The Online Gambling Epidemic

0:00 A few months ago, to celebrate my friend's birthday,

0:02 I went on a Victory Casino Cruise,

0:04 and not only did everyone get seasick almost immediately,

0:07 but we also lost all the money we brought in to gamble with.

0:12 It was one of the best days of my life.

0:13 For a good portion of the past century,

0:15 getting on a boat that reeks of piss and wobbling

0:18 your way out just far enough into the ocean

0:20 so that laws don't exist anymore was one

0:22 of the only ways to legally gamble in the United States.

0:26 It had such a convoluted barrier of entry that most people

0:30 could go their entire lives without ever being tempted to do it.

0:33 Just don't go to Nevada, and you'll probably never see a casino.

0:37 In 2024, this is no longer the case.

0:40 Only on FanDuel.

0:41 DraftKings.

0:42 BetMGM.

0:42 PrizePicks.

0:43 Caesars.

0:44 Underdog.

0:45 Hard Rock Bet.

0:45 Bally Bet.

0:46 PointsBet.

0:46 ESPN Bet.

0:47 Bet365.

0:47 Smack me in the mouth with all of.

0:49 If you watch any sports at all, ads for sports betting have become inescapable.

0:54 Even if you muted every commercial and closed your eyes

0:57 until the game came back on, it's still plastered everywhere.

1:00 DraftKings promos pop up in the middle of a play.

1:03 There's BetMGM billboards behind home plate,

1:06 FanDuel logos on the court, on the microphones.

1:09 They come at you from every angle, pepper spraying you in the face so you

1:13 don't notice they just pulled your pants down.

1:15 They've made it so watching sports and betting

1:17 on sports are just two sides of the same coin,

1:20 like you can't have one without the other.

1:22 It's become so normalized that it might be easy

1:23 to forget that gambling can be kind of bad, actually.

1:28 About 10 million people in the US alone struggle with gambling in some way.

1:32 A good portion of which are under the age of 25.

1:34 Gambling addicts attempt suicide at a rate

1:36 15 times higher than the general population.

1:39 The average debt of a gambling addict can range from 15,000 to $90,000.

1:44 But where most people would see this as a problem,

1:46 a few people saw it as an opportunity.

1:48 All that extra money that could be siphoned from struggling

1:51 families and into the pockets of like 12 CEOs, and we're not doing that because.

1:58 So in 2018, the Supreme Court overruled the federal ban on sports betting.

2:01 And since then, Americans have collectively lost over $245 billion on it.

2:08 That's almost a thousand dollars per person, and that number was from last year.

2:13 But the bombardment of playful advertising filled with famous

2:16 celebrities would make you think it's just a harmless,

2:19 fun game you can play on your phone.

2:20 Kevin Hart, Post Malone, Chris Rock,

2:23 LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Peyton Manning, Jamie Foxx,

2:27 Eric Andre, Patton Oswald, Vanessa Hudgens,

2:29 the guy from that Kendrick Lamar song, Kevin Hart.

2:32 Even the "Talk Tuah" podcast is sponsored by Betr.

2:35 Why is it always the people you trust the most?

2:38 [Presenter] And you don't need to know everything about every sport?

2:41 Good, 'cause I don't.

2:42 [Presenter] Yeah, me either.

2:43 All you need is a feeling and a phone.

2:46 Oh my gosh, I won.

2:47 That is such a bold way to advertise your product.

2:50 You don't have to know anything about sports in order to bet on them.

2:53 In fact, we would prefer you didn't.

2:55 Look, this guy's just chilling in a hot tub.

2:57 He doesn't even know what sport he bet on, and he won money.

3:00 So go ahead, just open the app and start mashing buttons.

3:03 I don't know, like where do you think they

3:05 got all the money to shell out to these celebrities?

3:08 Could it be that maybe PrizePicks ease

3:10 into the secret gateway to riches beyond my wildest imaginations,

3:14 and maybe they're just trying to get my debit

3:16 card numbers so they can take all my disposable income?

3:17 Whether or not you think sports betting should be illegal,

3:20 and I'm not even necessarily saying it should be,

3:22 the fact that they're allowed to advertise it like this is fucking insane.

3:26 Imagine a cigarette commercial that was like, "Oh my God, this is so good.

3:31 This is the best I've ever felt in my life."♪

3:34 I'm on top of the world, ey♪- Typically,

3:36 the only tobacco ads you see are like anti-vaping PSAs,

3:39 and I hope there's a future where advertising

3:42 for betting apps is regulated in a similar way.

3:45 You can still bet on sports.

3:46 You can still smoke cigarettes if you want to.

3:48 It's not illegal, but you're not bombarded with the temptation

3:51 to do it every time you turn on a basketball game.

3:54 Even though it's only been six years

3:55 since the federal ban on sportsbooks was overturned,

3:57 technology has already evolved well beyond what was available at the time.

4:02 And now the gambling has gone from being in a place you have

4:05 to go to to do it to being accessible on your phone at any moment.

4:09 There's nothing stopping these apps from trying to lure you in constantly,

4:13 and they're really good at doing that.

4:15 [Narrator] Addiction is intensified, he says,

4:17 by how much the gambling companies know about each user.

4:20 That data was used to tailor offers

4:22 and push notifications to keep the guy in action.

4:25 They knew the life state, the customer life stage it was at.

4:27 So win back, they described it.

4:29 So people that have given up gambling for a while,

4:31 and they're trying to get them to come back.

4:33 Just by using these apps, you're giving them data about your gambling habits,

4:36 which they can then weaponize against you.

4:39 If they realize around 2:00 PM every

4:40 Sunday is when you're most likely to interact

4:42 with the app because you're watching 19 games

4:44 at once and you're starting to get a little restless,

4:46 they can tailor make a push notification just for you.

4:49 Maybe they'll boost the odds of a third quarter Tyreek Hill touchdown,

4:52 or they'll show you a parlay that 50,000 other people

4:55 have bet on, and that many people can't all be wrong.

4:57 Let's talk about parlays for a second 'cause I think that's

5:00 one of the biggest contributors to the exponential rise of sports betting.

5:03 It's parlay time.

5:04 Put simply, a parlay is when you combine multiple bets into one bet,

5:08 significantly decreasing the odds of it hitting but massively

5:11 boosting the payout you'll win if it does.

5:13 It's basically the difference between winning a few

5:15 dollars for correctly calling one coin flip or winning

5:17 thousands of dollars if you can get that coin

5:19 to land on heads 12 times in a row.

5:21 You're so distracted by the possibility of how much you could

5:24 win that you're not even considering the fact that you definitely won't.

5:27 Parlays are the lottery ticket of sports betting,

5:30 and these apps have made it so easy to make one whenever you want.

5:33 The only thing stopping you from putting together a parlay

5:35 that frankly doesn't even make sense is your own imagination.

5:39 Because of parlays, I think for a lot of people,

5:41 gambling has become death by a thousand paper cuts.

5:43 Maybe instead of losing a lot of money all at once,

5:46 you're just losing a little bit of money all the time.

5:48 Sometimes you'll even lose money in a way that feels like you almost won.

5:52 Oh, five outta six.

5:53 I was so close.

5:55 But that means I'll definitely win next time.

5:57 My only personal experience with online sports

5:59 betting was a couple years ago when I saw Underdog Fantasy was offering to match

6:03 your first deposit up to a hundred dollars.

6:05 And I thought, okay, I'll give it a try.

6:06 I watched a lot of football.

6:07 Maybe I can finally make back some of the money

6:09 I've spent over the years supporting my stupid, shitty team.

6:12 So I put in a hundred bucks, they doubled it,

6:13 and slowly over the course of the next two months,

6:15 I lost $25 every week until it was all gone.

6:19 Now, if I'm being honest, I think this was actually best case scenario for me.

6:22 I consider myself lucky that the few times I've tried gambling,

6:25 it hasn't gone well for me because I have no positive association with it.

6:29 In the same way that I have no desire

6:31 to smoke cigarettes because the first time I did,

6:33 I smoked two back to back for some

6:36 reason and was nauseous the rest of the night,

6:37 I have no desire to gamble because I've only ever lost money doing it.

6:41 So even though Underdog managed to get a hundred bucks out of me,

6:44 I actually think they would've preferred if I won a little bit first.

6:47 When betting apps give out these kind of introductory offers,

6:49 it's not just so they can get a bunch of free money,

6:52 although that's definitely part of it.

6:53 They're trying to create a customer for life.

6:55 [Presenter] Bet $5 and get $150 in bonus bets.

6:59 [Presenter] $5, get $200 back.

7:01 [Presenter] 250.

7:01 Up to $500.

7:02 Up to $2,000.

7:04 Online sportsbooks know that the best way to get people addicted

7:06 to their product is to make that first big win as easy as possible.

7:10 So they'll lure you in with an offer that seems too good to be true because

7:13 all of that is pennies compared to what

7:15 they're raking in from the people who are hooked.

7:17 They give you free money to start with.

7:19 They'll let you try again if your first bet doesn't work.

7:21 They'll let you throw in one leg of a parlay

7:23 that has essentially a 100% chance of hitting.

7:26 They are desperate to make sure you have a good time.

7:28 They want every time you see that app icon on your phone to think about the rush

7:32 you felt when you turned $5 into a hundred

7:34 so you keep chasing that feeling forever.

7:37 I just managed to outsmart them by being so unbelievably bad

7:41 at sports betting that I never even came close to winning.

7:44 But because I was curious to see how much online sports

7:46 gambling has evolved since I tried it a couple years ago,

7:49 and because I would never leave a stone unturned in the pursuit of research,

7:52 I decided for this video, I should try it one more time.

7:55 So I signed up for the only legal sportsbook in my home state of Florida,

7:58 which I assume is named after famous internet sex symbol, Hard Rock Nick.

8:02 [Nick] Balls tugged on one by one.

8:04 Their introductory offer is that they'll give you another

8:06 chance to bet if your first one doesn't win.

8:09 On the surface, that almost sounds like free money,

8:12 but it's not like you can bet once, lose, and then just take your money back.

8:16 You still have to give them the money.

8:18 You're probably just gonna lose twice for the price of one.

8:20 But hey, check this out.

8:21 I've already unlocked a one x multiplier,

8:24 which means for every dollar I earn, I walk away with $1.

8:29 I spent the next 12 minutes hard at work,

8:31 concocting the smartest and most guaranteed parlays the world has ever seen.

8:37 With all my bets placed, I could finally sit back,

8:39 relax, and enjoy a stress-free Sunday afternoon.

8:43 Oh my God.

8:43 Oh my God.

8:43 Oh my God.

8:44 Oh my God.

8:44 Oh my God.

8:45 Why did I bet on Sam Darnold?

8:46 Why did I bet on Kirk Cousins?

8:48 Why did I take the over on Curtis Martin rushing yards?

8:51 He retired in 2007.

8:53 The next few hours felt like a roller coaster,

8:55 but in spite of it all, I was determined to come out on top.

8:59 Guess who has two thumbs and just won $9.52?

9:04 This guy.

9:06 My other thumb's holding the phone.

9:07 I was down, but now I'm♪♪ Up♪- And since I only lost five other bets,

9:12 I was just $61 from breaking even.

9:15 Now I know what you're thinking, "Drew,

9:16 how could you have possibly known the Bills

9:18 were gonna beat a team significantly worse than them?

9:20 What are you, some kind of genius?" No, I prefer savant.

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10:40 which unfortunately, will now continue.

10:42 All right, so I've been using this app for a little over a week now,

10:45 and even though I did win a few more bets,

10:48 all I've really managed to do is turn my initial $100 into zero.

10:53 It's all gone.

10:54 I think they know they're on the verge of losing

10:56 me for good because they're really ramping up the notifications.

10:59 Most days, I'm getting at least one every hour.

11:03 They even offered me another second chance bet.

11:06 This time, up to $500.

11:08 They are so confident based on everything I've shown them so far that it

11:12 seems they're willing to give me any amount of money because it doesn't matter,

11:16 I'm just going to lose it all anyway.

11:18 Even in my very limited time using this app,

11:21 I can already see the traps they're setting for me, and I am falling for them.

11:25 For some reason, I've done multiple parlays that are

11:28 contingent upon something happening at the beginning of a game.

11:31 They offer a bunch of bets that are based on first quarter stats,

11:35 and I realized firsthand why they do this.

11:37 'Cause that one leg can cook your entire parlay immediately.

11:41 But at that point, you've already committed to betting on this game,

11:44 and there's so much more game to bet on.

11:47 So you do.

11:48 And before you know it, you're betting on Kyshawn George to make five 3s.

11:52 Why did I do that?

11:54 I don't even know who that is.

11:55 Why did I think Jake Paul was gonna knock out Mike Tyson?

11:58 That fight was never ending in a knockout.

12:01 They punched each other like four times.

12:02 Obviously, they were just in it for the money, and I knew that going into it.

12:07 I only did this bet because they boosted my odds,

12:09 and they only boosted my odds 'cause they knew it wasn't going to happen anyway.

12:14 It's 2024.

12:15 How am I still getting scammed by Jake Paul?

12:18 And on the flip side, when I do win a bet,

12:20 sometimes I'm not even that happy about it 'cause I'm just like,

12:23 ugh, I should have bet more.

12:25 You start getting carried away doing the math.

12:27 I turned $10 into $30,

12:29 but I could have turned a hundred into 300, a thousand into 3,000.

12:33 Oh my God.

12:34 It's infinite money.

12:35 And I think that's one of the most dangerous things about gambling,

12:38 is that sometimes it works.

12:40 It's a hobby that technically could go well for you if

12:44 you get very lucky and quit at the exact right time,

12:47 which you won't, and the casinos are banking on the fact that you won't.

12:51 Problem gamblers aren't just chasing a feeling.

12:54 They're chasing this idea that maybe they'll win the lottery.

12:57 A lotta gamblers can recognize that they have a problem

13:00 but see the problem as the way out of the problem.

13:03 [Podcaster] I think the feeling at the time

13:05 was if you can just get lucky here somewhere,

13:07 then potentially, there's a way of making this- All go away.

13:11 all go away.

13:11 I suppose the flip side to that as well, Aaron,

13:13 is it was enabling me to just gamble as much as I wanted as well.

13:16 If I just have one good day, I can win it all back.

13:19 Yes, I've dug this huge hole for myself, but if I just keep digging,

13:22 I might be able to find that diamond I've been desperately searching for.

13:26 But the sad reality is, even if you find the diamond,

13:30 you're just gonna feel so good doing it that you'll

13:32 probably dive right back into the mines looking for another one.

13:35 [Podcaster] The truth of it is,

13:36 if I'd have had that big win, I would've just spent it anyway.

13:39 A lot of the higher ups at these companies will refuse

13:42 any responsibility for creating new gambling addicts over the past few years.

13:47 They'll make the argument that they're just addicted to their phone,

13:50 and our app just happens to be on it.

13:53 I don't believe that there is an addiction to mobile betting any more

13:57 than there is an addiction to utilization of your phone for any other reason.

14:01 You don't think adding a layer of betting

14:03 makes the phone more addictive than- No, I don't.

14:05 just tooling around Instagram?

14:07 No.

14:07 There is problem gambling.

14:08 It is a real problem.

14:10 Whether it's gotten bigger or it's just

14:13 become more noticeable because sports betting is legal, I think, is an unknown.

14:19 Really?

14:20 Hey, they be gambling anyway.

14:21 Whether it's on our app that sends 30 push

14:24 notifications a day and is linked to their bank account,

14:26 or only available in a state on the other side of the country,

14:30 is totally irrelevant.

14:30 And while there are obviously some people for whom that is true,

14:34 you cannot deny the fact that making it so goddamn easy to bet

14:39 anything at any time is leading

14:42 to more people gambling who wouldn't have otherwise.

14:45 You're dangling a piece of candy inches

14:48 away from people's faces and then saying,

14:50 "Hey, it's not our fault they grabbed it.

14:52 They still would've grabbed it even if it was 2,000

14:55 miles away." Census is all still relatively new in the US.

14:58 Maybe we'll see more legislation in the future to combat this avalanche.

15:03 In some countries, they no longer allow celebrities to appear in sportsbook ads,

15:07 or they've banned the ads from appearing during sporting events altogether.

15:11 America is still in this wild west infancy where all these apps are

15:16 just scrambling to find a way onto

15:17 your phone before regulations start kicking in.

15:21 But maybe in the future?

15:23 Nah, I'm gonna be honest.

15:24 It's hard to imagine that happening.

15:26 I think it's too late to put the toothpaste back in the tube.

15:28 The leagues are making too much money off it already.

15:31 Of course, they wanna shove betting apps down everyone's throats.

15:34 It gives people more of a reason to watch the games, especially bad ones.

15:38 Well, most people would turn off a 20 point blowout in the fourth quarter.

15:42 You're still glued to the screen 'cause you need CeeDee

15:44 Lamb to get 12 more yards for your parlay to hit.

15:47 They've figured out a way to make every moment matter, even if it doesn't.

15:51 You wanna make every game interesting?

15:53 Step one, open the BetMGM sportsbook.

15:56 You know what to do.

15:57 It's not just sports, though.

15:58 It seems like these days, you can gamble on absolutely anything.

16:02 You can bet on celebrity breakups.

16:04 You can bet on which "White Lotus" character will return in season 3.

16:08 You can bet on the presidential election, and oh my God, so many people did.

16:13 Hundreds of millions of dollars were tied up in political bets this year.

16:18 And if that's not indicative of a nationwide gambling epidemic,

16:21 I don't know what is.

16:22 But I'll admit, I'm a little conflicted about this.

16:25 Because on one hand, gamifying every aspect of our lives only

16:28 gives more power to those with influence.

16:31 It creates a financial incentive for spreading deliberate misinformation.

16:35 It can make you question the motive behind everything you see and hear.

16:39 But on the other hand,

16:42 XQC lost $700,000 betting on the election, and that's really funny.

16:46 If you don't know who XQC is, he's a streamer who,

16:48 at least in every clip I've seen of him,

16:50 seems to be speaking a language he invented, and no one else can understand.

16:55 (XQC talking gibberish)- He's also one of the many streamers who've massively

17:05 increased their wealth over the past

17:07 few years by taking sponsorships from offshore, crypto-based online casinos,

17:13 helping them and the website they stream it on explode in popularity.

17:17 At almost any point of any day, you can go to the slots tab on Kick.com

17:22 and see someone who is zonked out of their mind,

17:25 eyes bloodshot red, 12 hours into nonstop slot spends,

17:30 desperately trying to win back all the money they've lost so far.

17:33 Oftentimes, in a situation so dire that even the chat,

17:36 with no personal stakes involved and only there for entertainment,

17:40 is begging them to stop.

17:41 But they can't.

17:42 They're on autopilot.

17:44 Every loss is money that needs to be won back,

17:46 and every win is just more money to gamble with.

17:48 I randomly opened this guy's stream one day and watched in real

17:52 time as he won almost a hundred thousand dollars and then say this.

17:58 95K, that's fucking huge.

18:00 We're a 10th of the way back.

18:02 A 10th?

18:03 This dude was down a million dollars on Big Bass Bash?

18:08 Now to most people watching, it's pretty easy to say,

18:10 "Hey man, um, you should probably quit while you're ahead.

18:13 No, a hundred thousand isn't a million,

18:16 but it's a lot more than zero." The problem is someone

18:18 in this state of mind isn't capable of seeing it that way.

18:22 He's not even in Thursday afternoon with the rest of us.

18:25 He's still on the tail end of Wednesday night.

18:27 So the rational part of his brain,

18:29 too subdued to muster anything more than a mumble,

18:32 asks his chat if he should end it there.

18:34 Should we of the better leaves?

18:35 [Drew] They all scream, "Of course you should," but it falls on deaf ears.

18:39 He's yet to stop spamming spins for even a second.

18:42 This man is no longer in control of his actions.

18:45 He's a zombie, relegated to the passenger seat of his own

18:49 mind as it careens towards the conclusion everyone watching knows is inevitable,

18:53 but there's nothing he can do to stop the momentum.

18:56 I have to quit at a certain point.

18:57 I have to give up.

18:58 At a certain point, I gotta give up.

19:00 Oh my God.

19:00 At a certain point, I gotta give up.

19:02 Dude, that dog demolished the balance.

19:07 Oh my God, that's crazy.

19:09 Lost over a million dollars today.

19:12 There's nothing in there.

19:14 All he can do now is sit in the reality of what just happened.

19:21 Beautiful girl♪- Dude.

19:26 Come to terms with the fact that despite

19:28 his and everyone else's better judgment, he got Dog Housed.

19:32 Dog House is what did it.

19:34 Dog House is what defeated me.

19:36 I got Dog Housed.

19:37 I got Dog Housed.

19:38 I got a full Dog House.

19:41 Full Dog House, dude.

19:43 Full Dog House.

19:44 Full fucking Dog House, dude.

19:46 Dude.

19:50 I got Dog Housed.

19:58 Did I just watch this guy ruin his life?

20:01 I don't know, actually.

20:03 The thing is, it's hard to take streams like this at face value.

20:07 There's a very well-documented history of streamers on Kick,

20:11 high-stakes gambling with money that was given

20:13 to them by the website they're playing on.

20:15 So not only are the stakes not high, but it's technically not even gambling.

20:19 It's just promotion.

20:20 The entire goal of these streams is just to make the people

20:23 watching them think they too can go win life-changing money on Asscoin.com.

20:28 So maybe this is all bullshit.

20:29 Maybe the only real thing about these streams are

20:32 the holes he punched into the wall behind him.

20:35 Maybe he'll miraculously be back in a couple days

20:37 with a suspiciously large balance after seeming to lose everything.

20:41 But clips like this are just the flip

20:43 side of an online ecosystem currently doing everything

20:45 it can to convince impressionable teenagers scrolling through

20:49 TikTok and YouTube shorts that gambling is awesome actually,

20:53 and you gotta start doing it.

20:54 Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

20:55 Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.

20:57 Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.

20:58 (both screaming)- Yeah!

21:01 Yeah!

21:03 That's a great feeling, man.

21:04 'Cause I'm on top of the world♪- Now,

21:06 some people have accused these websites of rigging

21:08 the odds in favor of the streamers, so it's easier for them to farm these clips.

21:13 And as far as I'm aware, there's no proof of that.

21:15 I think the misrepresentation of odds here is simply due to the fact

21:19 that these websites can just keep depositing

21:21 money into their accounts whenever they lose,

21:24 giving them unlimited funds to play with.

21:26 Unless Roobet's gonna give me free money, I think that's like actually it.

21:30 We really just need a Howie to give us a ton of free money.

21:33 If you're given infinite money,

21:34 you can just keep betting until you hit a jackpot.

21:38 For them, there's no such thing as rock bottom,

21:40 a philosophy that very much does not translate to real life.

21:44 In real life, you can hit rock bottom, and when you do,

21:47 there's no texting Howie to get yourself out of it.

21:50 What's especially concerning about these kinds of streams is that while

21:53 sports betting apps are at least targeting mostly grown men,

21:57 the majority audience for a lot

21:59 of these streamers are teenagers and young adults.

22:02 People whose brains have not finished developing yet.

22:05 People who would have a harder

22:06 time distinguishing between entertainment and real life,

22:09 and have less of an ability to evaluate

22:11 risk compared to people much older than them.

22:14 It is statistically proven that people who are exposed to gambling at a young

22:17 age are more likely to develop problems with it later in life.

22:21 So maybe don't do this.

22:25 Is that too much to ask?

22:26 Now there are a few different types of gambling streamers.

22:28 There are the ones like Adin Ross, who have been very transparent about the fact

22:32 that money is the only thing that matters to them,

22:35 and there's no line they would be unwilling to cross in pursuit of it.

22:38 Then there's streamers like SteveWillDoit,

22:40 who admitted in an interview with Coffeezilla that the only reason he

22:44 started taking these sponsorships was because

22:47 he used to have a gambling problem, and it was a way for him to continue

22:51 to gamble without having to use his own money.

22:54 In other words, he knows from personal

22:56 experience the harm a gambling addiction can cause,

22:59 but he has no problem promoting that to other

23:01 people as long as it's not his money they're losing.

23:04 But then there's also plenty of streamers

23:06 that don't seem to think they're doing anything wrong.

23:09 They put their head in the sand and make excuses

23:11 'cause the money's too good for them to turn down.

23:13 Take Nickmercs, for example.

23:15 Nick gets pretty defensive when people question the fact that he

23:18 spends one week out of every month spinning slots on Kick.com.

23:22 "Oh yeah, man, sorry, forgot a bunch of children watch my streams." Like dude,

23:26 you spent the past six years streaming "Fortnite" and "Call of Duty."

23:30 If you don't think the majority of your audience is young men,

23:33 I don't know what to tell you.

23:35 And don't even get me started on Drake.

23:37 I know a large portion of his audience is

23:39 underage because those are the people he's trying to fund.

23:41 So while obviously these websites who use decentralized currency

23:45 and are based out of a small island country

23:47 with laughably loose gambling restrictions in order to skirt federal

23:50 regulations are mostly to blame for the damage they've caused.

23:53 These celebrities and streamers who've helped

23:56 popularize them are very much complicit.

23:58 When you build an audience online, whether you like it or not,

24:01 there is a pair of social element to it.

24:03 There are people in your fan base who look up to you and trust you,

24:06 and every time you sell something to them,

24:08 you are leveraging that parasocial relationship in order to financially benefit.

24:13 And I'm not gonna act like I'm perfect.

24:14 I sell merch.

24:15 I have sponsors.

24:16 I just didn't ad read like three minutes ago.

24:18 But my God, I feel like the bare minimum with the sponsorship is,

24:22 does this product actively hurt the people that use it?

24:25 Yes?

24:26 Then I'm not gonna do that.

24:28 I get that it can sting to turn down a lot of money.

24:31 And if the numbers people have floated around are accurate,

24:34 it is a stupid amount of money.

24:36 But for some of these people who could already live 10 full lifetimes

24:39 without ever having to worry about bills ever again, when is it enough?

24:44 It's just crazy to me.

24:46 It's like thank you to everyone who supports what I do.

24:48 You've given me my dream job, this life of luxury I'm so lucky to have.

24:53 And in return, I give to you a crippling addiction.

24:58 Sorry, I wanted to buy a house in Mexico.

25:00 We got another place, 'cause you can't do it in America.

25:02 You have to go somewhere else.

25:03 So we went somewhere else, and we got another place.

25:06 Call me dramatic, but I'm a little concerned where this is all headed.

25:09 People like to talk about iPad babies who are

25:11 burning all their dopamine receptors before they even reach preschool.

25:14 But what is a slot machine if not just a giant iPad?

25:17 Scientifically engineered to be as mesmerizing as possible so you

25:20 don't even realize what you're letting it take from you.

25:23 Thousand dollars in fast spins at $50 a spin.

25:25 Look at that.

25:26 $194,000 grand.

25:27 That thing is due.

25:28 Oh, well, that's a thousand dollars.

25:31 Gambling can be addictive enough on its own

25:33 even before you add in all this social pressure.

25:35 The transition from casual gambler to full-blown addict can happen so gradually.

25:40 A lot of people don't even realize it's happened to them until it's too late.

25:44 And when everyone around you from celebrities and commercials to all

25:48 your favorite streamers are just making it seem like it's no big deal,

25:52 it's fun, everybody does it,

25:53 can you truly recognize the seriousness of what you're getting yourself into?

25:57 I think all we can really do for the time

25:59 being is try to fight back against the normalization of gambling.

26:03 So what do you say we all get together and call a timeout?

26:07 What's that?

26:08 They already tried that for hate.

26:10 We need to stop it.

26:11 So let's take this moment.

26:13 To change the momentum.

26:14 And call a timeout.

26:14 On hate.

26:15 Together.

26:16 Together.

26:17 And it's not working?

26:19 Even though they got Shaq?

26:20 Well, that's not good.

26:21 That was kind of the only idea I had.

26:23 Gambling is not new.

26:25 For as long as there's been man,

26:26 there's been the primal desire to bet it all on red.

26:29 But what is new is the way technology has evolved to prey

26:32 on these urges in the most efficient and targeted ways possible.

26:36 Using AI to send push notifications at the precise

26:39 moment they know they're most likely to be opened.

26:41 Using a constantly evolving algorithm to offer bets that are so time-sensitive.

26:46 You have to commit to it before you even have a chance to think about it.

26:48 These apps didn't invent gambling addiction.

26:50 They've just made it more accessible.

26:52 You combine all of that with a system in which most

26:54 people aren't paid nearly enough money for the amount of work

26:56 that they do and might see gambling as one of the only

26:59 ways out of that situation only to end up exacerbating their problems,

27:02 and you end up with the unmitigated economic disaster we're in now.

27:06 Forgive me for using the C word,

27:07 but we've stumbled into this stage of capitalism where

27:09 every dollar must be profited by any means necessary,

27:12 and foregoing any chance to do so would simply be seen as a missed opportunity.

27:17 Advertisements in between the game?

27:19 Not enough.

27:19 Now they're a part of the game.

27:21 A mini fridge in the hotel that I can store my leftovers in?

27:24 No, we should be filling every square inch of that thing with $12 Coke cans

27:27 that'll automatically charge your credit card even if

27:29 you're just moving one out of the way.

27:31 A YouTube outro that's just a few seconds

27:33 of peaceful music and no call to action?

27:34 You wish, bozo.

27:35 Please go listen to the song I made with my friend, Sam.

27:37 I wrote the guitar for it, and I think it's pretty good.

27:40 Thanks for watching.

27:41 'Cause I've got water in my lungs♪♪ It's a pleasure that I hope

27:50 you'll never know♪- These are my top 10 mistakes that slot machine players make.

27:58 Number one, the biggest mistake that slot players

28:01 make is playing slot machines in the first place.