do you guys want to do?
- [48:23]
Vegas Matt
I mean, it was Thanksgiving. You see these people you haven't seen in like four years. You know, nice people, had a great time, had a great meal, you know, a couple cocktails. We talked about everything. And gets to be like 7:00 because, like, we started doing, we started doing the dinner. Thanks. Thinking, like noon, you know, it's like seven hours later. It's like, what do you want to do? You know, Like, I don't know. There's a casino like 12 minutes away. And so we went to the casino and had had fun, you know, Like.
- [48:53]
Robert
Did you film that one?
- [48:54]
Vegas Matt
No.
- [48:54]
EJ
You just.
- [48:55]
Vegas Matt
Me and DJ went over there and my daughter. And it was, it was awesome. We. We played a bit. And then, then ej, you know, he thinks he's really good at blackjack, you know, and, and so we go and we play blackjack and there's really nice dealer and he's just getting smoked. What do you, I mean, not smoke.
- [49:12]
EJ
You and I, I mean, we were splitting. We lost, I don't know, 2000 between the two of us over that time.
- [49:16]
Vegas Matt
It was kind of dumb on Thanksgiving. It's like, you know, because that's like 2,000 bucks. You could go buy, invest in a mutual fund, right? But so, yeah, we're down $2,000. And then we're like, ah, okay, thousand each, you know, at the end of the world, had some entertainment. But look at our wounds, you know, because it's just. So it was like we. We get 16 every time. The dealer gets 20 every time. How could. How is this possible? So we would bet more. And then on the way out, you know, my daughter's like nine months pregnant. My wife's tired.
- [49:43]
EJ
Free casino though, by the way.
- [49:45]
Vegas Matt
And, and, and then I'm like, ah, One more machine and then I stopped by this machine and I just put 800 bucks in. I don't know why I could. Probably had like, I probably had like 4, 800 in my little bankroll and I put 800 in there. First spin, twenty dollar spin, dropped a $5,400 jackpot. Walked out of there. Winners. Great Thanksgiving. A little hour with the family.
- [50:08]
EJ
It was Fun.
- [50:09]
Vegas Matt
Net made $3,400. Gave EJ his thousand bucks back, gave my daughter a few hundred bucks, my wife a few hundred bucks. It was beautiful. Like that's a happy gambling story. Now the bad gambling story is, you know, I went, I lost my ass and I can't afford to pay my rent. That's going to happen if you, if you don't get lucky. If you don't get lucky. Like I could totally afford to lose $2,000.
- [50:30]
EJ
Yeah, even if we left there losing 2,000, it would have been completely fine.
- [50:34]
Vegas Matt
I mean, it's dumb. Don't get me wrong. Like their gambling is probably dumb. Like you're going to lose if you played for the rest of your life, you're going to lose money. But if, if that entertainment, that rush of like, oh man, a double down. Oh, I was betting a hundred. Now I got to put another 100 out there. That, that excitement, I think is what keeps people coming back.
- [50:55]
Robert
See, I see you and you seem to be very, you know, responsible in terms of the amount of money you have versus the amount of money you gamble. It's never something where, like it's actually going to an impact on your financial wellbeing. But then I also see these other people. Like, I know there's like Togi and there's like Steve will do it. And these other, you know, gamblers where it seems like, you know, like they actually make some questionable choices relative to their overall financial stability. Like Togi, I know like will gamble like 2 million bucks. Now I like look at his views, I look at the ways he'd be possibly making money. I'm like this, I feel like this is really unaffordable or unsustainable at the very least.
- [51:31]
Vegas Matt
Like one of the things I've learned. And ej, I really need to let you talk more, but I like to say things to people directly. Like I would never like, I've met the, every person you just mentioned. I've met them all. And I, I, I was at Red Rock and Toge that came and sat down next to me because I remembered him from a stream we did with Steve. Very nice, nice guy. That's all I can say. I agreed. Like I said with Steve, like, how does he afford to buy everyone a Lamborghini? You know, Like, I mean, I make a lot of money and it would. I would have to really love someone, you know, or whatever. Like, I'd buy EJ a Lamborghini. I offered him. He didn't want it. But I'm not going to go around, like, buying everyone Lamborghinis or. And I see, like, those guys, you know, like Dana and Steve and them, they have some insane swings, you know, Dana, I mean, well, Dana's got obviously a massive net worth. You know, I don't know enough about what these guys do, but I'll tell you what, they. They seem to be having fun, and as long as they're not hurting anyone or whatever, I don't care what they do. I wish I had the balls, or I Wish I was 25 and had 20 million followers and, you know, went and did what I enjoyed every day. So God bless them. But, yes, some people seem to gamble a lot. What were you going to say on that topic?
- [52:47]
EJ
Yeah, I was going to say those guys are nice and they're having fun and they're young, too. I think that they can take bigger swings and they're building a brand, and so hopefully they're being smart, which they probably are.
- [52:57]
Graham Stephan
Do you ever worry about glamorizing gambling?
- [53:00]
EJ
Well, we don't. You can see we wear merchandise. Our most popular shirt is called. It says Sando on it, which means shit sandwich. And basically, it's the most relatable thing that we've ever branded because people understand that you lose. And we show 65% of the time that we lose our ass. But we have fun, and we encourage people to be responsible and. And not play with money they afford to lose. And another thing we always say is idiot. Like, we always call each other idiots because we're losing. And I think people understand that you're going to lose if they truly watch our show. If they watch reels sometimes, maybe they'll think, oh, he just won a bunch. But, I mean, we have a series right now where every 10,000 subscribers, we're betting 8,700, 8,800 until we get to a million. And we're posting the results of that. And so we've done it 16 times, and we're down 3,000. We're very transparent about the actual results. Else.
- [53:53]
Vegas Matt
Yeah, so, I mean, I wouldn't want to glamorize gambling. And I think there's something to be said about that. And again, until such time as it's illegal to gamble or to talk about it, you know, I mean, it's entertainment, you know, like us, we just, we try to be responsible and so forth. But I mean, I would not, I would feel horrible if somebody watched one of my videos and said, oh boy, I'm going to go gamble and just make money. Like, I don't, I don't ever say that. It's simple. I get Rex. And like you said, to clarify, we, we developed this term, sando, which is an abbreviation for sandwich, which is another swear word. Sorry.
- [54:28]
Graham Stephan
That's okay.
- [54:29]
Vegas Matt
But cuz like when you get a bonus, like let's say you're playing and playing and playing and playing and playing and then you finally get the six, the six fireballs, you know, and you're like, yeah, I got the bonus and you're in it, you know, $5,000 or $500 or $50, whatever your budget is. And then the bonus is one of those bonuses where it's just like absolutely nothing. You know, it's like a two dollar bonus. Like the other day I was playing $50, I got a bonus and it was like $8, you know, and I was like, ah, that is a sando. Okay. And like you said that, that. So we, we talk about that. Like the gambling can be brutal.
- [55:03]
Robert
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It also seems like people are just trying to remove agency from the individual now. It's like everyone's a product of their environment. If you watch gambling stuff, you're gonna go and become a gambler. If you go do this, you're gonna, if you watch this sort of stuff, you're gonna go and do this and you're gonna become a degenerate. That. But I think what you guys preach is, is the right way. It's like, well, hopefully they're not. We tell them to be responsible, but at the end of the day, it's up to them. If they have a problem, hit up the regulators. Not like the actual, you know.
- [55:27]
EJ
Yeah, we're just having fun.
- [55:28]
Vegas Matt
I watch Scuba Dan and Ocean Ramsey and all these cool people that swim with great white sharks and tiger sharks and just all you got to do is push their nose and they go right away, you know. But I'm not going swimming with any shark works, you know. So I mean, influence me to do that.
- [55:46]
Graham Stephan
For me, I will say I watch your. My favorite ones are the blackjack and baccarat tick tocks that you do. Those are my favorite. Usually when I gamble, I'll put like 100, 200 down, maybe once a month, give or take. And that's about my limit because I know if I lose it, I get really upset because I think I could have done this or this or this. So that's my limit. But I like watching you when you put down, like, five grand or ten grand at one hand, a bachelor. And you win or lose it, or you'll lose the fine. Be like, all right, let's do another five. Make it back.
- [56:16]
Vegas Matt
It's.
- [56:16]
Graham Stephan
It tempts me. Like, I've never done it, but it tempts me to be like, you know what? It'd be fun. Well, like, two grand down and just see what happens.
- [56:24]
Vegas Matt
Like. Yeah. The reality is, is it is kind of fun. And here's what happens, though. Like, look at this city. The casinos win.
- [56:33]
Graham Stephan
Oh, yeah.
- [56:33]
Vegas Matt
And no matter what you think you've figured out, you haven't because, like, we sat down yesterday on a live stream. We were doing a cyber Monday live stream. And we. We bet banker, okay? And in baccarat, there's player and banker. We always bet banker because there's. It's going to win slightly more percentage of the time. There's a commission and whatever. And then I think there's like a 1 1/2 percent, 1.1, 1.1% advantage to the house, okay? So if you played a billion dollars, you're going to lose 1.1% of that billion over your lifetime. But we played and it. And we won. It came up banker eight times in a row, okay? So if you were trying to do like a martingale, whereas, like, you bet 100, and then if you lose, you bet 200, and if you lose, you bet 400, and if you lose, you Bet 800. If you lose, you bet 1,600, you get to 8, you're going to surpass the table limit. And. And that happens. And then right after that, it was nine players in a row, and we lost all of it. And. And so just. Just no matter what you think, just do it for fun. But in mathematically, you know, I mean, play one hand, bachelor, you're not losing much your cost.
- [57:43]
EJ
So, like, if you bet $1,000, your cost on that would be like 11 bucks to play that hand, right?
- [57:50]
Graham Stephan
Is there content that you film that you decide not to post? And how do you decide what you post versus what you don't post?
- [57:56]
EJ
We post everything now, okay? It's too much work to go make something and not post it. Especially it's expensive. Like, if we would have Decided not to post that loss of 50,000. Well, that just cost us 50 grand and we're not going to post it. And also I think there's an, there's.
- [58:11]
Vegas Matt
Been like two videos that we did that were just like, like I was just so mad and it just wasn't fun to watch. Like there have been a couple that you didn't.
- [58:19]
EJ
Yeah, but even those were like ten thousand dollar losers. If we ever had anything extreme, we would put it up. But if it was boring, nothing happened. Nobody was in a good mood and we lost ten grand. Grand. Maybe we would skip that one. But yeah, like two or three times over the last two years.
- [58:34]
Robert
And so how did the finances work out then of running this YouTube channel, running the business. I know you guys do merch. You said that you do sponsors as well. And then you have like the YouTube ad revenue, but at the same time the overhead is whatever you pay the employees. And on top of that you said it was about $20,000 a month is the budget that you've spent on the.
- [58:50]
Vegas Matt
YouTube channel on gambling, on gambling so far. I mean it could be more, could be less. You know, it just depends. I mean we could hit today. I could go play and I could get a dealt royal for eight hundred and eight hundred thousand dollars. You know, we were trying to get on the super times pay machine that we play a lot. You know, someday we'll win that $800,000 and that would change everything. But over the last 18 months, gambling every single day, we're down 300, so about 20 grand a month.
- [59:15]
Graham Stephan
How are you not allowed to write off gambling losses against profit from the business?
- [59:20]
EJ
To me, that common question, it's just.
- [59:23]
Vegas Matt
I mean I, I find that like these, there's, there's some topics that are very complex. I think they call them politics. I made the mistake getting involved in neighborhood politics, you know, because I had a crime incident and I was very vocal about my upset living in a gated community with this crime. So I decided I wanted to be on the HOA board. Okay. And that was like, you know, a decision that I soon learned to regret because you're just faced with like decisions where you can't please everyone. But the IRS is something that I'm not, you know, I'm not a huge fan of, of the most complex, you know, documents or what's it called, Doctrine, the rules of the irs. You know, it's so complicated. How do you know what is and isn't and you know, you write it off. You know, people get audited and it's like, I don't, I'm, I'm not positive the best strategy for getting money out of our populace. But it is what it is. And according to the IRS and a good accountant, and again, check with your own accountant. But it's just how it is. You cannot write gambling losses because then everybody would say, okay, I have a YouTube channel now, possibly if you can prove that you do have legitimate income, like, not. Because otherwise every, every person in the world will just come to Vegas and lose $100,000 and say, I filmed it and I'm going to write it off. So obviously you can't do that, but I think there are people like us, like, it is a legitimate cost of doing business and we have active income that we're paying huge amounts of taxes on. And it is a write off, but it's actually there, there are some people that are, that are, that are doing it and taking it through the tax courts right now. So we'll, it'll be interesting to see how that works in the interim. We don't write that off because I just don't want to take any, any risk. Very con. I'm weirdly conservative of as a person.
- [61:15]
Graham Stephan
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. I mean, I understand it and you're right. I think everyone then would just film their losses, post it on TikTok and say, well, I was starting a business. Am I giving him ideas? Yeah.
- [61:28]
Robert
And are you guys open to talking about, like, the revenues and the numbers of the business or is that more right now?
- [61:34]
Vegas Matt
I mean, we're, you know, we're the number one in the space, you know, thanks to EJ being brilliant and us being really, really hard workers and, you know, way smarter gamblers than most. You know, we've done incredibly well. And I encourage anyone who wants to, to get into anything to try it and go ahead and give it a, give it a go. In the beginning. You're going to get, you're going to go and make a. You're going to go and gamble. You're going to film it. You're not going to film it as well as ej, even though we just use an iPhone and a basic mic, you know, and that's no big production value. You're going to film it. You're going to lose, you know, either not much money if you're betting really small and no one cares, or you're, let's say you're betting enough money where it's interesting. You're going to go and you're going to make A video and you're going to lose 7, 10, 15, $20,000 and you're going to get like four views, you know, and you're going to have to do that until such time as you develop an audience. Now how do you develop an audience? I think that's a bigger and better question. Like why do people watch us versus there's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of slot channels out there. Everybody has a slot channel now, but there's only like five or ten that you know, really have a decent audience.
- [62:46]
Robert
In terms of percentages, if there's a pie, this is the question, what percentage of the pie would it be? Sponsorship revenue versus YouTube AdSense revenue versus merch revenue.
- [62:57]
EJ
YouTube revenue would be 70% and then merch and sponsorship revenue would be the remaining 15, 15 each. So yeah, they're about the same.
- [63:13]
Vegas Matt
Yeah. And those are exchange because there's some sponsorship deals that are starting to come.
- [63:17]
EJ
Yeah.
- [63:17]
Vegas Matt
Our way that, that you know, people are offering us money that's really hard to turn down.
- [63:21]
Robert
I'm imagining that you guys are having casinos and stuff like that offering money that is just exorbitant.
- [63:26]
Vegas Matt
I mean the casinos are, you know, starting to finally come around. That's a fascinating discussion as well. You know, I mean there was a time, time like I literally got trespassed, you know, like they held up the little T to the camera. It's like you are hereby under section 19246 getting trespassed from this casino or whatever. Like and it used to be that, you know, that you couldn't film, you couldn't take a picture in a casino, you know. And now we just did an event at a casino where we had, you know, over a thousand people come to the casino. And the casino was absolutely thrilled to have us there. And we get inquiries on the daily from casinos like when could you come to our casino? When could you come to this casino? And so forth. So it's really cool, it's starting to happen. But the casinos haven't really thrown money at us. The slot machine manufacturers I think are another avenue that could would be really intelligent to reach out to us. We have a lot of influence. I mean how many people all together watch our videos? Like do you have any stats on that? Or like how many views do we get a month? Or how many total subscribers? I don't idea, a lot.
- [64:32]
EJ
I mean long form video views. In October we did 5.7 million watch hours and I think that was from an total audience of over 4 million individuals. I think I'd have to look, but.
- [64:47]
Vegas Matt
So 5.7 million hours. 4 million gamblers watched us gamble. I got a call today from a place I. I saw an unknown number. And I was. And I. It was a 702 number. And for some reason I was curious and I had a feeling it might be important. So I returned the call and it was a hair salon. And I randomly. We made a. We were making like, a joke about, like, something. And we talked about nose hairs. And I said that there's this place in town that, like, does a nose hair waxing. And I mentioned it by name. And the owner called me because he's like. I've had so many people that have come in here or talked about that. You talked about us on your show. And it was literally, Jack, you could go there. A throwaway, little tiny line on one video ages ago. You know, I mean, it's like. It's. It's incredible. So, like casinos and those kind of places, it's like a hundred people a day come to see us and take a picture with us and say hi. If they find out where we're filming. It almost becomes like, impossible to film because so many of the fans who we all love and adore and so forth come to see us. But the amount of money that these casinos can make from having influencers or whatever there. It's getting to the point where they're really starting to get it. So I think those pie charts will change dramatically over the next couple years. It's really exciting to watch how it.
- [66:17]
Graham Stephan
Goes, what makes you successful. Where a lot of other people will do what you do and fail, or they'll get four views.
- [66:23]
Vegas Matt
I'm dying to let you answer this. And just because he's awesome. Yeah. A hard worker, smart as heck. And it was just like his mother and. And then my other partner, Robert is a genius. And anything else that you can think of.
- [66:36]
EJ
There's so much. There's so much that we do that we work hard on every day. Thumbnails, titles, the production quality, the sound. Like we will go out of our way to go to a casino that's slightly quieter than another, just so if somebody's watching it on a big tv, it sounds better when they're looking. Like we get into that level of detail. But he's so good. He's so funny.
- [66:57]
Vegas Matt
He'll stop it some more.
- [66:59]
EJ
He love. He loves gambling and it. And like, if we didn't have the cameras rolling, we'd be doing it anyways. And I think that that shines through there's a lot of stuff, like detail stuff that we work very hard on. But also it's just, we have a lot of fun and we enjoy it and it's what we would be doing anyway. And I think people enjoy being a part of that experience.
- [67:18]
Vegas Matt
It's. Thank you very much, son. Very nice things you said. Almost teared up there. You know what it is? I think if I was like, if I was speaking to any creator or to your core question, I think in everything. And the algorithm that runs the little, you know, the world of social media these days, you know that that shows you what you want and they seem to know your phone knows you and stuff like that. Like, the algorithms are so smart these days. And I think what really resonates on social media these days is authenticity. And, and that's like you said, so, like, I authentically love gambling. I authentically am a joker. Like, we authentically do have a really cool father son relationship. A lot of people admire that. You know, I, we like each other still. We work together every single day. I'm the old guy, he's the young guy. Then we have the smart guy. Like the three of us together, you know, it. That's our show. It's not me, it's the three of us as a unit. And just the banter and the dad jokes and the talk about, you know, my, the 70s and 80s trivia and him not having any idea what we're talking about. And you know, we have a, we have an audience that authentically relates and they like us because we're real. So if someone, if some like people do, it's hysterical. Everything we do, people copy everything. Like, we'll play a machine or we'll do this, or we'll do a certain thing on this and then next thing you know, other people doing the exact same thing. The problem is that that was our thing. And then if you do it, it's just you trying to be me and you can't be me because you're you. You know what I mean? Like, so, so be yourself is my advice to anybody, any, any content creator. It's like, be yourself and your authentic self. And that's going to come. Like, you're probably legitimately smart with money. And you know, you, you believe with every fiber of your being that you invest five bucks in a Starbuck from a Starbucks for 30 years in a Roth IRA, you're going to end up wealthy. And like that comes across and you look like a responsible young man. And that's probably why you do well, you know, you're authentically, you. You're not pretending to be a financial genius, but you're not. Don't know. You know what I mean? So I think that's, it's, it's a lot of factors.
- [69:24]
EJ
Yeah.
- [69:25]
Vegas Matt
And, and it, and we just got lucky and we had the secret sauce and we just. And it happened to get traction. Why did the. I was going to say the hawk to a girl. Like, why did that get traction?
- [69:33]
Robert
But that, that's Authentically herself.
- [69:35]
Vegas Matt
She's so sweet. I played in a poker tournament with her. Name's Haley. She's a very nice girl. And she was, she was delightful to be around. She was very pleasant. And I mean, I guess my grandparents probably would think, well, talking about spitting on. Yeah, you know, that's kind of crass, you know, but I mean, in this day and age, I mean, crying out loud, the world's really different than it was. And I'm not saying that that's good or bad or it may be the end of civilization, but she was just authentically, I think out in New Orleans having a good time, and then they caught that moment. That was authentic. And, and it was real. And that's why it, that's why it stuck.
- [70:09]
Graham Stephan
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- [70:21]
Robert
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- [70:44]
Graham Stephan
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- [71:07]
Robert
By Sutton bank member fdic terms and conditions apply. Thank you so much to Ramp for sponsoring this episode. And now back to the podcast. Would you guys ever open up your own casino?
- [71:16]
Vegas Matt
Yes. Well, the, there's, there's a lot to that. Like, you know, but I, I think anything I set my mind to, and I think anyone listening, anything you set your mind to, you can do. Like, I guarantee I could raise the money. One thing I don't like is it was my own casino. I couldn't play there because that would be against gaming control regulations. And there's, and there has been lots of discussion about everything from a little video poker bar to a, you know, a big casino in Las Vegas that I, I would be very, very interested in being involved in the casino. But it's also an enormous amount of work and so forth, and I'm not sure if I want to take that on. What about you, ej?
- [71:58]
EJ
Yeah. No. There are multiple people who have expressed interest in buying a casino themselves. Talk to us about it. But I haven't been able to get over the not playing their hurdle. Like, if we own a casino, how can we tell people to come there if we're not allowed to play there?
- [72:10]
Robert
What if you were like an affiliate for a certain casino? Like there was a casino that maybe was failing a little bit and they could use some new machines. They could have like put some makeup on it and then also take you guys in as part of the marketing or something. You take sweat equity or something like that.
- [72:24]
Vegas Matt
Sure. If that could all be worked out, that I would be willing to bet, because I am a betting man, that that would be one of the busier casinos in town.
- [72:31]
Robert
Yeah, that would be. That would be interesting.
- [72:32]
Vegas Matt
If we played there exclusively and we were in charge of the casino and how and the rewards program and everything, I would believe that it. I mean, I'm. I never have lacked ambition or confidence. You know, my mom was part of the 70s self esteem movement. But I'm very confident if we were involved in a casino, it would do very, very, very well. And that would be fun if we could figure out how we could still play there.
- [72:58]
Robert
And how is the arrangement between you two, if you're open to talking about it? I'm curious in terms of like the, the business, like, do you, do you guys split the business or is there a certain percent? How has that worked out?
- [73:08]
Vegas Matt
There's four of us involved and we have a split and it. And everybody's happy. We've never had that. I can think of. Have we ever had one financial discussion or dispute? We're all making tons of money. The division of duties is really clear. I don't fulfill merch. I mean, we did like, how many thousand orders this weekend? We did 3,000 orders this weekend. And everybody except me has been down at the warehouse, like packing, unpacking boxes and shipping stuff. And I just. I'm not doing it. I'm like, I'm. I don't know why. I'm. I'm. My back would hurt. I don't know. I'm not doing it. You know what I mean? We have people we can pay. But DJ was down there till like 11 o'clock at night, which I. God bless you. But I'm saying we, we have a very, very great relationship. And the money's is all. Is all split up. Everybody gets their fair share. It's not, not like I get, you know, I'm the guy on camera. I get the most money. You know, like me and EJ get the same amount of money. Yeah. And he does all the editing and he does most of the thinking and. And then WBG does the question of the day and adds his brilliance. And it was all because of him and him taking us under his wing. His guidance of bas, teaching me to be a smarter gambler is how the whole channel started. So we all are in.
- [74:30]
Graham Stephan
How calculated is your playing in terms of maybe blackjack gets a higher engagement than slots. How do you know what to play, what days, and what to Post?
- [74:41]
Vegas Matt
That's you. 100%.
- [74:42]
EJ
Yeah, yeah. I try on our YouTube videos, I try to pay attention to the last few days. Maybe there's a storyline of we played this machine and we lost a lot, so we'll go back and play that, or, you know, we do a little bit of that, but if he's not in the mood to play a certain game, we won't play it because then it's not fun. So I'll just say, like, what do you think about playing this game today? Because we talked about it the other day. Let's play this. And then the table games, we usually use those as a way to get even if we're losing. So, like, if we're losing five grand and we're only four minutes into the video, it's like, well, we got to get even or this is going to be really bad. And so we'll go, we'll do a $4,000 hand and hopefully win.
- [75:18]
Vegas Matt
And what's called the get even or get even worse. We have shirts about that.
- [75:22]
EJ
Yeah, get even or get even worse is our slogan on table games. And then short form table games are just easy because you can tell a story inside 60 seconds, which is hard to do on a slot machine.
- [75:31]
Vegas Matt
But, like, we don't play craps because EJ finds it very difficult to Capture the dice and make the viewing experience be any good. He doesn't like video poker. I love video poker, but he. He watches the stats, and we get much more engagement playing slots than video poker. I would rather play video poker all day, every day.
- [75:50]
Graham Stephan
Too complicated.
- [75:51]
Vegas Matt
I mean, I'm. You know, you can play 99.4% video poker, and you're only giving up 0.06%. But I. People love to watch us play dragon link at $100 a spin, which probably has an average in this town hold of probably 8 to 12%, you know, so it's much more expensive to make the content that people like. And then Bachrot versus blackjack. There are. There's one place that won't let us film blackjack for some reason, which I think is asinine, but that's just their rule, you know, and that. But. So we always play baccarat there. Here. And does that answer your question? It does.
- [76:24]
Graham Stephan
What about the dollar amount that you play? Do you find that you get more engagement the more money you spend, or is there a diminishing returns?
- [76:30]
EJ
There is, I think, that we found, especially recently, betting more is just. We're not comfortable with it. Like, we bet 250 a spin the other day, we lost 50,000. It's just like, that's not fun for us. It's not within our level of comfort. So we bet $50 a spin, $100 a spin sometimes. And then every once in a while, we'll go crazy as, like, a celebration for hitting a million subscribers or whatnot. But we try to stay in a certain range, and then we play for a certain amount of time. And if we get completely crushed at that bet level, that's something that we can manage.
- [77:03]
Vegas Matt
What's.
- [77:04]
Graham Stephan
What's the most that you saw someone lose a million? Million millions?
- [77:08]
Vegas Matt
Yeah, well, over time, I. There are some people that. I don't know how they do it, and they just gamble so massively that there's no way that it's profitable. And maybe they're, you know, maybe they're billionaires. I don't know. It's not any of my business. I think that. Let AJ Answer that perfectly. The only thing I would say is that one of the things our sweet spot is our gambling that we do is relatable. There's a lot of people who come into town like that. I see once a quarter or once a month, you know, and, hey, how you doing? You know, people that I've gotten to know, and they come here and they bet $50 a spin is, you know, on a slot machine and they might lose 10 or $20,000, but that's a quarterly or a monthly trip for them. You know, we do that every day. But I think we gamble at a level that's relatable to the gamblers. That the casino is bread and butter, you know, and it's just if you play $1,000 a spin while, it's like watching a plane crash or something, or a train wreck or a something awesome, you know, if we win, it's not relatable. So to do that every day would be, a, we'd lose too much, and B, it's just not relatable. But I think we. Our gambling is rel. We're really legitimately trying to win. And it's like watching a daily battle. Like, what would happen if you were in Vegas and you gambled, you and your two friends gambled every single day for now, what, 700 and something days straight gamble. We've documented gambling every single day.
- [78:32]
Graham Stephan
That's interesting. I remember I went with a buddy to a high limit room. I think it was at Cosmo. We went to this, like, back room where they had maybe, I don't know, it was like the size of the living room, basically. And there was a guy there, and they had two roulette tables that were side by side. This one guy was playing both roulette tables at the same time. And he was playing $50,000 a spin on one, $50,000 a spin on the other. And he had it automated so that the dealer would put $10,000 chips on five numbers on this one and five numbers on this one. The same one once and one would hit and you go to the other table that would hit. He'd go back to this table and they kept doing the same bets. This guy had probably spent about a million dollars, lost it, didn't care at all. He's just sitting there having a cigarette, drinking a drink. Just wouldn't even sometimes pay attention to the tables. Would turn around and kind of chat is like 50 grand loss there, 50 grand loss there. And then he got out another million dollar marker, like for like basically a credit line to do that again. And then I remember he changed the number. Like he was always betting 14, never hit. So he's like actually move the 14, like a 15 and then the 14.
- [79:43]
Vegas Matt
Of course.
- [79:43]
EJ
Yeah.
- [79:44]
Graham Stephan
He was so upset at that, but was not as upset about losing like the million dollars that was going by like 100 grand was gone probably every two minutes.
- [79:53]
Vegas Matt
Yeah, I didn't care so if you're a billionaire. Yeah, I mean, it's just a question of how much money you have. Now some, some people play over their, over their head or whatever, you know, they come out of their skis or whatever the saying is, you know, and. But some people don't care. I mean, the guy probably isn't the world's greatest decision maker since he's smoking, like, which I, you know, don't think is good for you. And. But he obviously, you know, he's smoking, doesn't care, whatever. Like a feeble attempt at humor. Although I'm not. I wish all casinos were non smoking, but that.
- [80:21]
Graham Stephan
Oh, me too.
- [80:21]
Vegas Matt
You know, because it's. I just hate the smell of smoke. And I mean, go outside and smoke, you know, but it's like, I guess, you know, so many people that make dumb decisions like smoking also make dumb decisions like gambling. So I don't know, maybe it's only 11% of the population, but it might represent a disproportionate number of the gamblers.
- [80:38]
Graham Stephan
Well, it seems like that's why they also want you to drink. Oh, you're at the table and they'll bring you the drinks.
- [80:42]
Robert
Yeah, well, that's because it makes you a little looser with your money.
- [80:44]
Graham Stephan
Right?
- [80:45]
Vegas Matt
Which is illegal. Like in some states they don't. They can't give you free drinks. It's not allowed. Which, like, people are like, yeah, it sucks here you don't get free drinks. I mean, obviously, like, I've had some of my biggest losses when I've drank. I'm drinking. I have, I did a video that did pretty well ten Commandments of gambling. And one of them was don't drink and gamble. Because, you know, all of a sudden you're like drinking. You're like, ah, I'm gonna, you know, what's a $20,000 marker? I'm gonna get it back. 14 is due. You start to make bad decisions. Yeah, drinking does.
- [81:12]
Graham Stephan
That makes sense to me because it's like if you're signing a contract or buying something, if you're completely inebriated to the point where like, you can't make a sound decision, you could argue that the contract is invalid because you are of not sound mind. I remember there that one case of the guy who lost, I think tens of millions of dollars, and they said that the. He alleged that the casino, he was completely passed out, but they were still forcing drinks on him and then bringing him these papers to sign to take out even more money so he could gamble it. He lost all of his money, but then sued the casino to try to get it back, saying he wasn't. He wasn't even conscious, like, and they were, they were purposely feeding him more alcohol than he could cake. So I don't know how that ended up.
- [81:53]
Vegas Matt
But just remind, like, I, you know, you're a smart young man. Like, that's why I go to even my hoa, like, decisions on, you know, like, landscaping. I mean, like. But you talk about, like, running the world. Okay. Imagine if you were the supreme ruler of the universe. This is what we used to say to our kids when they're little. If you're the supreme ruler of the universe. Now, you know, that sounds pretty bad. So would you outlaw gambling completely? Would you outlaw drinking? Would you outlaw smoking? Like, I'm just curious. Like, I don't. I'm glad I'm not the person running the world.
- [82:25]
Robert
Yeah.
- [82:25]
Graham Stephan
My, my bet is that there probably should be a limit that they shouldn't outlaw drinking entirely. But say, okay, you're, you know, you could, you could have three drinks on the house.
- [82:35]
Vegas Matt
0.08, certainly dry. Oh, you mean a limit on drinks at the casino.
- [82:39]
Graham Stephan
Yeah, so they'll bring you free drinks.
- [82:41]
Vegas Matt
Okay.
- [82:41]
Graham Stephan
But everyone gets two or three.
- [82:43]
Vegas Matt
I see.
- [82:43]
Graham Stephan
After that, you have to pay for it. And maybe if you pay for it, there's that little bit of a barrier now that, sure. Now it's on you. Because I know, like, I have a hard time turning down free things.
- [82:54]
Robert
If something is free, it's already on you, man. If you have a hard time turning down free things, fix that.
- [83:00]
Graham Stephan
I'm just saying. But, but they could give three of them for free and then everything after that. So he's addicted to free things.
- [83:05]
Vegas Matt
Out of free things.
- [83:06]
Graham Stephan
But if someone brings me food, like, dessert is the worst. I don't like dessert. I prefer not to eat dessert. But if someone brings me a dessert, it would be rude now to turn it down. Like, we went out to dinner the other night, and the guy brought us a dessert. And I'm not going to say, no, I don't want that. So I ate the dessert. So if I had to pay for it, I wouldn't get it.
- [83:25]
Vegas Matt
Yeah.
- [83:25]
Graham Stephan
So at least for me, give a little bit for free, but then stop it there. That's what I would.
- [83:30]
Vegas Matt
I, I, these decisions are very, very complex and out of my pay grade, you know, I mean, like, like I say, I all. I guess we got on the T. Because I wish that there wasn't smoking in casinos because I don't like the Way it smells and it gives me, like, a headache. Headache. And I think it's terribly sad that some people have a problem with alcohol and get completely hammered drunk and then do stupid things that end up impacting their families and their lives. I think that's terrible. But I guess, you know, it's a weird thing. And I don't know, do, you know, are we in charge of our own destinies or do we need, you know, a government or some lawmaker to tell us what we can and can't do?
- [84:11]
Graham Stephan
Where do you draw the line? Because I notice in a lot of casinos that they. That they pump oxygen into the air.
- [84:16]
Vegas Matt
Right.
- [84:16]
Graham Stephan
And they make it confusing.
- [84:18]
Vegas Matt
They say that.
- [84:19]
EJ
I mean, I don't know, they intentionally make them confusing.
- [84:23]
Graham Stephan
They. Yeah, no clocks, no windows. You can't tell, like, what time it is. You lose track of.
- [84:28]
Vegas Matt
So.
- [84:28]
Graham Stephan
So they're. It's designed to, like, keep you in there as long as possible. But where do you draw the line between, like, them? I don't know, have having an advantage over, like, the average. Like, I don't know.
- [84:40]
Vegas Matt
I'm just glad I'm not in charge. All I know is I enjoy it. I like going. I like getting free dinner dinners, like, free desserts. I usually get, like, five spoons or six spoons, depending how many people there. And everyone takes a bite because, you know, no one likes carbs. Because you see it on your newsfeed. Carbs are bad. You know, you should just eat meat. Like the Liver King. You said he was on your show.
- [84:57]
Graham Stephan
He was.
- [84:57]
Vegas Matt
That's awesome. Isn't he, like, one of those meat eaters?
- [85:01]
Graham Stephan
He just eats raw meat.
- [85:02]
Vegas Matt
Yeah.
- [85:03]
Graham Stephan
I mean, listen, I don't know cooked meat. I don't know what he does behind the scenes, but he brought us basically an animal that was raw. Every test liver kid Jack loved the test parts.
- [85:15]
Robert
It had everything on.
- [85:16]
Vegas Matt
Yeah.
- [85:16]
Robert
Testicles, honestly, weren't the worst out of all of them. I think it was like the kidney.
- [85:20]
Vegas Matt
Kidney.
- [85:20]
Robert
Because it processes the urine. So it kind of tasted as you imagine urine would taste.
- [85:24]
EJ
Really?
- [85:24]
Robert
Yeah.
- [85:24]
Graham Stephan
Kidney was.
- [85:25]
Robert
Did it taste like urine?
- [85:26]
Vegas Matt
Telegram. Yeah.
- [85:26]
Robert
Because I know you.
- [85:27]
Vegas Matt
I don't like the taste of liver, but yeah.
- [85:30]
Robert
Yeah, liver was also iffy. I'm curious. This is a bit of a tangent, but like you've mentioned before on a podcast, you know, you're young, you're making a lot of money, and still you drive this, like, Toyota truck.
- [85:39]
EJ
Yes.
- [85:39]
Robert
Is there any particular reason why you don't want to maybe spend a little bit more of that Money. Because I imagine, imagine you have plenty in excess.
- [85:46]
EJ
Yeah, I don't know, I just don't care enough. Like, I was driving my mom's car. He bought my mom a new car. A Range Rover. Range Rover autobiography. It's unbelievably nice.
- [85:57]
Vegas Matt
Wow.
- [85:57]
Graham Stephan
Range Rover. Actually, they sponsor us.
- [85:59]
EJ
Oh, cool.
- [86:01]
Vegas Matt
The autobiography. Very hard to get the plug in hybrid. We had to wait like nine months to get it and it would go ahead.
- [86:05]
EJ
I was driving it, it's so nice. And I was like, I gotta worry about parking it next to another car. And what if, like I have. My pants are dirty and I get the seat dirty? I just don't care about the car enough to deal with the stress of wanting to take care of it or worry about speed bumps or anything like that. But yeah, I could. And sometimes I'm like, oh, should I get a nice car? But no, I don't, I don't care enough, I don't think.
- [86:26]
Robert
And what about girls?
- [86:28]
EJ
Yeah, what about them?
- [86:29]
Robert
Like, like dating as a younger guy, you know.
- [86:32]
EJ
Yeah.
- [86:32]
Robert
Making a good living. How do you. Is there any sort of issue that comes with that? Like, if you were to get a nice car, maybe you'd be attracting wrong type of person?
- [86:39]
EJ
I mean, I don't think so. I think I have a fairly good filter on who's a good person and who's a bad person, but I try to be aware.
- [86:46]
Vegas Matt
Yeah, this kid is so freaking smart. Must be like an old soul or something. Like, I mean, I, I don't make it interesting. Well, you probably was willing to shut the hell up, but yeah, but it's like, like how logical he is about like, cars and stuff. He's. He just doesn't care. He doesn't need anyone's validation, you know, it's like, yeah, yeah, could be dating supermodels, you know, whatever. Like, and then he'll be like, yeah, and I, maybe I'd probably get her pregnant or get an std. And I, I just don't care that much. Like, he's like, you know, he's had like, long term relationship, very nice girls and not like some ridiculous body count. I don't know. That's probably a level of detail you don't want to go into. But you know, like people, you know, those, like those guys on the reels, they go, they walk up and they go, what's your body count? You know, like, I mean, like, and it's like, it's interesting. This kid has an insanely good moral compass that he got, obviously from his Mother. And. But that's interesting. Did. Did he ask you that question? Because I'm always.
- [87:45]
EJ
Sometimes he's always pushing me. He's like, you.
- [87:47]
Robert
Yeah. Cuz you guys seem kind of antithetical to one another. I'm not saying that you're like, you know, like, not responsible.
- [87:53]
Vegas Matt
I'm just saying I'm a complete lunatic. And he's like completely normal. It's really interesting.
- [87:57]
Robert
But he is still like, you know, you open up your pockets at the, at the casinos, you still spend money there.
- [88:02]
Vegas Matt
There. No.
- [88:03]
EJ
No.
- [88:03]
Vegas Matt
But BJ's not in on the game.
- [88:04]
EJ
No, that's part of our agreement. I don't know if we ever actually talked about that. I don't take any of the financial gain or loss from the gambling.
- [88:12]
Vegas Matt
That's me and wbg. So. Yeah, so. So he's. He does all the editing, which, like.
- [88:17]
EJ
In the beginning it was like, I'll do the work, you do the gambling. That's how we started it. And then, I mean, like, I could afford to do the gaming, but I don't. Yeah.
- [88:26]
Vegas Matt
I mean, once in a while, like, you know, like we do something and then EJ might take, like, if it's. If it's a really good something good, he'll go, you know, I'll take 10% of the action. Or like we do. We constantly do side bets. Like, is it going to be blue or is it going to be green first? All right, I'll bet you 500 bucks it's blue. Sometimes he gets in on the action, but he's not a. He doesn't have a gambling problem. He doesn't have a womanizing problem. He doesn't have a car problem, this kid.
- [88:48]
Graham Stephan
So what problem do you have?
- [88:49]
Vegas Matt
Problem?
- [88:50]
EJ
We're hiding something.
- [88:52]
Vegas Matt
Boring.
- [88:53]
EJ
What's.
- [88:53]
Graham Stephan
What would you say your biggest problem is today?
- [88:56]
Vegas Matt
What do with all the money, Tony?
- [89:00]
EJ
No, I don't think I'm very grateful in life right now. I don't have any bad habits or anything like that. I work too much. Probably. Like, it's not a problem. No, I don't think so.
- [89:12]
Vegas Matt
Yeah.
- [89:12]
Robert
Do you like going out?
- [89:13]
EJ
No, I don't.
- [89:15]
Robert
Why not?
- [89:15]
EJ
I. I don't. I don't. It's loud. I would prefer to hang out with my friends at home or like, go on, just do things where it's not so loud. I don't like getting hammered. I don't like how you feel the next day. Day.
- [89:26]
Graham Stephan
It's the same as me.
- [89:27]
EJ
I don't.
- [89:28]
Graham Stephan
I hate crowds.
- [89:29]
EJ
And this is why I watch videos. For years, probably.
- [89:31]
Graham Stephan
I hate, like, loud places. I really don't like that.
- [89:34]
EJ
It's a. Not a great use of time. I think it's. These are all good questions.
- [89:39]
Vegas Matt
It's a great parenting strategy. No one's entirely worthless. You can always serve as a bad example. This got a great kid. All I had to do was be bad my whole life, and he turned out good.
- [89:49]
Graham Stephan
So what sort of comps do you get from the casinos? Like, what's the craziest thing that you've been offering? Effort.
- [89:55]
Vegas Matt
Super bowl tickets, I think was one of the coolest. Like. Like four killer super bowl tickets last year. That was one of the most fun times we ever had.
- [90:02]
Robert
What casino?
- [90:04]
EJ
We can't say.
- [90:05]
Vegas Matt
Yeah, we're not supposed to say. I don't think. I mean, not that I wouldn't. They just.
- [90:08]
EJ
They just.
- [90:09]
Vegas Matt
They just. They just don't say good.
- [90:11]
EJ
Finite amount of them. And so if, like, other big players didn't get them and we got them, they would just be like, why did they get. You know, they don't want the drama.
- [90:21]
Robert
Interesting.
- [90:21]
Vegas Matt
Yeah, I say that, but that. And then the jet, you know, like, some casinos have a jet, and I. I envision. I. I dream of a time where either I have my own or I only go to events where I get flown in their jets because they have them.
- [90:35]
Robert
So what was that like?
- [90:36]
Vegas Matt
Like, it's so cool.
- [90:37]
Robert
Can you say what casino offered that or no? No, you can't.
- [90:39]
Vegas Matt
What? Same thing. Also, I don't. Yeah.
- [90:42]
Graham Stephan
How does the jet work, though? Because you live here where you.
- [90:45]
Vegas Matt
Why would you fly to. There's. There's casinos everywhere now. I mean, there's literally casinos every. Everywhere. Like.
- [90:50]
Robert
Oh, so they flew you to another casino?
- [90:52]
Vegas Matt
Yeah, yeah. So there's casinos everywhere in. In this country now. It's. It's interesting. I went to. I went to Northwestern and Great Hospital, by the way, got. Had. Had to have a surgery, and there was a. There was a casino, like, right there in downtown Chicago. Like, literally, like, a block from the hospital. Like, I was supposed to stay in bed for a couple days. Got bored the next day after the surgery, I went down to the casino, took it easy. Just sitting there, pushing buttons. Didn't extrane myself, doctor. I mean, I'm in Indiana visiting my friends in Indianapolis. You know, we went to the Indy, started raining. I left before the race started. We go, what do you guys want to do? There's a casino nearby. We went to this casino in Indianapolis. There's. Go to Minnesota to go fishing. You know, we're like, hey, there's a casino. Should we stop there? There's casinos everywhere, so they. They fly people.
- [91:36]
Robert
What's I. So I see this guy, ryan Trahan on YouTube all the time, and he makes these videos going to the worst rated Airbnb or the worst rated. Something like that. That would be kind of interesting. I don't know if you guys have done something like that or ever considered going to, like, the. The worst rated casino in Vegas and then, like, going crazy there.
- [91:53]
Vegas Matt
I don.
- [91:53]
Graham Stephan
Want to be called the worst rated.
- [91:55]
Robert
Yeah, you know, that's okay. That's. That's a fair point. But I know, like, and then, you know, you could give it an honest, objective review or something like that. But that would be kind of interesting seeing, I don't know, something completely different.
- [92:06]
Vegas Matt
You'll never. There's never a shortage of ideas. I mean, EJ's been incredibly smart about what to say and not say and do and not do. That's why we never go live. You know, on YouTube, a lot of people say, oh, why don't you guys go live? It's like, just too valuable to us, you know, what if you said something dumb or, you know, like, and you don't want to, and then. And then we might say something is taken out of context. Context. Why I get concerned, you know, with podcasts like this. I mean, just what, you know, I don't want to ever say anything dumb. Or like, say people say, oh, he was mean to that casino. And then someone might say, like, well, then, gosh, if he said that bad thing about that casino, I don't want him. He might say bad. So we never say anything about it. We never say anything bad about any casino. And I don't, I don't heap praise on any particular casino. You know, I mean, unless and until such time as they know I own that casino or I have an exclusive marketing rights with that casino and I get free desserts forever or whatever the case may be that makes me so happy about that casino that I might say something. But I mean, we're. We try to be. Remain neutral and say, you know, I'm out. Does that make sense?
- [93:05]
Robert
Yeah. And gambling, I kind of just thought is. Is one of those hobbies, too, that you can continue doing if you do it responsibly for a long, long time.
- [93:12]
Vegas Matt
Yeah.
- [93:12]
Robert
So technically, I mean, this could be going on for a good amount of time.
- [93:16]
Vegas Matt
I'm like 90, you know, just rolling. You. Yeah, I'm on the oxygen.
- [93:23]
Robert
Yeah.
- [93:23]
Graham Stephan
Well, here's what I'm curious about because if you say you lose 20,000amonth in losses, I bet the comps have to far exceed what you're losing.
- [93:31]
Vegas Matt
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- [94:31]
EJ
You, you do a great talk on this.
- [94:33]
Vegas Matt
Yeah, I mean, someone, how do you value them? Someone made that that the central point of their, of their click clips that I saw of it, you know, or their title is like, you know, make $250,000 worth of dinners or something like that. I mean, hey, you know what, the, the, the comps are great. I mean, I don't pay for meals, I don't pay for drinks, I don't pay for whatever else. I, I, you know, oh, like tonight I'm going to the night's game and I'll be in a suite and there will be, you know, it'll be like the best seats and it'll be fun and there'll be free food and drink and I love that kind of stuff. You know, we go to ufc, we get great seats. The rodeo, you know, I mean, I get called, do you want rodeo tickets? Do you want that? Like every cool event, you know, we get to go to and we get great seats and that's a lot of fun. I'm trying to think what else there is. Food, beverage rooms. You know, it's like, I'm like, oh, you know what, can I get a, you know, a ridiculous suite? Because I want to go and have a few friends over. Like, we happen to be here right now. Sure, no problem. Let's see what's available. Oh, walk in. There's like, you know, 5,000 square foot suite. You know, it's really cool. Cool. Again, EJ would never do that. He never, he, he doesn't like to go out or anything like that. I love all that stuff. So I get a lot of value. It's like being a member. I've used this analogy before. It's like being a member of a country club. If I, let's say I spent $250,000. I don't. There's a country club here, I think. I don't know how much it is. Like the good ones here, the Summit, let's say Summit probably cost a quarter million bucks a year, right? And so they get to go schmooze at the Summit and go down there. I mean, I'm sure the networking there is. You know, they're all billionaires. That'd be great, you know, but it's like being a member of the casino country club, you know, you get to, you, you. It's an investment in a lifestyle. That's one way of justifying, you know, gamblers are great justifiers, but yeah, there's some incredible comps.
- [96:22]
Graham Stephan
What's the most that you've seen somebody else win?
- [96:25]
Vegas Matt
Well, a friend of mine came here for his birthday recently and hit the million at the win. And Wasn't it like 1.5? Yeah, it was the mil. It was like a lot. But, you know, he's playing $2,500 a spin. He texted me, said. He said he won a half a million the other night at the Bellagio, you know, again. But these people who, you hear these huge win stories, you understand, they're, they're like spending as much as $2,500 a spin on these machines, and in 10 minutes, you can lose 100 grand.
- [97:02]
EJ
It's 400 bets, right? 400 bets.
- [97:05]
Vegas Matt
400 bets is a million.
- [97:06]
EJ
Yeah. So 400 bets on a slot machine, you can lose that easily in a day. So when you hear about somebody winning a million, 2500 to spin, I think it's all relative to how much you're betting.
- [97:15]
Vegas Matt
I know people that have. Their lives have been ruined. I mean, just that's the thing. And really, again, if, you know, for a clip, the most important clip would be, do not think you're going to get rich gambling, okay? It's. The odds are infinitely stacked against you. I mean, Matt, they're, they, they're, they're stacked against you. I've seen people's lives ruined, and again, I'm not condoning it. I think it's terrible. I got people who think they're going to win. If they just keep playing long enough, they're going to hit the million and literally lose all their money and end up driving Uber. Not that there's anything wrong with driving Uber, but I'm just saying, someone going from having millions of dollars to driving Uber, like, that's a shame.
- [97:54]
Graham Stephan
How do you stop that cycle? Because I've seen people like that where it's almost a compulsion, where they. They feel like, I have to do this, or if I lose five grand, I'm going to get it back. And it's like that digging themselves, like, deeper and deeper. Have you noticed, like, certain personality traits are a little bit more like.
- [98:12]
Vegas Matt
Man asks a lot of very serious questions. But here's the reality. Like, okay, look at drug addiction. Look, they. They have Gamblers Anonymous. You know, I mean, there's meetings you can go to. It's like, I just can't stop snorting cocaine. You know, it's like, well, just don't do it. I don't know how. I mean, literally, you. I can't solve all the world's problems. I can't even solve all the problems in my hoa. You know what I mean? I mean, and I keep bringing that up because it's funny and it's current. It's in my life, you know, Like. Like, it's easy to criticize and it's easy to say like, well, this is. This is a problem. But there's always, like, two sides of one coin. So it's like, okay, yeah, gambling is bad and lives have been ruined. All right? All casinos closed in the entire world because some, you know, some idiot can't stop gambling. Like, is that the right answer? I don't know.
- [98:56]
EJ
But I mean, if they're watching it now, I think it's important to educate yourself about gambling. What the real cost of it is. Be responsible. And if you do lose, don't chase it. Something that we always talk about is, like, if we lose 10 grand, it's so easy to lose another 10. Trying to chase it once you just have to book the loss, go home.
- [99:13]
Vegas Matt
Or do a good evening and book the loss after the get even. That's right. Yeah.
- [99:19]
EJ
You lose five, then you lose the $5,000, get even worse, then you book the loss. Well, I don't know what our limit is, but I'm just saying learning how to book a loss rather than chasing it's very important in gambling. Being able to go home, shake it off, reset, and continue to play. Play the size that you are budgeted to play is really important.
- [99:37]
Graham Stephan
This is a great question. When do you walk away? When you're up.
- [99:40]
EJ
I can't. No, I'm just kidding.
- [99:43]
Vegas Matt
You can't leave a hot machine, you can't leave a cold machine.
- [99:45]
Graham Stephan
It's, that's the hardest part is to walk away up.
- [99:48]
EJ
Yeah.
- [99:48]
Graham Stephan
Because I then feel like all the profit that I just made, now it's free. And now I could just play with that because you know, I'm not going to lose what I put.
- [99:56]
EJ
Yeah. Wbg, our partner, he has a great line. He says there's no such thing as house money. When the money moves to your side of the table, when the money, when the credits are in the machine and they're yours, that's your money. And yeah, you can't think of it as house money because then you start betting bigger and the house just has a bigger and bigger edge. As soon as you have the money, it's yours. And you have to look at it that way. It's kind of shift in thinking but, and it's hard because let's say you hit your number on roulette and you're up a thousand. Immediately you're like now I got a thousand. Well that's your thousand because you took the risk to get it and you already, you know, you gave the casino the edge and now you have your reward. You're just going to give them more edge if you play more bigger or anything.
- [100:36]
Vegas Matt
Very well said on our long form on our YouTube channel. There's, there's a lot of education. WBG is an absolute genius on gambling. And he, and he just because he's, he's devoid of emotion when it comes to wins and losses, you know, because he just knows like, like will lose a $10,000 or like an 8, 700 hand or whatever of Bach Rock. Like we're doing our 870, 000 subscriber thing and I don't forget if we won or lost that one. But everyone went well. Okay, 8, 600 we lost.
- [101:06]
EJ
Yeah.
- [101:06]
Vegas Matt
Okay, so we $8,600 hand and I, and I, I get just so, I hate losing 8, 600 hand and I'm so emotional. He does not care because he looks at it like, like EJ said earlier, let's say it's a one point advantage playing an 8,600 hand. He, he, he, he detached from the result. He looks at as 8,600 times 1.1%. So it cost you know, $88 and 30 cents. And it's like how, how upset are you gonna get about losing 88, 30? Because he knows if he's, he's not, that's not the Last hand he's gonna play. So really he lost what was the house edge. And he's so such a mathematical thinker. Whereas me, I'm like emotional roller coaster.
- [101:45]
Graham Stephan
You have to be like that.
- [101:46]
Vegas Matt
So I'm always talking about the highest watermark. To your point. Yeah, I gotta quit. Learn how to quit at the high water mark. And I think, and again, I believe in superstition. I'm like a gambler. I like, like in my gut I know when that high water mark is. Now in our case, we have to keep playing more because we can't just say today's video is two minutes long. You know, it's like, like, why do it on the treadmill? It needs to be 45, you know, so like last night when, when I was over Red Rock, I, I got, was playing ultimate X, put 500 bucks in the machine and in a. And I had a pretty good bunch of multipliers and I got dealt four kings and I, I had like $2700 and I said to myself, self, you should quit. You just won 2 grand, 2200 bucks. That was, that was easy. You should quit. I'm like, Ah, $2,000 floor. And then so I keep playing 2,000. I'm like, Ah, my floor is a little flexible. $1,500 floor, thousand dollars floor. $500 floor. Hit the floor, put another thousand in. Like that's what people do. They, you get when that little voice inside your head says you should book this win. Listen to that voice, take the money, go to the spa. Oh, that's another great free compass. Free spas, free massages, free hydrofacials, free pedicures. There's great spas here in town. Take your wife shot shopping, buy her a, you know, a present, go to the spa, book the win, go to the airport and go home. When that little voice in your head, or most in your gut tells you that that's the high watermark it usually is.
- [103:20]
Graham Stephan
What's your craziest gambling story?
- [103:22]
EJ
Everyone's seen it. I mean, we were at a certain hotel playing $1,125 a spin. And it was a few of us, WBG and a few other buddies. And we're like, okay, we're going to play this and we're going to try to hit this progressive jackpot. No matter what, we were going to hit it. And we got down $310,000 and you guys may have seen it. And we had to take multiple trips to get more money. And we were there for seven hours or Something like that. And it was just insane. And yeah, I think that was probably the craziest. There have been some since then similar. And we won 130,000 doing something similar, but like the, you know, everyone talking and going to get more money and bringing it to the casino and it was just, it was fun.
- [104:05]
Graham Stephan
I watched that video and I remember you putting in like 50,000, 30,000 at a time, losing it, and be like, all right, we're going to get. How do you get more money in that amount? Like 30 grand? Do you just go up to them and they. They. Do you wire the money or how does that work?
- [104:22]
Vegas Matt
There's a lot of different ways to do it. You know, credit lines are probably the safest way to do it. I. I have, like, credit lines at most of the casinos, but, I mean, you get a point where, like, let's say at that particular casino we only had access to 100 grand and we needed another 100,000. So, you know, you either have to go to the bank.
- [104:37]
Graham Stephan
Wow.
- [104:37]
Vegas Matt
Or you have to go to another casino and get. Take a marker out. That gets a little tricky, but can be done. And. Yeah. Or. Or have someone else come down who has. Has a credit line there. And, you know, I mean, it's, it, it's. There's ways of doing it.
- [104:55]
Robert
It sounds like in your videos, whenever you win or you lose or you add a multiplier, like, there's like a lot of murmurs in, like, kind of like chanting or cheering behind you guys. Is there typically a crowd of fans or viewers that kind of like, start accumulating when you're gambling more and more recently? Yeah, because I've noticed that a little bit. How is that. Is that a pretty quick thing, like, as soon as you sit down or.
- [105:18]
Vegas Matt
Depends. I mean, it's getting to be pretty. It's getting an integral part of our, like, production because it. Because, you know, I had an interesting story where I was at the Conor McGregor Floyd Mayweather. Floyd Mayweather fight. And I was in the restroom and I was peeing and there was a guy next to me who, weirdly, I was talking to because it was very crowded. I don't know, just. He was wearing a hat and we were just chitchatting. You know, it was a very exciting atmosphere and he was very friendly and we were talking and washing our hands. You know, we were talking about the fight and the after parties and this, that and the other thing. And it was just like a normal conversation. And then we walk out into that little thing where you walk into the arena, and then they stop you because it's the national anthem, you know. And so we were just all standing there in that tunnel to go down to the cool people floor seats, right? And I look at the dude and I'm like, that guy looks familiar. And I'm like, wait a minute. That's. That's Leo DiCaprio. And I'm like, oh, man, you're Leo DiCaprio. And I'M like, can I get a picture? And he looked at me and he's like, no, thanks. And. And it was because I. But. And I. I go, God, that was kind of, you know, mean or whatever. Like. But I think it probably gets a little bit annoying. But. So I am so gracious with people all the time. Like, I get stopped 10, 20 times, even if, like, I'm trying to walk through a casino, you know, in a hurry or whatever, to pee. And I always take pictures, always give out stickers and keychains and different stuff like that. But sometimes, you know, you're not in the mood. You just lost 50 grand, your wife's telling you to hurry up and get home. Maybe there's been one time where I was, like, less than friendly. I don't. I don't think so. I try not to be, but I'm telling you, someone. I think it was like John Lennon said, everyone wants to be rich and famous. Trust me, it's better to just be rich. So with regards to the crowds and the filming and stuff, it's super fun and it's super cool and it's super flattering, and we love that everyone watches. But now we're more and more. We're having to have, like, the casino manager or security or someone say, hey, wait till they take a break. Because if 10 people come up in the middle, go, oh, man, I love you guys. In the middle of our filming, it gets to be kind of weird on the video. So, yeah, long answer to short question.
- [107:34]
EJ
My thought on it has always been, like, we love everyone and. But when we're making a video, we have to prioritize the half a million people that are going to watch the video. And we will take breaks when we can to talk to everybody that wants to say hi. But the crowds are cool, especially when we have a big bonus and everyone yelling like they're not, like, interrupting our conversation, but they're cheering when we win. That's fun.
- [107:52]
Vegas Matt
No, no one hates that. It's. Yeah, 99 of the people are totally normal. Then there's that, you know, it's always the there's, there's, there's a couple bad apples that you know, are strange. You know, it's always the ones like that with bad breath that want to tell you secrets, you know.
- [108:05]
Graham Stephan
Gotta get really close to you.
- [108:06]
Vegas Matt
Yeah. It's like, what is it with people that just don't know how to floss, that are insistent of talking so close to you? I've never understood that.
- [108:14]
Graham Stephan
For me, it's always the people that shake their hand but won't let go of your hand. It really bugs me. And they keep holding on to it and I kind of pull back but they still like hang on to it or they hold your hand as they're telling you something.
- [108:26]
Vegas Matt
Oh, they won't let go until, until you listen.
- [108:28]
Graham Stephan
Oh, let me. And then they keep holding it.
- [108:31]
Vegas Matt
I don't know, it's just, it's def. It's interesting. But we love that. We love the fans and everyone's so, so cool. They go, we watch you guys every day. We feel like we know you and like, and we, you know, we love it because.
- [108:41]
Graham Stephan
Why do you think your audience is so dedicated? Because I've noticed of all the segments of YouTube, the gambling channels have a very dedicated audience where people watch consistently every single video from start to finish. And these aren't short, like five minute clips. I mean these are like hour long videos daily.
- [109:02]
EJ
Yeah.
- [109:03]
Graham Stephan
Why?
- [109:04]
EJ
It's a great question and I probably should have a better answer as to why. I think there's a lot to it. They become invested in us as people because we really put ourselves out there. They're invested in the gambling storyline. How, how'd they do today? Did they get their 15,000 back? There's so much and I think as someone who plays slots, they get invested in like as soon as you start playing it's like, okay, well are they going to get the bonus? And then they got the bonus, now they have this extra 7,000. What are they going to do with it? So it's like there's so many different things that just have such strong pull through, through an entire video. Plus the personality, the conversation. There's a lot to it, I think. But again, I should have had a better answer for that and I should think about, about it more.
- [109:45]
Vegas Matt
Yeah. So if it depends if you're talking about ourar videos or like gambling videos in general. Both. Yeah. But I mean like gambling videos in general, I just think like I watch them, you know, like I, I watch the, I watch the short form, you know, like which I think a lot of people just Watch the short form. And that's easy because it's like, oh, that guy bet $100,000 on a roulette spin. I'm going to see if he won or lost because I like the reaction like when they win. It's like when they lose is like, oh, you know, so, so. And it's only 30 seconds or 60 seconds, you know, for a short. The long form I think is a whole different animal. You know, someone's not going to watch a 60 minute or a 45 minute video unless they're interested. And like, and so then to all of EJ's points, you know, like, ours is a lot more than just gambling. We talk about everything.
- [110:31]
Graham Stephan
What's the most you bet on a single hand?
- [110:34]
Vegas Matt
20,000, I believe.
- [110:35]
EJ
40, 42 hands of 20, remember?
- [110:37]
Vegas Matt
Yeah. With the table limit was 20. We, we were being silly and like we lost like a thousand dollar hand. And then we go, okay, let's bet two. And then we said, okay, let's bet four or no, that math doesn't make sense.
- [110:51]
EJ
But we might have jumped to like.
- [110:52]
Vegas Matt
10 or we maybe, yeah, we, maybe we lost the four. So we're, we're, we're out seven. So we bet 10 and we kept losing. So then we bet 20 and then we lost. So we lost like five in a row. And now we had lost almost $40,000. And so then we, we decided, we, we had, we're almost out of money. We, we decided to bet 40,000 and we couldn't. The table limit was 20,000. So each two of us did 20,000 each on a hand of Bakra.
- [111:18]
EJ
Yeah, Bak.
- [111:19]
Vegas Matt
And we won. But I mean we could have just as we had a 50, 50 chance because, because it, it's never due. That's the m. People think things are due. It's never due. No. I don't know what the world record is for a number of, you know, player or banker hands or hands where the dealer wins in blackjack, but it's a lot and it's more than you can double. But we got lucky and we won that hand for 40,000.
- [111:41]
Graham Stephan
What are your thoughts on online casinos?
- [111:43]
EJ
We are partners with Fanduel Casino and we do have thoughts on them.
- [111:47]
Vegas Matt
Yeah.
- [111:48]
EJ
Would you like to share them or do you want me to?
- [111:49]
Vegas Matt
I'd like to hear your thoughts.
- [111:51]
EJ
I think that in the United States there are only a few regulated, real money online casinos. There's Fanduel Casino. There are a few of Fanduel Casino's competitors. They're legal in five states and Everything else that is not. That is operating in a sweepstakes gray area which we do not want to venture into. So like you can't gamble here in Vegas online. When we do make videos on FanDuel Casino, we have to fly to a state where it's regulated. And then we set up and we play and it's a lot of fun. I think that just like anything, you have to be careful. You have to make sure you don't go outside of your budget and everything. The access to online is a little bit easier. So you might want to even be more careful about it. But it is fun, it's cool. And yeah.
- [112:39]
Vegas Matt
And also like you know, the rtp, the return to player. Yeah, this is good on online casinos, the legitimate ones that again that you know, just the states like what EJ said, the RTP is actually higher almost across.
- [112:53]
EJ
RTP is return to P. Almost across the board.
- [112:55]
Vegas Matt
So like if I play the, if you play the same game in the casino, in a, in a land based casino versus online, you're actually have. Because they don't have the overhead, they don't have to pay dealers, they don't have to pay this, that the other thing like so they have a lot less overhead and they, they actually pass through now the player's still going to lose, you know, but if, if you're like only losing 3% per spin instead of 8% per spin on an identical game, the online casino is actually the better move. I also like it because I my pajamas. I also like it because nobody smokes. You know, there's a lot of things I like about it. I can play ultimate x10, play bonus poker. On my phone. I was playing. They, they sent us to a Detroit Pistons game and I was like on courtside I don't really care about the game that much and it was a blowout. So I was like playing video poker on my phone while I was watching the game and for real money for like, like you can that a lot. And, and then there's certain casinos that you know, like I say that, that are maybe like in, in another country might be legal, but not in the United States.
- [113:57]
Graham Stephan
So why, why is it so like banned in all these states except for five. Like what's the reason behind that?
- [114:05]
EJ
I think the land based casinos probably lobby very heavy against it. Yeah, it's all politics.
- [114:13]
Vegas Matt
Everything you, everything you ask is, is, is all like these are not my decisions, sir. Yeah, you know, like because you got lobbyists, you got all this money in the land based casinos, you know and it's like, who's going to pull the strings? You know, it's all the. It's all the people who make the decisions. I think these are our senators and our congressmen and the president and so forth. And it's all very complex. Every issue is extraordinarily complex.
- [114:37]
Graham Stephan
Like, I remember in California, I was very confused. I went to, like, a. I forget what. Pechanga Resort, and they. They didn't have dice. Like, dice were not allowed in California.
- [114:50]
EJ
Right.
- [114:50]
Graham Stephan
And so they'd use cards instead. And then I would look it up and see, well, okay. It's because it's on an Indian reservation. There was some sort of regulation that was passed decades ago about not using dice.
- [115:02]
Vegas Matt
Imagine.
- [115:02]
EJ
Yeah, they have, like, roulette wheels with cards. I've seen them.
- [115:04]
Vegas Matt
They're weird.
- [115:05]
Graham Stephan
Right? It's the same thing. Like, it doesn't make sense.
- [115:08]
Vegas Matt
Yeah.
- [115:08]
EJ
People will find a way around it.
- [115:10]
Vegas Matt
It's all. It's all very complicated. And I'm certainly glad that I don't make the decisions. But. Yeah, like, why is it illegal legal in one state, not in another? You know, online gambling is huge in other countries. Not here, only in five states. The other states, you know, I mean, there's interest, there's lobbying, and eventually it gets to the point where the lawmakers make the laws, and then all we have to do as the people of the citizenry of the world, just follow the laws as they're written, if you can figure them out.
- [115:38]
Robert
Dana White's dream, as he said, is to put. Is to play $1 million hand. That's what he said. I don't know if he's been able to do that already. I saw that he wants to.
- [115:47]
EJ
He wants to have a 30 million line of credit and be able to play a million a hand against them. So, like, he. I think he would be able to get just $1 million hand down, probably. But I don't think anyone wants to take the action. Like, a $30 million swing against him at those limits.
- [116:02]
Vegas Matt
It can ruin a casino's quarter. Like mgm, I read.
- [116:06]
EJ
Or maybe it was when you asked, why not? You sound like. You sound like wbg. Because he knows, he's like, well, we're winning. We would have the edge against him, but.
- [116:13]
Vegas Matt
But you could get beat.
- [116:14]
Robert
Like, they're like, for shareholders and stuff like that.
- [116:16]
Vegas Matt
Someone gets lucky. Like, I mean, you can have all the people sitting there playing a dollar a spin, you know, and drinking free cocktails and. And so forth and so on. You have one whale that comes into the high limit room and beat you for $90 million. You got shareholders to report to and so forth. So if Dana, who's a really lucky guy and you know, he leads a charmed life, you know, knowing him, he'd get a $30 million credit line and he. He'd get on a total terror and he'd win like $100 million and like, you know, cause the stock price of that. That casino to drop or something. That's probably what.
- [116:48]
EJ
And then he'd probably never play there again. But like, big gamblers will make deals with casinos where they will say, I agree to play for this amount of time if you give me this limit, and I'll play over a certain period of time, and then they'll get those sort of deals approved.
- [117:03]
Graham Stephan
Wasn't there a guy who negotiated with the cast casinos slightly where it was in his favor and they never did that again. I read a story about.
- [117:12]
EJ
I don't know if I've heard that story.
- [117:13]
Graham Stephan
He brought in like $20 million, but he said I'd play under these conditions and they really wanted.
- [117:20]
EJ
But he was, I think there were. The cards were marked slightly where he knew he had an edge. They weren't aware of it at the time. I don't think they.
- [117:28]
Graham Stephan
I thought there were. There's so many weird rules where it gave them like a quarter of a percentage point in his favor, but. But they wouldn't think about it. Like, the dealers can't hit on this soft 17. And like.
- [117:40]
Vegas Matt
And again, like, we're not the encyclopedia of gambling. And by the way, we're like, we're not whales. Like, we don't ever do any of these things. The huge gambles. These are whole different levels of people. There's two different things. Like, he did say, like, okay, I want. I mean, something like I want an Asian dealer and I want this, this brand of cards and I want, you know, whatever. Like he, he had things that would like. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. But what they didn't know is he, he could look at the edge of the cards and tell if it was a face card or not or something like that.
- [118:13]
Graham Stephan
Yeah.
- [118:14]
Vegas Matt
Again, this is, this is public information, I believe. Like, I'm not claiming that those are the exact facts, but I'm pretty sure that that's the essence of it. And I, I know that there was a court case and so forth, and they didn't pay him something or he was, you know, it was a. It was not a happy thing for anyone involved.
- [118:32]
Robert
So if that's Dana White's, dream is the $30 million line of credit and $1 million hands. What would you say the dream of Vegas, Matt, is?
- [118:42]
Vegas Matt
Behind the bright lights and adrenaline of pro sport is an equally exciting world of negotiations and deal making. That's what we cover each week on our podcast the Deal.
- [118:52]
Robert
I'm Alex Rodriguez, former baseball player turned business executive.
- [118:56]
Vegas Matt
And I'm Jason Kelly, chief correspondent for Bloomberg Originals. Over the next couple months, we'll hear from all stars like Jay Williams. I want to be an owner one day. Billie Jean King, learn the business and so many more. Listen to the deal on Spotify. I like having fun and so like my dream, like we had so much, much fun in Michigan and we did an event called A Night with Vegas Matt. And it was a 1300 seat theater and we had a thousand people on the waiting list and we went in and I've always wanted to be a, like a comedian, entertainer. I was in the movie business briefly. I love being on stage and seeing my name in lights. It was so fun bringing EJ up on stage and WBG and W2G, my whole crew and, and then all these nice people who, you know, came and, and we had this the most fun and we gambled together. We all went out on the casino floor. The place had like one of their busiest nights in history. I enjoyed the heck out of that. And my dream would probably be to have a jet and because I don't like going through TSA and fly like from casino to casino at a reasonable pace. Like maybe like, like one a week or something like that, you know, and then just cruise around the world with my kid and my friends and, and gamble and have a lot of fun. Like that's kind of fantasy esque at the moment, but not that terribly far off actually. But you know, and I can see that happening. But gambling wise, like we've talked about a million dollar hand for a million subscribers and I'd like to do it and we could do it. There's a 50, 50 chance we'd either win or lose. You know, the thing we got concerned about is one, it is hard to find a casino that will take a million dollar hand. And then the other thing is, is it would be amazing if we won. And I've talked to a couple casino owners and it's like, yeah, you know, it would be great if you guys won and then if you lost, it doesn't look good either, you know, and just not good for either of us. And so that was a, that was a dream that has not come to fruition. And I'm not sure that the million.
- [121:01]
Graham Stephan
Dollar hand will bet you could do $150,000 a hand and just do, you.
- [121:06]
Robert
Know, however many casinos or something at one or.
- [121:09]
Vegas Matt
Yeah, I mean there's a lot, but I just don't know that, you know what, that we'd get the bang for the buck or what if it's worth it. Where you know, EJ comes up, this is the thing, he comes up with a new idea. He and wbg. Sometimes I have a little input with a new idea for something actually interesting to watch every single day. I mean, how many people have a 45 minute a day TV show seven days a week for 750 days straight? It's. There's a lot of creatures creativity in that little brain of his. And so he just keeps thinking of ideas and I'm sure we'll think and if you guys come up with any great ideas, by all means, let us know. You know, we can execute as long, as long as it's legal and nobody gets hurt.
- [121:47]
Graham Stephan
What's your biggest insecurity?
- [121:51]
Vegas Matt
Being asked a question I can't answer my biggest insecurity. I don't know. I think I got over most of them. But like I was, I was pretty insecure about being like totally fat after that one podcast that where like they had like 10 cameras, cameras on my, you know, my jowls. So I like lost like 50 pounds.
- [122:10]
Graham Stephan
Like was that, was that really the catalyst?
- [122:12]
Vegas Matt
Yes. You should have seen it.
- [122:13]
Robert
Like comments or.
- [122:15]
Vegas Matt
You're welcome, you're welcome. If it's be funny, you're welcome to pop it up like from that, from like Dylan's podcast. Like, just find like the worst angle of me. Shout out. Look like a frog neck. I mean it was absolutely. I just was like, matt, step away from the food, you know, because it's like I like went to Vegas. I gained a lot of weight because I was like, you get free food. Like, I'll take the ribeye. Oh, the cream corn. You know, can we get that seafood tower? That was really fun last time. What else should we get? The scalloped potatoes here are just unbelievable. Do you want some scallops as a side? Anyone else want anything? Anything at all? Like, let's just. Because we just lost 20 grand. I want to eat 20 grand of food. And it's just like, yeah, so I don't know, I will get too vulnerable here. So I don't know what, you know, where you're going with that doctor, but what, you know, in terms of how.
- [123:11]
Graham Stephan
Did you lose the way? Was it purely just cutting back on eating or was there like a workout routine or did.
- [123:16]
Vegas Matt
Well, I would like to. I would like to have a sponsor for this. But I'll tell you what, I did make a lot of money on the stock of the company whose product I used to lose the weight. And you know, it's like everyone else, the shots, you know.
- [123:28]
Robert
Okay.
- [123:28]
Vegas Matt
Yeah. I mean, those things are, I mean, I don't know, probably bad side effects. I mean, don't. Don't blame me. I don't get paid by these people. But I'm just telling you that I wasn't hungry. You know what I mean? And it's like, this is a. Yeah.
- [123:40]
Graham Stephan
I know a few people who have.
- [123:41]
Vegas Matt
Weight loss secret and I'm just gonna. And this could be something you could clip. It's gonna be. Here's Vegas Matt's weight loss secret. Don't eat a lot and move more and you will lose weight. Now, if you eat like a pig all the time and drink a bunch of alcohol and don't exercise, you're going to be fat. I don't know.
- [124:03]
Graham Stephan
Wise words.
- [124:04]
Vegas Matt
Yeah. No, and then, and then that, that, that shot thing just makes it so you're just not hungry and so the weight just falls off. At least.
- [124:09]
EJ
Didn't it also get rid of your urge to drink?
- [124:12]
Vegas Matt
Yes.
- [124:12]
EJ
Yeah.
- [124:13]
Vegas Matt
Cuz you just don't want to consume anything. Like it's, it's interesting now. It may end up causing us to all grow third eyes in the middle of our forehead. And like, I don't know, like, drugs are bad. Like it's better to probably just breathe pure oxygen, exercise and listen to the people on Instagram. Yeah.
- [124:32]
Graham Stephan
There was, there was a thing about Ozempic where they said it cut down on compulsions.
- [124:38]
Vegas Matt
Yeah.
- [124:38]
Graham Stephan
And I think gambling, believe it or not, was one of those things that it was proven in their studies to cut down on.
- [124:44]
Vegas Matt
Yeah.
- [124:45]
EJ
I mean, it didn't work for him.
- [124:45]
Vegas Matt
It hasn't worked on me yet. But. Yeah, that was Manjaro, I guess. Yeah. It's fascinating. Like, there's so much to discuss other than gambling. I mean, you guys ask good questions and I feel like we've gotten on fun topics, but it's just like, yeah, are drugs bad? Are. You know, like they're Every, every discussion someone has to make these decisions. Are vaccines good or bad? Is, Is. Is it better to be a vegan or is it better to eat nothing but animals? Like literally, you, you have people that are on both. Like someone Says, just don't eat any animal, anything, and you'll build more muscle, like the vegan weightlifter. And then there's the liver king. And they're both super passionate about what it is that they believe. I guess that's wonderful. We can believe what we want to believe. Or, you know, some people think better. Like, I had a friend whose dad was a doctor and he literally believed in better living through chemistry. You know, you had a problem, he had a drug for it and he, and he, that's what he really believed. Like doctors believe. Like, hey, you got a problem here. You know, here's an antidepressant, here's a stimulant, here's a weight loss shot, here's this. And then there's others, like my wife, who are like, you wake up every morning at 5, you do Pilates, you have celery juice, you know, you drink all this other stuff. I mean, she's so doggone healthy, it's unbelievable.
- [126:03]
Graham Stephan
How long have you been married?
- [126:06]
Vegas Matt
April of 89. So 35 years.
- [126:10]
Graham Stephan
What are the secrets to a 35 year marriage?
- [126:12]
Vegas Matt
Oh, well, I've. My upcoming book on how to make excellent decisions is going to be coming out shortly. Of course. Says the gambling degenerate. I, you know, I think marrying the right person is a very good. I don't know why I look back, maybe when I was your age, I was making really quality decisions and I didn't, I was wise beyond my years, you know, like, I mean, I married a girl who was like, honest and a girl who was, you know, had a good moral compass and who was nice and kind and a good cook.
- [126:44]
EJ
And it's a better answer than you usually give.
- [126:48]
Vegas Matt
Well, what, what am I supposed to. Oh, yeah, I usually joke. I mean, I' But I mean, I don't know. I'm in a mood. I've been talking for like three hours. Tired. I feel like Trump and Rogan here, but I usually say, just don't marry a. A, you know, and that's, you know, I, I always try to be funny. You know, you gotta be. You got to be politically correct. They stay. He's. That's why I have ej, you know, like, but I mean, it's just true because, like, I see so many people that marry and then their marriage is just nonstop fighting and a jealousy and all this weird stuff that's like, don't marry someone that you're arguing with constantly or that doesn't trust you or that is mean to you or whatever. Like, you know, like Fall in love and live happily ever after. Like, it might take you a little while to find the right person, but they're out there and don't give up. And you can always go on Tinder. I don't know. That was another joke, but didn't. Didn't land very well. Sorry, I don't know that. And then. Yeah. And I've also just been really lucky. I. I'm actually am writing a book.
- [127:48]
Graham Stephan
Cool.
- [127:49]
Vegas Matt
And. And it's basically called the Art of Being Lucky. And I think luck plays a role.
- [127:56]
Graham Stephan
It's a great name.
- [127:57]
Vegas Matt
Yeah. The Art of being lucky and 21 all in moments in the Life of Vegas, Matt. And I can almost even talk about it now because it's like, I gotta read it. Yeah. Why? Listen, I don't need you involved in my side projects. This. I. You had nothing to do with this book. This is my book. It's about. It's not like 75% done. It's a lot of work to write a book, but it's the Art of being lucky. So, like. And maybe I just got lucky and I found the right woman. I mean, really, what boils down? And also, like, it's not like I'm going to write a parenting book. Like, yes, go gambling with your son. Encourage them to have parties, and then they'll grow up to make good decisions, you know? Like, I don't, but I got lucky with. Had good kids.
- [128:34]
Graham Stephan
How has this changed your relationship together now? Like, you're working with each other.
- [128:38]
EJ
I don't know that it's changed that much. Like, our dynamic is still very the same. We give each other a hard time, we have fun. Maybe there are a few more serious moments, but I think all in all, it's the same. It's always been.
- [128:52]
Graham Stephan
Do you ever get into creative disagreements?
- [128:55]
EJ
No.
- [128:55]
Graham Stephan
Because I decide you have control.
- [128:58]
Robert
Yeah.
- [128:58]
Vegas Matt
Yeah.
- [128:58]
Graham Stephan
Do you ever push back on some of his ideas?
- [129:01]
Vegas Matt
Not. Not really. Because otherwise, I mean, I'm smart enough to know that if I start getting involved in that, that I'm going to have to be involved. You know what I mean? Like, you've seen my aversion to politics, complicated decisions, you know, things. Things like that. Like, if I can avoid responsibility, I will at all. So, like, they. They come up with the titles, they come up with the concepts. I'm just a pretty face, who I am now, thanks to.
- [129:22]
EJ
I think part of it is also, we just want him to come and have fun. That's like.
- [129:25]
Graham Stephan
Yeah.
- [129:25]
EJ
If he's able to have an authentically good time and never get sick of it, then that will keep it being entertaining.
- [129:31]
Vegas Matt
Wait, you got really mad at me and, like, we have like, oh, yeah, well, like, I'll drop like an F bomb or whatever. Like, I've lost my temper at him because, like, we're playing blackjack and. And I'm just getting absolutely smoked, you know? I mean, literally, the dealer has a ten up every single time. Gotten like five blackjacks. I get 16, 15, 14, bust every time. The rare occasion when the dealer has 16, they get a 4 or a 5. I'm losing every hand. And I was like, so mad. I took my hand and my chips and I banged it on the table like that. And my chips kind of went like this. And then EJ is like, push, like, telling me not to exhibit bad behavior, you know, And I'm like, I just lost like, $19,000, you little prick. You know, like, that's happened. But then we don't hate each other forever. Like, but there have been moments. I mean, it's not like we have this, like, pristine little universe in the gambling world. Like, I mean. Yeah, well, we have our. More get annoyed. I forget there's. I'm sure there's been countless other things he's done that have annoyed me, but I literally can't remember anything except for that one thing I just mentioned because it was like two days ago.
- [130:38]
Graham Stephan
Is there any rivalry between, like, the gambling YouTubers together? Like, do you see each other at the casinos? You're like, oh, that. That's so and so.
- [130:47]
EJ
Yeah, yeah, we see each other. There's no rivalry.
- [130:49]
Vegas Matt
Everyone knows. Great. They're all really nice.
- [130:51]
EJ
There's one particular person who nobody likes nobody that they don't like us. But no, I think we have a philosophy that all ships rise with the tide. The larger we can grow the audience that is watching gambling content, the more that everyone will benefit. So we're very friendly.
- [131:06]
Vegas Matt
Okay.
- [131:07]
EJ
Yeah.
- [131:07]
Vegas Matt
And also just. We're friendly because we're friendly. Yeah. I mean, like, and it's a nice group, you know, and. And some people have, like, a scarcity mindset. And I. And I learned, you know, in my personal development journey that never works. Like, you know, abundance, all ships rise aside, I taught you that. And. And then get along and help others and give more than you expect to receive. And so, yeah, like, we. We all went up to Reno for NG is one of another big slot influencer. We went to his birthday party and everybody was there. We were all up all night gambling together, filming content, being on each other's lives and stuff like that. And it's a really nice community. Everyone seems to get along great.
- [131:44]
Graham Stephan
Thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate this.
- [131:46]
Vegas Matt
It was good times.
- [131:47]
Graham Stephan
Yeah.
- [131:47]
Vegas Matt
Thank you.
- [131:48]
Graham Stephan
And we'll link to all your information down below in the description. Thanks so much for coming.
- [131:51]
Robert
Thank you guys for watching.
- [131:52]
Graham Stephan
Till next time.