Gambling Industry News
Brian Christopher Testifies in Support of Atlantic City Casino Workers Pushing for Smokefree Workplace
by Ciaran McEneaney · February 16, 2023
Slots influencer Brian Christopher has spoken out in support of NJ casino workers who are pushing for a complete ban on smoking on gaming floors.
Slots influencer Brian Christopher (AKA BCSlots) has testified to the New Jersey Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee in support of Atlantic City casino workers who are pushing for a complete ban on smoking on gaming floors.
According to current legislation, all workers in the state are entitled to work in a smoke-free environment. However, casinos have been using a legal loophole to allow patrons to smoke on the gaming floor. The loophole has existed now for the past 17 years and allows smoking on 25% of casino gaming floors.
Casino workers have garnered support from both lawmakers and high-profile names within the industry such as Christopher who recently launched the first smoke-free slots area in Downtown Las Vegas at the Plaza Hotel & Casino.
Brian shared a copy of his testimony with Gambling Industry News:
Good afternoon, and thank you to the members of the Committee for the opportunity to testify.
My name is Brian Christopher. I am the largest social influencer for Casinos in the world, known as Brian Christopher Slots. I post daily videos playing slot machines, reaching millions of avid casino visitors a month – with male millennials being my top demographic – the very customers casinos care deeply about and are desperate to attract. I’m one myself, by the way.
As part of my job, I travel across the country and partner with casinos to excite and educate the most vibrant, diverse, and deeply engaged community of players. So far, our videos have been viewed nearly a BILLION times over.
Now, imagine growing up in a world where walking into a room full of cigarette smoke is simply not normal. Throughout my travels, I have spoken to numerous new and younger employees at casinos that went smokefree over COVID who told me there was no way they would consider working there if they brought smoking back. If casinos truly do care about their patrons’ health, as they reminded us daily in the heat of the pandemic when they were compelled to implement measures to keep us safe, then there should be no room for smoke indoors. And if casinos truly do want to attract the next generation of players and workers, then the time is now, when only 13% of the population smokes.
I love New Jersey. In fact I’ve worked with numerous properties in Atlantic City, and I was the first streamer at the opening of Hard Rock. I am also a longtime proponent of smokefree casinos and the worker-led movement that CEASE has started right here in New Jersey. But as of this year, I am only partnering with smokefree casinos. I do not promote smoking casino floors, period.
I made this decision after my staff and I, who work in casinos day in and day out, came down with weekly ailments and coughs – this made me feel responsible. After conducting a public survey of my followers, we found an overwhelming preference for smokefree casinos: 94% of frequent gamblers prefer smokefree casinos, including 88% of those who smoke. Among higher income and more frequent gamblers, a higher percentage of them are nonsmokers. Just this past week, I took 550 of my fans on a cruise that offered a smokefree casino on board. When I told them on stage that I would be addressing you today, the entire amphitheater erupted in cheers. So many of them, both smokers and non-smokers, came up to me privately and thanked me for speaking up on behalf of the community. They don’t understand why casinos are the exception for smoke. The math and the science are crystal clear, while a set of antiquated business fears just don’t add up.
Unfortunately, without a change in state law, I will not be visiting Atlantic City casinos, or using my platform to promote the otherwise fantastic entertainment experience they provide. While this means turning down some business opportunities, I believe in this cause – and my business continues to thrive. A lot of casinos that went smokefree during COVID and have remained smokefree are reaping the benefits.
Smokefree casinos ARE good for business and are preferred by players. The pandemic has changed everything around this issue. It is time to close the casino smoking loophole in New Jersey law and finally keep workers and guests safe from secondhand smoke.
Thank you.
Christopher also spoke to Gambling Industry News of the response to his testimony:
The response was super positive from those on the panel, and mostly supportive. Those on the ‘other’ side of the debate had nothing to add, aside from agreeing that smoking is bad and kills people. But that they ‘think’ it will cost jobs. If the pandemic showed us anything, it was that people still gambled. People go to casinos to gamble.
Smokers go to casinos to gamble too. They can smoke at home, but they want to gamble. If they can’t smoke while gambling, they will step outside.
Senator Vitale was amazing and is hopeful this will be brought to a vote within 2 months. It sounds like there is overwhelming support for this and it would pass, and the Governor also said he would sign it if it landed on his desk. So I’m very hopeful.
Support among lawmakers for a complete smoking ban is indeed at an all-time high with Sen. Joseph Vitale, the committee’s chairperson stating:
“It’s immoral for the owners of casinos to think their employees are expendable. If you smell it, it’s in your lungs.”
The Casino Association of New Jersey submitted written testimony outlining its opposition.
“An immediate smoking ban in New Jersey casinos, while smoking is still permitted in casinos in neighboring states, against the backdrop of an already weakened and worsening economic climate, would endanger thousands of jobs and jeopardize millions of dollars in tax revenue dedicated to seniors and the disabled of New Jersey.”
However, as Christopher suggested, the potential loss to revenue may not be as great as the association states. Several casino operators in other US states have taken the unexpected move to implement their own smoking bans despite no legal bans being in place. Rivers Casino in Philadelphia opted to uphold a smoking ban that was implemented during the pandemic. The move followed a similar announcement from Parx Casino meaning that there are now five casinos in Pennsylvania alone that prohibit smoking on the casino floor.
Slots influencer Brian Christopher (AKA BCSlots) has testified to the New Jersey Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee in support of Atlantic City casino workers who are pushing for a complete ban on smoking on gaming floors.
According to current legislation, all workers in the state are entitled to work in a smoke-free environment. However, casinos have been using a legal loophole to allow patrons to smoke on the gaming floor. The loophole has existed now for the past 17 years and allows smoking on 25% of casino gaming floors.
Casino workers have garnered support from both lawmakers and high-profile names within the industry such as Christopher who recently launched the first smoke-free slots area in Downtown Las Vegas at the Plaza Hotel & Casino.
Brian shared a copy of his testimony with Gambling Industry News:
Good afternoon, and thank you to the members of the Committee for the opportunity to testify.
My name is Brian Christopher. I am the largest social influencer for Casinos in the world, known as Brian Christopher Slots. I post daily videos playing slot machines, reaching millions of avid casino visitors a month – with male millennials being my top demographic – the very customers casinos care deeply about and are desperate to attract. I’m one myself, by the way.
As part of my job, I travel across the country and partner with casinos to excite and educate the most vibrant, diverse, and deeply engaged community of players. So far, our videos have been viewed nearly a BILLION times over.
Now, imagine growing up in a world where walking into a room full of cigarette smoke is simply not normal. Throughout my travels, I have spoken to numerous new and younger employees at casinos that went smokefree over COVID who told me there was no way they would consider working there if they brought smoking back. If casinos truly do care about their patrons’ health, as they reminded us daily in the heat of the pandemic when they were compelled to implement measures to keep us safe, then there should be no room for smoke indoors. And if casinos truly do want to attract the next generation of players and workers, then the time is now, when only 13% of the population smokes.
I love New Jersey. In fact I’ve worked with numerous properties in Atlantic City, and I was the first streamer at the opening of Hard Rock. I am also a longtime proponent of smokefree casinos and the worker-led movement that CEASE has started right here in New Jersey. But as of this year, I am only partnering with smokefree casinos. I do not promote smoking casino floors, period.
I made this decision after my staff and I, who work in casinos day in and day out, came down with weekly ailments and coughs – this made me feel responsible. After conducting a public survey of my followers, we found an overwhelming preference for smokefree casinos: 94% of frequent gamblers prefer smokefree casinos, including 88% of those who smoke. Among higher income and more frequent gamblers, a higher percentage of them are nonsmokers. Just this past week, I took 550 of my fans on a cruise that offered a smokefree casino on board. When I told them on stage that I would be addressing you today, the entire amphitheater erupted in cheers. So many of them, both smokers and non-smokers, came up to me privately and thanked me for speaking up on behalf of the community. They don’t understand why casinos are the exception for smoke. The math and the science are crystal clear, while a set of antiquated business fears just don’t add up.
Unfortunately, without a change in state law, I will not be visiting Atlantic City casinos, or using my platform to promote the otherwise fantastic entertainment experience they provide. While this means turning down some business opportunities, I believe in this cause – and my business continues to thrive. A lot of casinos that went smokefree during COVID and have remained smokefree are reaping the benefits.
Smokefree casinos ARE good for business and are preferred by players. The pandemic has changed everything around this issue. It is time to close the casino smoking loophole in New Jersey law and finally keep workers and guests safe from secondhand smoke.
Thank you.
Christopher also spoke to Gambling Industry News of the response to his testimony:
The response was super positive from those on the panel, and mostly supportive. Those on the ‘other’ side of the debate had nothing to add, aside from agreeing that smoking is bad and kills people. But that they ‘think’ it will cost jobs. If the pandemic showed us anything, it was that people still gambled. People go to casinos to gamble.
Smokers go to casinos to gamble too. They can smoke at home, but they want to gamble. If they can’t smoke while gambling, they will step outside.
Senator Vitale was amazing and is hopeful this will be brought to a vote within 2 months. It sounds like there is overwhelming support for this and it would pass, and the Governor also said he would sign it if it landed on his desk. So I’m very hopeful.
Support among lawmakers for a complete smoking ban is indeed at an all-time high with Sen. Joseph Vitale, the committee’s chairperson stating:
“It’s immoral for the owners of casinos to think their employees are expendable. If you smell it, it’s in your lungs.”
The Casino Association of New Jersey submitted written testimony outlining its opposition.
“An immediate smoking ban in New Jersey casinos, while smoking is still permitted in casinos in neighboring states, against the backdrop of an already weakened and worsening economic climate, would endanger thousands of jobs and jeopardize millions of dollars in tax revenue dedicated to seniors and the disabled of New Jersey.”
However, as Christopher suggested, the potential loss to revenue may not be as great as the association states. Several casino operators in other US states have taken the unexpected move to implement their own smoking bans despite no legal bans being in place. Rivers Casino in Philadelphia opted to uphold a smoking ban that was implemented during the pandemic. The move followed a similar announcement from Parx Casino meaning that there are now five casinos in Pennsylvania alone that prohibit smoking on the casino floor.
The Curious Gambler
Brian Christopher Interview: Writing From Aboard the Carnival Breeze
by Manuel Martinez · February 8, 2023
We ask the world’s leading casino content creator a few quick questions about his plans for 2023
This week I had the pleasure of interviewing casino influencer Brian Christopher of BCSlots.com. For those of you who’ve been living under a rock for the last couple of years and don’t know Brian, I can assure you that he is a pretty big deal in the casino world!
Brian is perhaps most known for his fun and entertaining videos where he heads to different casinos and films himself playing slot machines, giving us viewers a sneak peek into his experiences. He’s got a huge following on social media and millions of views of his videos, and thanks to his organic reach, Brian has won gambling awards and also attracted the attention of world-leading brands who want to partner with him.
Right now, Brian is on a Carnival Magic with his 157 fans (how cool is that!?). Check out one of his latest YouTube videos from where he’s playing slots with Marco:
All in all, Brian is an incredibly impressive entrepreneur whose team of talented people produce some of the best casino content out there.
I got the opportunity to ask Brian a few questions to understand what he’s up to in 2023 and learn more about his most recent BC Slots ventures.
First of all, congrats on your success! I just checked and you have 1.3M followers across FB, YouTube, and Instagram, which is insane!
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BC. Thanks! We’re up to 1.5M including Tiktok as well!
That’s impressive! Did you ever think you would reach such a vast audience with your content? BC. Never! I never had a plan for this to pan out this way, nor did I ever dream that this could become a career. It has surprised everyone including myself. |
Last year you partnered with Gaming Arts to build Pop’N Pays More. In the press release, you mentioned that your fans have been asking for this sort of game for a while. What has been the response from the fans? Do you have plans for any new games in Vegas or online in 2023?
BC. Our fans are absolutely loving the game. In fact, I’m on a Carnival Cruise right now as I write this, and it has been impossible for me to get on my slot machine as there’s always people playing all three of them. We hope to continue our success of this game into another one in the future. Brian Christopher’s Pop’N Pays More is now live in 13 States, 40 casinos on 3 cruise ships!
Tell me about your Carnival’s Casino live streams. In a video, I watched from December (entitled “rising up big bonuses”) you play for 30 minutes, and the video has 90k views already. What is it about these videos that make people love them so much? And how are they treating you on these cruises? It must be amazing being an influencer for Carnival Cruise!
BC. It’s quite exciting to be the exclusive partner for Carnival Corp for casinos. On board I currently have 540 fans joining us this trip, which represents about 15% of those on the cruise! It’s an incredible feeling, and it’s amazing to be able to spend a whole week with them. It gives them a chance to see me play and film, but also to hang out with me and get to know me better.
All of our fans who sign up on our site (BCSlots.com/Cruises) get an introductory offer including free drinks in the casino, $50 in freeplay, free upgrades, and more. So yes, they take very good care of us. On board, I also host two giant parties for everyone with free cocktails and appetizers, as well as a slot tournament and mega group pull.
Your latest news is centered around creating a smoke-free gaming environment – which I totally agree with. What prompted you to campaign for a healthier casino floor?
BC. I’ve never been one to shy away from something I believe in. When only 13% of the population smokes, it no longer makes sense that 100% of people should be forced to breathe in these harmful chemicals. I have made this pledge for myself, my staff, my fans, and the staff at casinos and future generations. Those people coming of age to gamble now have never been in a smoking building before in their entire lives. They don’t want to be there, nor can you expect them to work in that environment either.
You are building a portfolio of brands with BC Ventures – what’s in the pipeline for the next coming years? Do you see a gap in the market for new games or products?
BC. We will continue to lead the way for promoting casinos both in casinos and online, showcasing the newest and most exciting products. I think the next biggest things for casinos will be cashless slot machines and tables. They have not been that exciting thus far, and need to become simplified for ease.
Slot Manufacturers keep wanting to increase the size of games and innovate newer physical games all the time. As a player, we really could care less if a new game comes out on a RX204 Max Cabinet (made that up haha) or not. We just want a good engaging game to enjoy. They need to focus more on the content.
Finally, any tips for someone starting out in the iGaming and gambling content space?
It is SO expensive. I’ve seen numerous channels start and fail because they ran out of money. Less than 1% of YouTube channels make a living out of it, and that doesn’t take into account slot channels that have to pour thousands of dollars into it. So only film what you can afford to lose, and do it for the fun of it. There’s always room for more in this niche, so just be yourself, do the best you can do, and don’t lose your shirt along the way.
You can follow Brian by visiting the social media platforms below:
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/BCSlots/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bcslots/
Twitter https://twitter.com/bcslots
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@bcslots
Yogonet Gaming News
Casino gaming influencer Brian Christopher pledges to only promote smoke-free casinos
by Yogonet Gaming News · January 10, 2023
Casino gaming influencer Brian Christopher announced Monday he is exclusively promoting smoke-free casinos and gaming spaces from here on out. His channel on YouTube and Facebook reaches more than 5 million monthly unique viewers, "showcasing his journey to entertain players while prioritizing the health of staff and casino goers alike."
Christopher has pledged to continue his work at casinos as an official advocate for American Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR) Foundation, and as a supporter of Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects (CEASE).
Cynthia Hallett, president and CEO of the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation, stated: “We thank Brian Christopher for his unwavering support of casino workers and joining us in the fight for smoke-free casinos.”
“As we continue our campaign to make all casinos smoke-free indoors, Brian Christopher’s commitment to promoting only smoke-free gaming spaces will help raise awareness of this serious issue and the conditions casino workers are forced to endure,” she added.
As part of Christopher’s pledge to smoke-free gaming, in the coming months, he will be launching the updated Brian Christopher Slots at Plaza, a brand new casino expansion on the front of the Plaza Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
The new and improved version will grow his curated slot machine titles from approximately 25 to 85+. It will be the first-ever smoke-free gaming area in Downtown Las Vegas, featuring outdoor access through the Plaza’s reimagined Main Street facade, complete with independent ventilation.
Lisa Melmed, marketing manager at the Plaza Hotel & Casino, also commented: “BCSlots at the Plaza has been very successful. Guests enjoy playing the games that they have seen Brian play in his videos, and many appreciate the fact that his dedicated area is smoke-free.”
“Given the continued popularity of BCSlots at the Plaza, we are excited to open Brian Cristopher Slots as our new and expanded smoke-free and social media-friendly casino addition next to our iconic dome entrance,” she further stated.
Last year, Brian Christopher formed BC Ventures, an umbrella company to house and grow various strategic initiatives including a mutually exclusive partnership with Carnival Cruise Line. Existing and future projects in this portfolio will be managed under the same principle of prioritizing smoke-free experiences.
“It is time for gaming to join the ranks of the best entertainment venues, restaurants and bars that went smoke-free years ago. The health of those who work and play in casinos should be just as important as in any other industry.,” Christopher said. “With only 13% of the US population smoking nowadays, it no longer makes sense that 100% of patrons should have to be exposed to harmful chemicals.”
“As BC Ventures takes the pledge in 2023, I am happy to share that we are almost fully booked with smoke-free casino visits for the year, as we continue to attract younger demographics with our premium experiences. Millennials and Gen Z grew up in a smoke-free world — and they demand it,” the influencer concluded.
The news comes on the same week as New Jersey casino workers urged Governor Phil Murphy to call on legislative leaders to pass a bill that would get rid of smoking in Atlantic City gaming properties.
In a letter from the co-founders and co-leaders of CEASE, workers urged Murphy to push lawmakers to pass bipartisan legislation to close the casino smoking loophole by April 15. The date marks 17 years since the legislature passed the Clean Indoor Air Act, which specifically excluded casinos.
CDC Gaming Reports
Gaming Influencer Brian Christopher will only appear at smoke-free venues in 2023
by Rege Behe · January 9, 2023
CDC Gaming Reports
Gaming Influencer Brian Christopher will only appear at smoke-free venues in 2023
by Rege Behe · January 9, 2023
YouTube and Facebook celebrity and gaming influencer Brian Christopher is taking a stand against smoking in casinos.
Christopher Monday announced that going forward, he will only promote smoke-free casinos and gaming spaces.
“It is time for gaming to join the ranks of the best entertainment venues, restaurants and bars that went smokefree years ago,” Christopher said in a statement. “The health of those who work and play in casinos should be just as important as in any other industry. With only 13 percent of the US population smoking nowadays, it no longer makes sense that 100 percent of patrons should have to be exposed to harmful chemicals.”
Christopher, who posts videos of himself playing slot machines on his YouTube and Facebook pages, Brian Christopher Slots, reaches 5 million unique viewers per month. A section of the slot floor at the Plaza Hotel & Casino in Downtown Las Vegas bears his name, and he has an exclusive partnership with Carnival Cruise Lines.
He also is an official advocate for the American Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR) Foundation and supports Casino Employees Against Smoking Effects (CEASE).
“We thank Brian Christopher for his unwavering support of casino workers and joining us in the fight for smoke-free casinos,” said ANR President and CEO Cynthia Hallett. “As we continue our campaign to make all casinos smoke-free indoors, Brian Christopher’s commitment to promote only smoke-free gaming spaces will help raise awareness of this serious issue and the conditions casino workers are forced to endure.”
The Plaza Hotel & Casino will expand the space devoted to Christopher curated slots from approximately 25 to more than 85, making it the the first entirely smoke-free gaming area in Downtown Las Vegas.
“BCSlots at the Plaza has been very successful,” said Plaza Hotel & Casino Marketing Manager Lisa Melmed. “Guests enjoy playing the games that they have seen Brian play in his videos, and many appreciate the fact that his dedicated area is smoke-free.”
Christopher noted that he is almost fully booked for visits to smoke-free casinos in 2023 “as we continue to attract younger demographics with our premium experiences,” he said. “Millennials and Gen Z grew up in a smoke-free world — and they demand it.”
Business Insider
Gaming Arts to Showcase its Largest Portfolio of New Games Ever at G2E 2022
by Business Insider · October 6, 2022
Business Insider
Gaming Arts to Showcase its Largest Portfolio of New Games Ever at G2E 2022
by Business Insider · October 6, 2022
Gaming Arts, one of the fastest growing gaming suppliers in North America, will have its largest booth ever at G2E 2022 along with introducing the biggest portfolio of innovative new games in company history. Also on display will be a long list of proven top performers and new technical innovations from Gaming Arts. Please visit Gaming Arts at booth 1853 at G2E.
Gaming Arts to Showcase its Largest Portfolio of New Games Ever at G2E 2022.Just one of the headliners at G2E will be the new Pop'N Pays More!™ series of games for its beautiful and sleek VertX™ 49" portrait cabinet which include Piñatas Ole™, Big Top™, and the recently launched, and massively successful, Brian Christopher's Pop'N Pays More!™. This game is already performing at up to 4x house average on gaming floors across the country and has been shortlisted as a finalist for the GGB "Slot of the Year" award.
Brian, America's no. 1 slot influencer with over 320 million views, collaborated closely with the top game designers at Gaming Arts to produce this amazing new game. Brian will be at the Gaming Arts booth from 11am to 2pm on Tuesday and intermittently throughout the show and will host an exciting slot tournament on Tuesday and Wednesday at 3pm. The slot tournament will be live streamed and the lucky winner each day will receive a fabulous dream cruise of their choice from our wonderful partner, Carnival Cruise lines. Entries may be made at the Gaming Arts booth 1853 at G2E 2022.
Kung Fu Empress™, the adorable little empress that is taking the country by storm, will also be on prominent display. This energetic and vibrant game is proving to be a fast favorite among players with performance to match. From incredible animations to an upbeat soundtrack, this game stands out amongst other games on casino floors and as the Kung Fu Empress battles her enemies, the bigger the enemy, the bigger the win!
Future favorites Egyptian Gems™ series, the Cash Quest™ series, Winning Wings series and GO Games! series, will also be prominently featured on the show floor. Also, not to be missed are the brand new, Big Fat Dragon™, the Lucky Pick™ series along with many more. These are just a few examples of why Gaming Arts is known as one of the most innovative companies in the gaming space.
As for new games for the Gaming Arts' patented HaloTop® wheel cabinets, a series of new games will be on display including Spooky Spins™, Fortune Flip™, Giant Gold Bar™, Triple Double 7s™ and more. In addition, Gaming Arts will also be showcasing the incredible Ocean Phoenix™ game from its Taiwanese partner, Jumbo Technologies. This truly unique 6 player arcade style game is the first-of-its-kind to enter the North American market and has demonstrated exceptional performance at all locations.
On the electronic table games (ETG) front, Gaming Arts' Casino Wizard's™ popularity across gaming floors from coast to coast has led to the creation of Casino Wizard VIP™, the world's most advanced and feature rich ETG. A first of its kind, Casino Wizard VIP™, includes everything players loved about the original and expands upon it by adding 4 new titles, for a total of 8 games. These include: Pai Gow Poker, Triple Card Poker, Super Big 6 Wheel and the Gaming Arts' proprietary game, Swap 'Em Poker™, along with the original game lineup of blackjack, craps, roulette and baccarat to fill out this incredible "Pit in a Box™" ETG. Most games also include proprietary high-hold side bets, special bonuses and numerous opportunities for players to win exciting progressive jackpots.
In addition to its vast library of amazing slots and ETGs, Gaming Arts continues as the world leader in bingo and keno games and related technologies. On display at G2E, the company will be showcasing its latest innovations in the bingo and keno spaces, including the world's first TITO enabled self-serve EZ-Keno kiosk along with its "Super Win" and "Super Promo" technologies for bingo and casino promotions.
COO Jean Venneman shared, "Casino floors and our customer needs are constantly evolving and Gaming Arts is focused on anticipating players diverse needs as well as customer expectations. With the successful launches of unique games such as the social slot influencer-focused Brian Christopher's Pop'N Pays More™, Casino Wizard VIP™ and arcade-style Ocean Phoenix™ game, it is clear that customers' expectations are changing, and it is exciting to be one of the front runners in this ever-expanding space."
Gaming Arts plans to continue to expand their extensive library of games, offering a huge variety of titles across multiple cabinets and creating games that can be enjoyed by all players. At the forefront of gaming innovation with new technologies, beautiful cabinets and themes that are state-of-the-art, Gaming Arts is confident that they will continue to exceed customer and player expectations.
David Colvin, Chairman and Founder of Gaming Arts, commented, "This G2E promises to be our most ambitious show ever and I could not be prouder of the entire team at Gaming Arts and the unique corporate culture we have developed. Although we may not be the largest manufacturer in the gaming space, I believe that our culture of innovation and creativity are unmatched, leading to truly amazing new games and technologies which can be seen and enjoyed across North America and beyond."
Indian Gaming
Yaamava' Installs World Premiere of Light & Wonder's Jewel of the Dragon Franchise
by Indian Gaming · September 28, 2022
Indian Gaming
Yaamava' Installs World Premiere of Light & Wonder's Jewel of the Dragon Franchise
by Indian Gaming · September 28, 2022
HIGHLAND, CA – Yaamava’ Resort & Casino at San Manuel and Light & Wonder have announced the world premiere of a new slot franchise, Jewel of the Dragon™. The new theme will feature hold-and-respin, “what you see is what you get” mechanics, and the titles Red Phoenix™ and Valley of the Tiger™ are now live at Yaamava’ Resort & Casino at San Manuel. The third title, A Thousand Warriors™, will debut later this year.
“We aim to offer a best-in-class gaming experience by continuously adding the newest slot machines to our 7,000-plus slot floor,” said Kenji Hall, Yaamava’ Resort & Casino Chief Operating Office of Gaming. “Our players will be thrilled that they can be the first to experience this exciting new slot franchise.”
All three titles use gems as their indicator of a player’s progress towards their hold-and-respin goal, while also acting as triggers for smaller bonuses themselves. When six gem triggers happen, the hold-and-respin feature begins. Players begin with three free spins trying to collect additional gems. Each new gem resets the free spin counter to three again. If a player gets 15 gems, filling up every slot, the grand jackpot is theirs.
To celebrate the installation of the new slot, Yaamava’ Resort & Casino partnered with content creator Brian Christopher to showcase the world premiere. Christopher, the host of Brian Christopher Slots on YouTube and Facebook, has over 1.3 million followers online, attracting almost 6 million unique viewers every month. He recently played the game as part of his live streams from Yaamava’ on both media platforms.
“It’s always super exciting for our fans to see us showcase brand-new games to them live,” said Christopher. “Getting that immediate feedback from them on the games really makes it an immersive experience.”
The multi-denomination slot is located on the second floor of Yaamava’ Resort & Casino near Serrano Vista Café.
Play USA
Brian Christopher To Visit Jamul Casino Sept. 17 For His Famed Group Slot Pulls
by Katarina Vojvodic · September 14, 2022
Play USA
Brian Christopher To Visit Jamul Casino Sept. 17 For His Famed Group Slot Pulls
by Katarina Vojvodic · September 14, 2022
Slot and casino influencer Brian Christopher is coming to a California casino this weekend. Christopher will be at the Jamul Casino in the San Diego area to launch three branded slot machines.
Christopher, the host of the No. 1 slot channel on YouTube, will host a Brian Christopher slots group pull using one of his Pop’N Pays More slots for the first time.
Christopher has previously visited the Jamul Casino in July 2021 and March 2022. According to the organizers, past events were quite successful, with great turnouts, including meet-and-greets.
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Brian Christopher Jamul Casino group slot pull appearances All slot machine enthusiasts are welcome to participate in group slot pulls at Jamul Casino on Saturday. These are the following events:
There can be only one person per registered spot in the group pulls, and each person must contribute $200, including Christopher himself. In addition to the player’s gambling money, each person must buy a $9.99 ticket. Since all the events are currently full, players are advised to check back at a later time. If someone cancels, their spot immediately becomes available on a first-come, first-served basis. |
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What is a group slot pull?
A group slot pull is an event where a group of people will pool their money together to play a specific slot machine. For instance, $200 per person for a group of 25 people would translate to $5,000 to put in a slot machine, increasing the chance of winnings.
Once the event starts, a host — in this case, Brian Christopher — charges a fee ($9.99) to deter people from signing up and then canceling last second. Everyone will take turns playing the designated slot machines.
Christopher agrees to cover taxes for wins under $5,000 total profit. Over and above that amount, approximately 35% will be held back for taxes. So, if the group hits $10,000 in overall wins, Brian will cover the taxes on the first $5,000, and the group will split the taxes on the second half.
The remaining money depends on how much the group has won or lost.
How to play Pop’N Pays brand slots
Each group gathers around the machine, and Christopher spins the reels on their behalf.
The Brian Christopher Pop’N Pays More has 1,047 pay lines and features expanding reels 2-5 up to eight symbols high. At full expansion, there are 16,384 ways to win on every spin. Apart from Christopher, other symbols include sevens, cups, spinning reels, lemons, cherries and a slot machine.
Moreover, a bonus game offers up to 15 free spins, which can be retriggered. The main goal is to hit three line-it-up coins on the screen at the same time.
Group slot pulls are an experience
Why do so many people participate in casino group slot pulls? It’s a fun and exciting way to play slots.
Christopher brings the slot group pulls experience to a new level for viewers and players. His crazy reactions to winning are always fun to watch, and if he hits the jackpot, it’s almost as fun as winning your own.
What makes Christopher so unique is his approachable personality. He has over 500,000 subscribers who look forward to his daily videos and once-a-week live streams where he shares his experience.
And, apart from having fun, people like to participate because of many reasons, such as:
If you miss out on the group pull, his Pop’N Pays More machines are here to stay, so don’t forget to check them out on your own some other time.
A group slot pull is an event where a group of people will pool their money together to play a specific slot machine. For instance, $200 per person for a group of 25 people would translate to $5,000 to put in a slot machine, increasing the chance of winnings.
Once the event starts, a host — in this case, Brian Christopher — charges a fee ($9.99) to deter people from signing up and then canceling last second. Everyone will take turns playing the designated slot machines.
Christopher agrees to cover taxes for wins under $5,000 total profit. Over and above that amount, approximately 35% will be held back for taxes. So, if the group hits $10,000 in overall wins, Brian will cover the taxes on the first $5,000, and the group will split the taxes on the second half.
The remaining money depends on how much the group has won or lost.
How to play Pop’N Pays brand slots
Each group gathers around the machine, and Christopher spins the reels on their behalf.
The Brian Christopher Pop’N Pays More has 1,047 pay lines and features expanding reels 2-5 up to eight symbols high. At full expansion, there are 16,384 ways to win on every spin. Apart from Christopher, other symbols include sevens, cups, spinning reels, lemons, cherries and a slot machine.
Moreover, a bonus game offers up to 15 free spins, which can be retriggered. The main goal is to hit three line-it-up coins on the screen at the same time.
Group slot pulls are an experience
Why do so many people participate in casino group slot pulls? It’s a fun and exciting way to play slots.
Christopher brings the slot group pulls experience to a new level for viewers and players. His crazy reactions to winning are always fun to watch, and if he hits the jackpot, it’s almost as fun as winning your own.
What makes Christopher so unique is his approachable personality. He has over 500,000 subscribers who look forward to his daily videos and once-a-week live streams where he shares his experience.
And, apart from having fun, people like to participate because of many reasons, such as:
- The social factor, as the experience makes the game more fun.
- Higher stakes are involved, as players have a chance to win more money without risking their own.
- Better chances of winning, especially for those who usually play low-stakes slots by themselves.
If you miss out on the group pull, his Pop’N Pays More machines are here to stay, so don’t forget to check them out on your own some other time.
Play USA
Brian Christopher Slot Machine Enjoys Blockbuster Success, Outperforms Casino Averages
by Katarina Vojvodic · September 2, 2022
Play USA
Brian Christopher Slot Machine Enjoys Blockbuster Success, Outperforms Casino Averages
by Katarina Vojvodic · September 2, 2022
Brian Christopher is known for playing live slots online, so getting his own physical slot machine game that his fans and followers could play was a great move. Now, it’s paying off in a big way.
Christopher partnered with inventive slot manufacturer Gaming Arts and debuted his new slot machine Pop’N Pays More at the Plaza Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas in July.
With attractive animations and unique sound effects, Brian Christopher’s Pop’N Pays More proved to be a huge success. It unrolled in a total of 17 locations and has been running two to four times casino floor averages in just one month.
The explosive success of Brian Christopher’s Pop’N Pays More slot machine
Christopher found tremendous success when he began playing live slot games on YouTube under BCSlots, which ballooned his social media presence on Twitter, TikTok and other platforms. He is known for his quirky personality and interaction with his dedicated fanbase.
His partnership with a gaming company was a natural evolution, and Las Vegas seemed like the perfect place for the unveiling party for his slot machines. He is the first influencer to create his own slot machine.
With more than 500 thousand subscribers, Brian Christopher gets more than 5 million views each month.
The response to Brian Christopher’s Pop’N Pays More!™has so far been quite successful with performance numbers in many cases, consistently running more than four times the house average.
Chief Operating Officer of Gaming Arts Jean Venneman commented: “We’re really excited to be working with Brian. He’s been an amazing partner to collaborate with, and we’re confident that his fans and players alike will really enjoy this exciting new game.”
Brian Christopher didn’t comment to PlayUSA, but shared via press release: “We’re a perfect match. We are both super innovative and forward-thinking. As my fans already loved the original Pop’N Pays games with their constant action, fun bonuses, free games and catchy music, Gaming Arts was the obvious choice to partner with.”
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How to play Brian Christopher’s Pop’N Pays More Designed by Vegas-headquartered Gaming Arts, Christopher’s Pop’N Pays More!™ is full of surprises. It revolves around Brian Christopher and features exciting animations and enticing sound effects. The Brian Christopher comes with 1,047 ways to win and a unique feature that can expand reels 2, 3 and 5 or up to 8 symbols high. Once fully expanded, there are 16,384 ways to win on every single spin. Moreover, players can activate a rapid free game feature offering up to 15 free spins, which can be retriggered. Throughout the gameplay, Brian Christopher’s avatar pops up as cash-on-reels symbols, saying his most popular catchphrases. These include: “Oh Nelly!” after a big win, “Line it UP!” when expecting a winning spin, “Rude” if a symbol lands just short of a combination, and other quotes like “Do it to it!” and “It’s all about timing!” |
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Where are Brian Christopher’s Pop’N Pays More slot machines located?
Players already had a chance to enjoy a massively successful launch with game placements in US casinos, including:
The upcoming installations are also scheduled for:
Brian Christopher’s brand, slot machine games expanding
As Christopher is constantly expanding his brand and partnering with casinos all over the US, more affiliations are expected to follow.
For instance, after partnering with Plaza Hotel, where his machine made its grand debut, the casino opened an entire smoke-free slot gaming area and named it Brian Christopher Slots at the Plaza.
In the coming months, Gaming Arts will continue installing the new Brian Christopher game along with adding the other new Pop’N Pays More! games, Piñatas Olé and Big Top, across the rest of the country.
Christopher has made appearances with live streaming videos at various locations, hosting group slot pulls, and free slot pulls. These debuts, events, and meet-and-greets are always a unique opportunity for fans to meet with the No. 1 streamer, take photos and get his autograph. The reception by Brian’s followers has been very well received, with wait times up to several hours and lines over 300 people long, all done happily by his group of admirers.
As Christopher recently partnered with Carnival Cruise Line, he will join the company’s fleet on several cruises over the next two years. The slots influencer will play in Carnival Breeze, Carnival Magic and Carnival Dream, having his games livestreamed from all these ships.
Players already had a chance to enjoy a massively successful launch with game placements in US casinos, including:
- Plaza Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas
- Palms Casino Resort Las Vegas
- M Resort Spa & Casino Las Vegas
- Gila River Wild Horse Pass in Arizona
- Harrah’s AK-Chin in Arizona
- Desert Diamond West Valley in Arizona
- Casino Arizona
- Talking Stick in Arizona
- Agua Caliente Rancho Mirage in California
- Agua Caliente Palm Springs in California
- Agua Caliente Casino Cathedral City in California
- Yaamava’ in California
- Hard Rock Tulsa in Oklahoma
The upcoming installations are also scheduled for:
- Morongo in California
- Coushatta in Louisiana
- Grand Casino Hinckley in Minnesota
- Saratoga Black Hawk in Colorado
Brian Christopher’s brand, slot machine games expanding
As Christopher is constantly expanding his brand and partnering with casinos all over the US, more affiliations are expected to follow.
For instance, after partnering with Plaza Hotel, where his machine made its grand debut, the casino opened an entire smoke-free slot gaming area and named it Brian Christopher Slots at the Plaza.
In the coming months, Gaming Arts will continue installing the new Brian Christopher game along with adding the other new Pop’N Pays More! games, Piñatas Olé and Big Top, across the rest of the country.
Christopher has made appearances with live streaming videos at various locations, hosting group slot pulls, and free slot pulls. These debuts, events, and meet-and-greets are always a unique opportunity for fans to meet with the No. 1 streamer, take photos and get his autograph. The reception by Brian’s followers has been very well received, with wait times up to several hours and lines over 300 people long, all done happily by his group of admirers.
As Christopher recently partnered with Carnival Cruise Line, he will join the company’s fleet on several cruises over the next two years. The slots influencer will play in Carnival Breeze, Carnival Magic and Carnival Dream, having his games livestreamed from all these ships.
Slot influencer Brian Christopher is to take his platform to the high seas after being named Carnival Cruise Line’s exclusive gaming influencer.
Over the next two years, Christopher will travel across the globe with Carnival, taking part in many of their sea-based casino offerings and tournaments, live-streaming along the way.
This will include the $1m slot tournament cruise hosted on Carnival’s Mardi Gras, the company’s largest cruise ship which offers roller coaster rides and water parks to its cruisers. The tournament is set to be the biggest slot tournament ever held at sea.
“Brian Christopher Slots exemplifies the fun that Carnival is known for and is the perfect ambassador for the rewarding experience we bring to our valued casino guests across our fleet,” commented Jonathan Lask, VP of casino and performance marketing at Carnival.
Christopher has over a million subscribers across his Youtube and facebook platforms, where he live streams himself playing various slot titles.
His rise to fame within the industry has seen him receive his own branded titles and host numerous tournaments around US casinos, including taking charge of a $30,000 tournament held at San Manuel casino.
“This partnership will bring next-level fun to all slot players out there and bridge our land-based adventures with the best excitement at sea. The entire experience is a great match with Brian Christopher Slots and the action my fans expect,” added Christopher.
Christopher’s deal with Carnival will not only see him showcase Carnival’s casinos to his fans as he will be advertising the entire cruise experience including their dining, entertainment, shopping and spa experiences.
Over the next two years, Christopher will travel across the globe with Carnival, taking part in many of their sea-based casino offerings and tournaments, live-streaming along the way.
This will include the $1m slot tournament cruise hosted on Carnival’s Mardi Gras, the company’s largest cruise ship which offers roller coaster rides and water parks to its cruisers. The tournament is set to be the biggest slot tournament ever held at sea.
“Brian Christopher Slots exemplifies the fun that Carnival is known for and is the perfect ambassador for the rewarding experience we bring to our valued casino guests across our fleet,” commented Jonathan Lask, VP of casino and performance marketing at Carnival.
Christopher has over a million subscribers across his Youtube and facebook platforms, where he live streams himself playing various slot titles.
His rise to fame within the industry has seen him receive his own branded titles and host numerous tournaments around US casinos, including taking charge of a $30,000 tournament held at San Manuel casino.
“This partnership will bring next-level fun to all slot players out there and bridge our land-based adventures with the best excitement at sea. The entire experience is a great match with Brian Christopher Slots and the action my fans expect,” added Christopher.
Christopher’s deal with Carnival will not only see him showcase Carnival’s casinos to his fans as he will be advertising the entire cruise experience including their dining, entertainment, shopping and spa experiences.
Cruise Industry News
Carnival Partners with Slots Influencer Brian Christopher
by Cruise Industry News · August 25, 2022
Cruise Industry News
Carnival Partners with Slots Influencer Brian Christopher
by Cruise Industry News · August 25, 2022
Slots influencer Brian Christopher has partnered with Carnival Cruise Line as their exclusive slots influencer and will be joining the company’s fleet on several cruises over the next two years, according to a press release.
Christopher, who has a monthly following of over five million will set sail aboard Carnival’s fleet in the coming months. He will highlight the $1 million Slot Tournament Cruise, which also marks the biggest tournament ever at sea, aboard the Mardi Grass departing on November 5, 2022, according to the company.
“This partnership will bring next-level fun to all slot players out there and bridge our land-based adventures with the best excitement at sea. The entire experience is a great match with Brian Christopher Slots and the action my fans expect,” said Brian Christopher.
The slots champion will also play in casinos aboard the Carnival Breeze, Carnival Magic and Carnival Dream in the coming months, while his games will be livestreamed from Carnival’s casinos.
The cruise line will also be the at-sea casino launch partner for Christopher's "Pop'N Pays More" slots machine, which will debut in casinos across Carnival's fleet. Besides being available onboard the Carnival Breeze, Carnival Magic and Carnival Dream, guests will also have the chance to try their luck on the slots machine during Christopher’s New Year’s Eve sailing on the Carnival Breeze.
“Brian Christopher Slots exemplifies the fun that Carnival is known for and is the perfect ambassador for the rewarding experience we bring to our valued casino guests across our fleet,” commented Jonathan Lask, vice president of casino and performance marketing, Carnival Cruise Line.
Christopher, who has a monthly following of over five million will set sail aboard Carnival’s fleet in the coming months. He will highlight the $1 million Slot Tournament Cruise, which also marks the biggest tournament ever at sea, aboard the Mardi Grass departing on November 5, 2022, according to the company.
“This partnership will bring next-level fun to all slot players out there and bridge our land-based adventures with the best excitement at sea. The entire experience is a great match with Brian Christopher Slots and the action my fans expect,” said Brian Christopher.
The slots champion will also play in casinos aboard the Carnival Breeze, Carnival Magic and Carnival Dream in the coming months, while his games will be livestreamed from Carnival’s casinos.
The cruise line will also be the at-sea casino launch partner for Christopher's "Pop'N Pays More" slots machine, which will debut in casinos across Carnival's fleet. Besides being available onboard the Carnival Breeze, Carnival Magic and Carnival Dream, guests will also have the chance to try their luck on the slots machine during Christopher’s New Year’s Eve sailing on the Carnival Breeze.
“Brian Christopher Slots exemplifies the fun that Carnival is known for and is the perfect ambassador for the rewarding experience we bring to our valued casino guests across our fleet,” commented Jonathan Lask, vice president of casino and performance marketing, Carnival Cruise Line.
Cruise Radio
Carnival Cruise Line To Introduce New Slot Machine With Casino Gaming Influencer
by Sarah Bretz · August 25, 2022
Cruise Radio
Carnival Cruise Line To Introduce New Slot Machine With Casino Gaming Influencer
by Sarah Bretz · August 25, 2022
Carnival Cruise Line has announced a new partnership with casino gaming influencer Brian Christopher, who boasts over 5 million monthly viewers on social media.
Christopher, who is the biggest slots influencer in the world, is set to sail on several Carnival voyages over the next two years, including the $1M Slot Tournament Cruise — the biggest slot tournament ever at sea — on Mardi Gras on November 5, 2022. He’s also set to sail and play in casinos on Carnival Breeze, Magic, and Dream in the coming months.
His followers will be able to join him at sea in real time as he livestreams from Carnival’s casinos. Christopher will also share videos showing the dining, entertainment, and other offerings available on board.
Carnival Cruise Line will also be the at-sea casino launch partner for Christopher’s “Pop’N Pays More” slot machine. The machine will make its cruise debut where he is set to play — on Breeze, Magic, and Dream — and is expected to be available on the New Year’s Eve sailing on Carnival Breeze.
“Brian Christopher Slots exemplifies the fun that Carnival is known for and is the perfect ambassador for the rewarding experience we bring to our valued casino guests across our fleet,” said Jonathan Lask, Carnival’s vice president of casino and performance marketing.
“This partnership will bring next-level fun to all slot players out there and bridge our land-based adventures with the best excitement at sea. The entire experience is a great match with Brian Christopher Slots and the action my fans expect,” said Christopher.
Christopher, who is the biggest slots influencer in the world, is set to sail on several Carnival voyages over the next two years, including the $1M Slot Tournament Cruise — the biggest slot tournament ever at sea — on Mardi Gras on November 5, 2022. He’s also set to sail and play in casinos on Carnival Breeze, Magic, and Dream in the coming months.
His followers will be able to join him at sea in real time as he livestreams from Carnival’s casinos. Christopher will also share videos showing the dining, entertainment, and other offerings available on board.
Carnival Cruise Line will also be the at-sea casino launch partner for Christopher’s “Pop’N Pays More” slot machine. The machine will make its cruise debut where he is set to play — on Breeze, Magic, and Dream — and is expected to be available on the New Year’s Eve sailing on Carnival Breeze.
“Brian Christopher Slots exemplifies the fun that Carnival is known for and is the perfect ambassador for the rewarding experience we bring to our valued casino guests across our fleet,” said Jonathan Lask, Carnival’s vice president of casino and performance marketing.
“This partnership will bring next-level fun to all slot players out there and bridge our land-based adventures with the best excitement at sea. The entire experience is a great match with Brian Christopher Slots and the action my fans expect,” said Christopher.
Yahoo
Brian Christopher, America's No. 1 Slot Influencer, and Gaming Arts Successfully Launch New Slot Game: Brian Christopher's Pop'N Pays More!
PRNewswire · August 17, 2022
LAS VEGAS, Aug. 17, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Earlier last month, slot manufacturer Gaming Arts launched a very unique new slot game, Brian Christopher's Pop'N Pays More!™. Besides great game play, what makes this slot game so unique is that Gaming Arts has partnered with Brian Christopher, America's no. 1 slot influencer, to design this new game from the ground up that revolves around Brian Christopher, complete with many fun and exciting animations, voice overs and much, much more!
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To date, the response to Brian Christopher's Pop'N Pays More!™ has been outstanding!
Although just released last month, the game has enjoyed a massively successful launch with game placements including: Plaza Hotel & Casino, Palms Casino Resort and M Resort in Las Vegas, Gila River Wild Horse Pass, Harrah's AK-Chin, Desert Diamond West Valley, Casino Arizona and Talking Stick in Arizona, Agua Caliente Rancho Mirage, Agua Caliente Palm Springs, Agua Caliente Cathedral City and Yaamava' in California, and Hard Rock Tulsa in Oklahoma. Upcoming installations are also slated for Morongo in California, Coushatta in Louisiana, Grand Casino Hinckley in Minnesota and Saratoga Black Hawk in Colorado. |
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In the coming months, Gaming Arts will continue installing the new Brian Christopher game along with adding the other new Pop'N Pays More! games, Piñatas Olé and Big Top, across the rest of the country. To date, the response to Brian Christopher's Pop'N Pays More!™ has been outstanding with performance numbers in many cases, consistently running more than 4X house average.
For many of these locations, Brian has made appearances with live streaming videos, hosting group pulls and free slot pulls, along with the unique opportunity for fans to meet with Brian and take photos. The reception by Brian's fans has been astonishing with wait times up to several hours and with lines over 300 people long, all done happily by his legion of followers!
The Brian Christopher game with 1,047-ways-to-win, has a feature that very often expands reels 2-5 up to eight symbols high. At full expansion, there are 16,384 ways to win on every spin. In addition, there is a rapid free game feature offering up to 15 free games with frequent re-triggers. For added entertainment, throughout game play, Brian Christopher's avatar pops up as cash-on-reels symbols, uttering his most popular catch phrases including: "Oh Nelly!" after a big win, "Line it UP!" in anticipation of a winning spin and other favorites including "Do it to it!", "It's all about timing!" and "Rude" where a symbol lands just short of a combination!
The collaboration between Brian Christopher and Gaming Arts is a natural fit as Gaming Arts is a supremely inventive slot company with an understanding and appreciation for how the rapidly evolving social media will influence gaming in the years to come. Gaming Arts has proven itself as a top industry innovator with a long list of successful slots, including the extremely popular Kung Fu Empress™ and the world's most advanced electronic table games (ETGs), Casino Wizard™, as well as the soon to be released Casino Wizard VIP™.
Brian Christopher's more than 5 million monthly viewers on social media have received this first-of-its-kind partnership with open arms. Brian and the Gaming Arts design team delivered a game loaded with features appealing to both superfans and general slot players alike. This winning formula has earned rave reviews and generated unprecedented interest among players. They are not only coming out to the casino properties that have installed the game to date, but they are also asking their local casinos to add it to their gaming floors!
For many of these locations, Brian has made appearances with live streaming videos, hosting group pulls and free slot pulls, along with the unique opportunity for fans to meet with Brian and take photos. The reception by Brian's fans has been astonishing with wait times up to several hours and with lines over 300 people long, all done happily by his legion of followers!
The Brian Christopher game with 1,047-ways-to-win, has a feature that very often expands reels 2-5 up to eight symbols high. At full expansion, there are 16,384 ways to win on every spin. In addition, there is a rapid free game feature offering up to 15 free games with frequent re-triggers. For added entertainment, throughout game play, Brian Christopher's avatar pops up as cash-on-reels symbols, uttering his most popular catch phrases including: "Oh Nelly!" after a big win, "Line it UP!" in anticipation of a winning spin and other favorites including "Do it to it!", "It's all about timing!" and "Rude" where a symbol lands just short of a combination!
The collaboration between Brian Christopher and Gaming Arts is a natural fit as Gaming Arts is a supremely inventive slot company with an understanding and appreciation for how the rapidly evolving social media will influence gaming in the years to come. Gaming Arts has proven itself as a top industry innovator with a long list of successful slots, including the extremely popular Kung Fu Empress™ and the world's most advanced electronic table games (ETGs), Casino Wizard™, as well as the soon to be released Casino Wizard VIP™.
Brian Christopher's more than 5 million monthly viewers on social media have received this first-of-its-kind partnership with open arms. Brian and the Gaming Arts design team delivered a game loaded with features appealing to both superfans and general slot players alike. This winning formula has earned rave reviews and generated unprecedented interest among players. They are not only coming out to the casino properties that have installed the game to date, but they are also asking their local casinos to add it to their gaming floors!
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Jean Venneman, Chief Operating Officer of Gaming Arts commented, "We're really excited to be working with Brian," Venneman continued, "He's been an amazing partner to collaborate with, and we're confident that his fans and players alike will really enjoy this exciting new game."
Brian Christopher added, "We're a perfect match. We are both super innovative and forward thinking. As my fans already loved the original Pop'N Pays games with their constant action, fun bonuses, free games and catchy music, Gaming Arts was the obvious choice to partner with." |
Casino Center
BIG DISPLAY, BIG PLANS Gaming Arts highlights its new VertX Grand cabinet with a trio of strong new games
by Frank Legato · July 25, 2022
For slot-makers lately, great new games and great new cabinets have gone hand in hand. Many of those new cabinet presentations these days are in large formats—and game developers have used those giant canvases to create some of the best new game experiences on the slot floor.
That’s the way it’s been with the VertX Grand cabinet from Las Vegas–based Gaming Arts. The VertX Grand, unveiled last summer, features an ultra-bright, 4K 49-inch portrait monitor, theater-quality sound, an ultra-bright LCD button deck, programmable LED play buttons, and attention-grabbing LED side lights.
Developed during the pandemic shutdowns of 2020, the format is hitting its stride this summer with three great games that take full advantage of that larger-than- life presentation.
“We’ve been really pleased with the performance of our game titles on our VertX Grand cabinet,” says Jean Venneman, chief operating officer of Gaming Arts. “The cabinet has shown to perform well on the floor, and it is visually stunning. And now we’ve got three additional new games that we think players are going to really, really enjoy.”
[...]
BRIAN CHRISTOPHER’S POP’N PAYS MORE
Gaming Arts, like a lot of slot manufacturers these days, has been aided in building popularity for new games by the new crop of “slot influencers”—YouTube stars who live stream slot play on new games, hosting their own play with enthusiastic narration of wins, losses, bonuses and game features, with some having far-reaching groups of fans and followers.
The top YouTube slot influencer is Brian Christopher, whose YouTube channel BCSlots has some 479,000 subscribers and has logged a remarkable 318 million views since its 2016 launch. Christopher himself, who has some 41,500 Instagram followers, has become a slot guru of sorts across America. Millions of fans have watched his videos—the average view time is an incredible 18 minutes— and have become familiar with his favorite slots any number of catch phrases he uses to get players excited about features of a given slot game.
The Plaza, located in Downtown Las Vegas, even has a special zone devoted solely to Christopher’s favorite games—a space he often uses to gather crowds of his fans to live-stream new games.
On July 7, he is doing that with his very own signature game—Brian Christopher’s Pop’N Pays More—which Gaming Arts designed with substantial input from Christopher himself.
“We are really appreciative of Brian and what he does,”Venneman says. “We were a very young slot supplier when we launched the original Pop’N Pays series in 2019.Brian found the game, loved the game and really helped promote the game on his channel. We feel that he really did aid and assist in getting that game out into the market and added to its success, by showing his enthusiasm for the game.”
When it came time to move the Pop’N Pays series—a family of games distinguished by fun themes and entertaining features—to the new VertX Grand cabinet, it was a no-brainer to create a Brian Christopher signature slot. “We’ve collaborated very closely with him to create a game that he loves,” says Venneman, “and to use his brand in a wonderful way that I think his player base will truly enjoy. It has endless voice-overs using many of his well-known sayings, and a lot of the imagery that’s related to him and his brand.”
Christopher says he was involved in designing the game from start to finish. “Pop’N Pays was already a hit among my fans, so when they asked me about partnering on a new version, I jumped on it,” he says. “They had already worked out what they wanted for their other iterations of Pop’N Pays More—Piñatas Ole and Big Top—and although you will notice many differences between them and my game, all three games in the series are remarkable.
“I offered up ways to add more features, and a ton more interaction. I was able to offer input on the music, the wording, symbols, sounds and performance. Nothing was off limits, so long as it kept to the Pop’N Pays brand.”
The Brian Christopher slot, with 1,047 ways to win in the base game, has a feature that expands reels 2–5 up to eight symbols high. At full expansion, there are 16,384 ways to win on every spin. There is a free game feature offering up to 15 free games with frequent re-triggers.
Throughout game play, Brian Christopher’s avatar pops up as cash-on-reels symbols. And he essentially hosts his own game, using his most popular catchphrases. “Oh Nelly!” after a big win. “Line it UP!” in anticipation of a winning spin. “Do it to it!” “It’s all about timing!” And one of the most clever and frequent: after a near-miss where a symbol lands just short of a combination—“Rude!”
“Aside from a few hidden Easter eggs that I’ll allow my fans to find, the Brian character can be super generous,” Christopher says. “If you’re missing one bonus symbol, Brian can say his catchphrase ‘Rude!’ and provide the third bonus symbol! If you have a full row of popping Brians but are missing an important one, Brian can place another one. In the bonus, the popping Brians can put up two or even three fingers to signify two or three prizes instead of the usual one in regular spins.”
“We’re really excited about working with Brian,” says Venneman.“ He’s been an amazing partner to work with, so we’re hopeful that his fans and players alike really enjoy this exciting new game.”
“We’re a perfect match,” adds Christopher. “We are both super innovative and forward thinking. As my fans already loved Pop’N Pays due to its constant action, fun bonuses and catchy music, this was the obvious choice.”
[...]
That’s the way it’s been with the VertX Grand cabinet from Las Vegas–based Gaming Arts. The VertX Grand, unveiled last summer, features an ultra-bright, 4K 49-inch portrait monitor, theater-quality sound, an ultra-bright LCD button deck, programmable LED play buttons, and attention-grabbing LED side lights.
Developed during the pandemic shutdowns of 2020, the format is hitting its stride this summer with three great games that take full advantage of that larger-than- life presentation.
“We’ve been really pleased with the performance of our game titles on our VertX Grand cabinet,” says Jean Venneman, chief operating officer of Gaming Arts. “The cabinet has shown to perform well on the floor, and it is visually stunning. And now we’ve got three additional new games that we think players are going to really, really enjoy.”
[...]
BRIAN CHRISTOPHER’S POP’N PAYS MORE
Gaming Arts, like a lot of slot manufacturers these days, has been aided in building popularity for new games by the new crop of “slot influencers”—YouTube stars who live stream slot play on new games, hosting their own play with enthusiastic narration of wins, losses, bonuses and game features, with some having far-reaching groups of fans and followers.
The top YouTube slot influencer is Brian Christopher, whose YouTube channel BCSlots has some 479,000 subscribers and has logged a remarkable 318 million views since its 2016 launch. Christopher himself, who has some 41,500 Instagram followers, has become a slot guru of sorts across America. Millions of fans have watched his videos—the average view time is an incredible 18 minutes— and have become familiar with his favorite slots any number of catch phrases he uses to get players excited about features of a given slot game.
The Plaza, located in Downtown Las Vegas, even has a special zone devoted solely to Christopher’s favorite games—a space he often uses to gather crowds of his fans to live-stream new games.
On July 7, he is doing that with his very own signature game—Brian Christopher’s Pop’N Pays More—which Gaming Arts designed with substantial input from Christopher himself.
“We are really appreciative of Brian and what he does,”Venneman says. “We were a very young slot supplier when we launched the original Pop’N Pays series in 2019.Brian found the game, loved the game and really helped promote the game on his channel. We feel that he really did aid and assist in getting that game out into the market and added to its success, by showing his enthusiasm for the game.”
When it came time to move the Pop’N Pays series—a family of games distinguished by fun themes and entertaining features—to the new VertX Grand cabinet, it was a no-brainer to create a Brian Christopher signature slot. “We’ve collaborated very closely with him to create a game that he loves,” says Venneman, “and to use his brand in a wonderful way that I think his player base will truly enjoy. It has endless voice-overs using many of his well-known sayings, and a lot of the imagery that’s related to him and his brand.”
Christopher says he was involved in designing the game from start to finish. “Pop’N Pays was already a hit among my fans, so when they asked me about partnering on a new version, I jumped on it,” he says. “They had already worked out what they wanted for their other iterations of Pop’N Pays More—Piñatas Ole and Big Top—and although you will notice many differences between them and my game, all three games in the series are remarkable.
“I offered up ways to add more features, and a ton more interaction. I was able to offer input on the music, the wording, symbols, sounds and performance. Nothing was off limits, so long as it kept to the Pop’N Pays brand.”
The Brian Christopher slot, with 1,047 ways to win in the base game, has a feature that expands reels 2–5 up to eight symbols high. At full expansion, there are 16,384 ways to win on every spin. There is a free game feature offering up to 15 free games with frequent re-triggers.
Throughout game play, Brian Christopher’s avatar pops up as cash-on-reels symbols. And he essentially hosts his own game, using his most popular catchphrases. “Oh Nelly!” after a big win. “Line it UP!” in anticipation of a winning spin. “Do it to it!” “It’s all about timing!” And one of the most clever and frequent: after a near-miss where a symbol lands just short of a combination—“Rude!”
“Aside from a few hidden Easter eggs that I’ll allow my fans to find, the Brian character can be super generous,” Christopher says. “If you’re missing one bonus symbol, Brian can say his catchphrase ‘Rude!’ and provide the third bonus symbol! If you have a full row of popping Brians but are missing an important one, Brian can place another one. In the bonus, the popping Brians can put up two or even three fingers to signify two or three prizes instead of the usual one in regular spins.”
“We’re really excited about working with Brian,” says Venneman.“ He’s been an amazing partner to work with, so we’re hopeful that his fans and players alike really enjoy this exciting new game.”
“We’re a perfect match,” adds Christopher. “We are both super innovative and forward thinking. As my fans already loved Pop’N Pays due to its constant action, fun bonuses and catchy music, this was the obvious choice.”
[...]
Beat The Fish
Brian Christopher Unveils First-Ever Influencer-Branded Slot Machine
by Milica Zivic · July 14, 2022
Brian Christopher has unveiled his new slot machine, developed by Gaming Arts. It is the first-ever slot game based on a social media influencer.
In the casino world, we’ve seen slot machines based on all sorts of celebrities. Musicians and movie stars have been featured in hundreds of slot games now we’re seeing the release of the first-ever branded slot based on a social media influencer, as Brian Christopher (known as BCSlots on YouTube) has unveiled his new slot machine at the Plaza Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
About Brian Christopher’s Pop’n Pays More Slot Machine
Yesterday, BCSlots showcased his new Pop’n Pays More slot machine live at the Plaza Hotel and Casino. His face features front-and-center on the cabinet, which was designed by Gaming Arts – a leader in land-based slot machines.
“Gaming Arts is delighted to partner with Brian Christopher Slots in the first ever collaboration of this type. This game is as groundbreaking as it is fun, combining our proven successful brand with the one-of-a-kind influencer, Mr. Brian Christopher” – Jean Venneman, COO of Gaming Arts.
The Pop’n Pays series is already very popular at casinos Across America and Brian Christopher’s new game takes things to a whole new level. The main feature of this game is the reel expansion, as reels randomly stretch upwards to award more ways to win. According to his preview, every 7 in 10 spins should see a feature triggered.
He live streamed the entire event, and it drew his largest-ever online crowd. More than 19,000 viewers tuned in to watch Brian Christopher, with his friends, family and slot fans, show of the slot machine’s features.
Where You Can Play Brian Christopher’s Pop’n Pays More
If you’re excited to try out this first-of-its-kind slot machine, it will launched at several casinos in the coming days. At the time of writing, the full list of casinos that will carry Brian Christopher’s Pop’n Pays More is:
Standing Out in A Competitive Gaming Market
The casino market continues to grow, with more and more game development studios throwing their hats into the ring. This means that studios have to work hard to ensure that they stand out from the crowd in order to attract players to their games on a crowded casino floor.
About Brian Christopher’s Pop’n Pays More Slot Machine
Yesterday, BCSlots showcased his new Pop’n Pays More slot machine live at the Plaza Hotel and Casino. His face features front-and-center on the cabinet, which was designed by Gaming Arts – a leader in land-based slot machines.
“Gaming Arts is delighted to partner with Brian Christopher Slots in the first ever collaboration of this type. This game is as groundbreaking as it is fun, combining our proven successful brand with the one-of-a-kind influencer, Mr. Brian Christopher” – Jean Venneman, COO of Gaming Arts.
The Pop’n Pays series is already very popular at casinos Across America and Brian Christopher’s new game takes things to a whole new level. The main feature of this game is the reel expansion, as reels randomly stretch upwards to award more ways to win. According to his preview, every 7 in 10 spins should see a feature triggered.
He live streamed the entire event, and it drew his largest-ever online crowd. More than 19,000 viewers tuned in to watch Brian Christopher, with his friends, family and slot fans, show of the slot machine’s features.
Where You Can Play Brian Christopher’s Pop’n Pays More
If you’re excited to try out this first-of-its-kind slot machine, it will launched at several casinos in the coming days. At the time of writing, the full list of casinos that will carry Brian Christopher’s Pop’n Pays More is:
- Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma
- Plaza Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada
- Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada
- M Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada
- Grand Casino in Hinckley, Minnesota
- Agua Caliente in Palm Spins, Cathedral City and Rancho Mirage in California
- Gila River Resort and Casino in Wild Horse Pass, Arizona
- Harrah’s Ak-Chin in Maricopa, Arizona
- Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona
Standing Out in A Competitive Gaming Market
The casino market continues to grow, with more and more game development studios throwing their hats into the ring. This means that studios have to work hard to ensure that they stand out from the crowd in order to attract players to their games on a crowded casino floor.
Brand slot games are always a big hit, with celebrities like Britney Spears, Ellen Degeneres and Dolly Parton having released their own games. So, Gaming Art had to really think outside of the box in order to put a new spin on celeb-centric slot machines. We’re sure that Brian Christopher’s slot machine will start a new trend with other influences creating their own branded games soon.
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Influencer immortalized: YouTuber Brian Christopher now has a slot to call his own
by McKenna Ross, Las Vegas Review-Journal · July 7, 2022
Gaming America
YouTube personality Brian Christopher launches slot machine at Plaza in Las Vegas
by Gaming America · July 7, 2022
The licensing agreement with the internet star marks one of the first of its kind.
YouTube personality Brian Christopher has launched his slot machine, Pop’N Pays More, at the Plaza in Las Vegas. The first play was livestreamed for thousands of viewers via a cellphone.
Pop’N Pays More was created by Gaming Arts, a Las Vegas-based manufacturer and features Christopher’s likeness. Three new slot machines were installed in Christopher’s section of the casino. Christopher has partnered with Plaza on other casino projects for years.
Licensing deals with celebrities are not a new concept. Artists like Madonna and pop culture icons like Homer Simpson have been a part of slot machine licensing agreements for many years. However, a deal with an internet celebrity and social media personality is a relatively new concept.
This deal is also unique because of Christopher’s familiarity with slot machines and gaming.
Gaming Arts CEO Mike Dreitzer commented: “As a slot manufacturer, we keep our ear to the ground and see what’s going on out there. We were very impressed by the remarkable popularity of Brian and his legion of fans, and he’s a triumph.”
The Plaza is currently renovating to become a “social media friendly” space later in the year. The area will be smoke free as well and will provide an interactive space for guests and players who want to take photos by allowing them to bring cameras inside.
Plaza CEO Jonathan Jossel said: “I think it’s important to adapt with the time and social media, YouTubers are very important features in today’s society.
“Nobody isn’t taking pictures of everything that they see, so why deny that? Obviously, you have to follow game protection, you have to respect people’s privacy. But as long as you’re doing it within your own space, we want to encourage it and embrace it. That’s what we do.”
Dreitzer went on to comment about market trends and the influence social media has had in product development.
He concluded by saying: “This market is very competitive. We’re obviously looking for ways to bring interesting value to buyers. They want good content and it’s always getting better and better. We thought that this was a great way, given where social media is.”
Pop’N Pays More will be featured in several more casinos around the country, including M Resort and Palms locally and tribal casinos in Arizona, Oklahoma and Minnesota.
Christopher has an internet following of more than one million fans that span across several social media platforms.
Southern California Gaming Guide
Brian Christopher's Pop'N Pays More Game Debuts in July at Agua Caliente Casinos and Yaamava' Resort & Casino (Page 23)
by Southern California Gaming Guide · July 1, 2022
Industry leaders from Armadillo Studios – EveryMatrix, Relax Gaming, Evoplay & Gaming Arts discuss the increasing importance of influencers/streamers in the gaming industry
How important are influencers/streamers as a marketing medium for game manufacturers?
Razvan Haiduc:
They are very important. Getting the word out and advertising your product to the correct audience is becoming difficult and expensive in this increasingly competitive market. There is simply too much content coming out, so using your marketing budget wisely to reach your audience and differentiate your message is paramount. This is where streaming and influencers come into play. By some standards, this is still a brand new marketing channel, especially for the iGaming sector – but it is likely the most effective and (if used correctly) accurately targeted channel currently in existence. It reaches the end user directly – be it a user already familiar with the content (in the case of specialised streams) or demographics not yet exposed to the content (in the case of more generally oriented streamers).
Jean Venneman:
I think the rise of this category of influencers is great for the industry, especially for the manufacturers. It is an effective way for a viewer to get an unbiased, real-time experience of a slot game that can’t be mimicked in a demo video. Via the influencer, the viewer can go along for that emotional journey of wins and losses, and get a real sense of what kind of “ride” they can expect, how the bonuses work and how often they could potentially see them. It also helps create awareness of where the game is available for play. Of course, not all play sessions end positively for the influencer, so it’s important that they play a theme more than once.
Vladimir Malakchi:
Streamers and influencers play an important role in iGaming promotion. It's unusual to come across an operator that doesn't work with influencers. It's a win-win situation for all sides since operators create traffic and streamers get material. All they have to do now is package it up and put it out there creatively. Collaboration with streaming celebrities and other personalities seems logical for game developers since it provides the target audience with an already positive attitude towards a product. Marketing campaigns that capitalise on the influence of streamers often provide a fivefold increase in game revenue and a 30% increase in player numbers. We have approximately 45 streams of our games quarterly, generally resulting in a reach of 16.5 million potential players.
Marija Hammon:
In the last year or so, it has become quite apparent to us that leveraging streamers is an incredibly smart and savvy way for iGaming providers to reach players directly. We could see more and more people were turning towards platforms such as Twitch and YouTube to get information about new game releases, while being entertained at the same time. These streamers can bring light to games or features that might well have been overlooked had it not been for their keen eye. In this day and age, it’s fair to suggest that this exciting community of entertainers can make or break a game, so it’s important for studios such as ourselves to work harmoniously alongside them to ensure we can generate additional buzz around our product line.
What do game manufacturers look for in a streamer/influencer?
Razvan haiduc:
We can’t speak for every studio out there, but game developers should look at three main things when choosing a streamer or influencer. First, it’s important to look at the platform used, as some streaming platforms have limitations on the type of content that can be shown. Then, it’s important to understand the streamer. Ideally, it’s someone who’s specialised in the product, that can give feedback and do a reasonably accurate and enjoyable presentation. Or it can be someone who’s specialised in multiple products or content types and has a large following, so that they can put the game in the front of many eyeballs. Finally, we need to look at the cost – depending on the popularity of the influencer or streamer, budgets can expand and we must ensure that the benefits are worth the invested amount.
Jean Venneman:
As with anyone that the public relies on for information and suggestions, it’s important that the influencer is being honest and unbiased in their opinion and experience on a game. Objective comments are welcome and can be helpful to the manufacturer of the game. Future game design decisions could be impacted based on comments about what an influencer likes or doesn’t like.
Vladimir Malakchi:
One of the key criteria that have to be taken into consideration upon searching for the ideal influencer has to be the casinos they work with. A game developer is interested only in closing a deal with an influencer who plays at online casinos where their games are present. The goal is to drive traffic to the websites where your products are on offer. Another determining factor is markets where streamers have already established a presence. A match between our target markets and a streamer's emphasis regions is essential. More specifically, some of them require a licence, which is another major factor to consider. To summarise, geo, audience, the number of views, and the way a streamer distributes their content are what we take into consideration when choosing a person to work with.
Marija Hammon:
We wouldn’t be telling the truth if we didn’t say one of the first things game manufacturers look for in a streamer is a strong community and loyal following. Ultimately, we all want to ensure that our content is being viewed by a fanbase hungry for exciting slot content. However, it’s equally important to us that these streamers possess qualities such as professionalism, consistency in their approach and objectivity. The latter being one of the most important factors – the moment someone decides to prioritise one studio over another, credibility goes out the window. It’s also tremendously helpful to work with streamers that are genuinely entertaining and passionate about the subject matter. It doesn’t matter how many subscribers or viewers a streamer has if they’re not showing enthusiasm and passion.
Do B2B suppliers employ streamers/influencers directly, or do they rely on streamers/influencers to cover their games organically?
Razvan Haiduc:
As suppliers of B2B content, we would be really happy if streamers organically picked up our products, but the reality is that the more successful a streamer becomes, the higher the percentage of sponsored content. Employing a full-time streamer is perhaps not something we would consider, especially as a B2B provider. Our products cover a lot of markets and languages, so our marketing needs to take that into account. A better approach is to maintain active relationships with multiple influencers/streamers and target the marketing efforts based on required coverage, product or market specifics and local regulations.
Jean Venneman:
I can only speak for Gaming Arts, where we recently announced a partnership with Brian Christopher, who is one of the most visible and successful, if not the most visible and successful slot influencer. We will be featuring his branding on one of his favourite Gaming Arts themes, “Pop N Pays™” with a version called “Brian Christopher’s Pop N Pays More™.” We feel he has a large and loyal fan base that will seek out and enjoy this game.
Vladimir Malakchi:
At Evoplay, we've come across instances where streamers are the first to spotlight our games and show their audience how to play them. For us, it comes as no surprise that our games draw the attention of the entire entertainment industry, not only the iGaming sector. However, as a business, we continue to expand our B2C partnership network, while constantly on the lookout for fresh faces to help communicate the value of our products to a wider audience. We have a particular strategy for building mutually beneficial relationships with digital influencers, just as we do with other businesses.
Marija Hammon:
This can work in two ways. Firstly, there are streamers that’ll take payment in return for spending a considerable amount of time playing a game, during which the supplier might also offer affiliates sponsorships in the form of prizes they can hand out to their viewers. On the other hand, there are streamers that just pick up whatever game they feel like playing that day. Usually these are smaller streamers, looking to make a name for themselves. In many ways, these streamers are just as valuable as those that have tens of thousands of viewers – the key indicators we are looking for is their enthusiasm and that they care about their audience. In terms of reliability, I wouldn't say suppliers inherently rely on streamers, but that additional visibility is certainly worth having.
What do B2B suppliers have to do differently with streamers, as opposed to operators and affiliates?
Razvan Haiduc:
An operator (and to a lesser extent, an affiliate) has a very well-defined audience. Their goal is not to advertise an individual game, but multiple, to promote the platform and user experience as a whole. Sometimes, the focus ends up on specific games (for example streaming during a tournament or for particular player acquisition offers), but that is usually incidental. In the case of B2B suppliers, things are a bit different – we need to cover bigger markets and appeal to larger audiences. We cannot efficiently target the end user directly, so we need to cast a bigger net. Short sponsored streams with established streamers in multiple markets and languages are one way to do that. Alternatives are extensive reviews or instructional streams by specialised streamers with large international followings.
Jean Venneman:
As a manufacturer, we’d obviously love to see the influencers spend a lot of time on our games and sharing that experience with their audience. So just like our customers, if we hope that the influencer will give our new themes a chance, it could really help raise awareness of that new theme.
Vladimir Malakchi:
There isn't much of a difference for us in terms of whom we choose as partners. In all circumstances, our partnership strategy is based on the same principle: creating trusting and friendly relationships with both companies and individuals. We approach any business as if we are the people who stand behind it, and if it turns out that we share a common ground, nothing can prevent us from fruitful cooperation. It is easy for us to form long-term and respect-filled relationships as businesses want to work with us due to our seamless reputation in the market.
Marija Hammon:
To succeed with streamers, B2B suppliers have to ensure we have a good grasp of what the community is looking for. You can’t just throw any old game at a streamer and expect success overnight. It’s up to us as suppliers to create outstanding games. Streamers want entertainment value from games that produce high wins, which lead to memorable, thrilling and suspenseful moments for their audience. Naturally, this isn’t the same design we would employ for all player groups, so from a pure positioning point of view, we need to drive games that you feel are going to resonate within this scene. From a commercial standpoint, the discussion is also a very different one to that of an operator due to the propositional value, which is different to standard affiliation, where the aim is to direct attention to content. At the end of the day, what we all need to do is ensure that key USPs and game details are informed effectively so that players are receiving the right information. As long as that’s ensured, partnerships between the supplier and streamer should be strong and fruitful for all.
CDC Gaming Reports
Frank Floor Talk: Brian Christopher and Gaming Arts launch a new game together
by Buddy Frank, CDC Gaming Reports · June 22, 2022
If you’re wondering which new toy to buy for a young child, you’d be smart to watch videos from Ryan Kaji. He’s a “toy influencer” and has 16 million followers. Forbes estimates his net worth in 2022 at $100 million (not bad for a 10-year-old).
If you were selling makeup, Kim Kardashian with 206 million Instagram followers would be a good choice for promotion. But Portuguese athlete Cristiano Ronaldo has more followers than anyone at over 315 million. When the soccer star suggested that his followers stop drinking sugary Coca-Cola, the soda’s stock dropped $4 billion in a single day.
If you love video games, your go-to source is Sweden’s Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg. He’s the Number One (non-celebrity) internet influencer. On social media he’s known as “PewDiePie.” He has 111 million subscribers.
Hopefully, you have become aware that “influencers” are also having a profound impact on our casino world. They’ve gone from unknown to indispensable almost overnight (actually about five years). A positive review from one of these opinion leaders can turn an average slot game into a top performer.
These reality stars produce videos of their own slot play using real money (often live and unedited), showing the highs and lows of various machines. There are about a dozen popular personalities in the “slot influencer” space. But no one comes close to Brian Christopher. He has 1.3 million subscribers worldwide, a popular web site (https://www.bcslots.com ) and his viewers have watched his videos 700 million times.
Casinos now hire Christopher to play on their floors. Tradeshows seek his appearances. Carnival is working with him to host ocean voyages (“Brian Christopher Slot Cruises”). His new videos are posted daily, and you just aren’t au courant unless you own a “Rude” t-shirt (explanation below).
During the pandemic, when most casinos were closed, several slot machine manufacturers invited Christopher into their shuttered showrooms to hear his opinion of their new, un-released games. The obvious question becomes: instead of just evaluating existing products, why doesn’t someone ask Christopher to help them create a new slot machine?
That’s what veteran slot designer Jean Venneman, Chief Operating Officer at Gaming Arts, couldn’t help but wonder. They had invited Christopher to their Las Vegas office to thank him for some unsolicited positive reviews he’d produced on GA’s “Hamster Libre” and “Pop ‘N Pays” games. During their meeting, they mentioned that they were launching a new “VertX Grand 49” cabinet and were looking for game ideas.
It became a perfect match. Gaming Arts was small and nimble enough to put Christopher’s suggestions quickly into reality. “It came together naturally and made so much sense,” Venneman said. She had spent years developing games with IGT and Scientific Games. “We just decided to add Brian to our newest version of our already popular ‘Pop ‘N Pays’ on the new cabinet.”
While it is a safe bet that Britney Spears and other celebrities didn’t have much input on the game mechanics or bonus features of their “signature” products, that’s not the case with Christopher. Venneman gave him high credit when she gushed, “He knows his stuff and knows what makes a good game.”
Christopher had equal praise for the pairing. “Gaming Arts has been the perfect partner. They put a lot of trust in us, and they worked with us right down to the wire where I made a couple of tweaks to the game in the last week or two. They’ve been quick to act, and it’s been a great partnership.”
“We got Brian’s voice clips and imagery throughout the game,” Venneman added. “Our normal popping balloon bonuses have been replaced by Brian’s head popping out the prizes with Brian’s voice calling out the amounts.”
The VertX Grand cabinet features a 49” ultra hi-def 4k portrait screen with a 27” video topper (it’s just under 8 ½ ft tall). The sound is also top notch, with 2.1 channel audio and a powerful subwoofer. The new game is classified as “premium” but will be available in a variety of lease or purchase formats.
The theme is officially called “Brian Christopher’s Pop ‘N Pays MORE”. The game launch begins with a live streaming event from downtown Las Vegas’ Plaza Hotel & Casino at 5p.m. on July 6. That will be followed by a launch party open to the public on Friday evening, July 8, also at the Plaza (tickets are available at Christopher’s web site). That will mark the start of a multi-state release tour where Christopher will appear at several individual casinos as they introduce the game to their customers. Venneman called that an industry first.
Christopher was quick to say that his work with Gaming Arts would not influence or diminish his reviews of other competitors in the industry. He said he works with all the suppliers and offers honest reviews (good or bad; win or lose) from his actual game play (which is generally live and unedited).
Christopher lives in Palm Springs, CA, but the Las Vegas Plaza has become his second home. There, they dedicated an 80-game section of their floor to slots that Christopher personally selected: the “Brian Christopher Slots” area.
Just two weeks ago, the Plaza announced a major renovation which includes an expanded 2,500 sq. ft. non-smoking section (encompassing the BC Slots area) with new entrances, bar offerings and a Pinkbox Doughnuts shop.
Gaming Arts has been around since 2009, when they started as a leading supplier of bingo and keno products. In 2018, they hired now-CEO Mike Dreitzer as president (ex-Ainsworth). He quickly brought in Venneman and game developer Keith Kruczynski (ex-IGT & Bally). The company’s first slot hit was Pop ‘N Pays, released in 2019. Unfortunately, it arrived just as COVID shut down the industry. Regardless, in the latest May 2022 Game Performance Report from Eilers & Krejcik, Gaming Arts recorded seven of their new titles in the Top 25 of “New Games-Emerging Suppliers.” Two of the original Pop ‘N Pays variants remain on today’s Top Indexing Emerging Suppliers list three years after their release.
Chances are good that with Christopher’s input and influence, their latest game could end up on top of all those lists.
[NOTE: In many of his early videos, when Christopher just missed a bonus or a jackpot, he would often say, “That was rude.” When he asked fans to suggest a name for his new fan club, the overwhelming winner was “The Rudies,” thus the popularity of his “Rude” tee shirts.]
Las Vegas Sun
No more cherries and lemons: Technologically advanced slots appeal to younger crowd
by Bryan Horwath, Las Vegas Sun · February 6, 2022
As he meandered through Red Rock Resort, Aaron Bettale gravitated toward a slot machine featuring animated video of stampeding buffaloes and explosions of gold coins, ringing bells and the refrain of a disembodied voice exclaiming, “Buffalo.”
“I like the flashy stuff,” Bettale, who is in his 20s, said as he examined the Buffalo Link machine. “I don’t like the ones that just have the three sevens.” For casino operators, gamblers like Bettale, who recently moved to Las Vegas from Colorado, represent the coveted young adult demographic. The hope is young players can be cultivated into lifelong casino patrons. The average age of U.S. casino customers declined from about 50 in 2019 to 43 last year, according to the American Gaming Association. And 25% of casino patrons were under age 29, the group noted. The trend can at least partly be attributed to the coronavirus pandemic, said Jon Hanlin, a senior vice president of commercial strategy and business analytics for slot manufacturer Aristocrat Gaming. After movie theaters, concert halls, nightclubs and other entertainment venues closed during the early months of the pandemic in 2020, casinos were some of the first to reopen, Hanlin said. “That created a new bubble of people who had never frequented casinos before,” Hanlin said. Sign-ups for casino players club cards have skyrocketed among 21- to 35-year-olds, he said.
Red Rock has recently introduced a number of games geared toward young adults, including a skills-based offering called Megamatch-Jelly Kingdom, a cross between a video game — similar to Candy Crush Saga — and a traditional slot machine. Jelly Kingdom, which is now on the casino floors at six Station Casinos properties, is made by an Australian company called Wymac Development. Sally Bernard, a Las Vegas local who works as vice president of business development for Wymac, said young people “are more interested in slot machines these days compared to before the pandemic.”
“There are many variables to understand slot demographic behavior and how and why things have changed over time. When looking at data over the last dozen years prior to COVID-19, it had been on a steady decline,” she said. Another Wymac skill-based game, Fortunes of the Brave-Dragon Forge, recently went through testing at Green Valley Ranch in Henderson, Bernard said. The game, which has a feature where players can create a customized character, is expected to be formally introduced later this year. Last year, Aristocrat shipped out slot machines based on the 2021 remake of the science fiction movie “Dune” to some Las Vegas casinos, Hanlin said. The game was released about the same time as the remake, creating a cross-promotion opportunity at some Station Casinos properties with theaters. “We noticed that people coming out of the movie were more likely to try the game out,” Hanlin said. “We tried to capture that younger segment with our ‘Dune’ machines.” “Something else that has driven a younger audience is the willingness of casinos to allow for filming on the floor,” said Hanlin, who has previously worked as a regional vice president of slots for Caesars Entertainment.
“When I was a casino operator, we’d tell people to put their phones down. That’s changed in the last three or four years,” Hanlin said. “People are filming and I can tell you they’re not posting anything about losing on social media. They’re posting about hitting jackpots. It creates a younger vibe.” Brian Christopher, a California resident and slots aficionado who runs a YouTube page with more than 450,000 subscribers, is one of the most well-known personalities in the slot machine social media world. Aristocrat welcomed Christopher last year to its Las Vegas complex to play the Buffalo Link game before it hit the casino floor. “Even just in the past year and a half, our audience has gotten a lot younger,” Christopher said. “The pandemic may have helped a little in the beginning when people just needed a place to go, but it’s more than that. Right now, it’s the male millennial that is driving the YouTube page and my videos.” Christopher said his YouTube channel, which features live game demonstrations and video blogs, can help familiarize people with the casino scene. He said certain casinos seemed to “get it” by having an active presence on social media channels, which can help to market to a younger demographic. In Las Vegas, he mentioned the Plaza and Cosmopolitan as being forward-thinking in that regard.
“My fans make the comment a lot that they try new games that we highlight,” Christopher said. “What we do is important in helping people understand what’s going on. It can be very overwhelming to sit at a slot machine that you’ve never played before. We’re no longer talking about a three-wheel game.” “There are fun and exciting games with fun and exciting bonuses,” Christopher said. “If I look at the games that my parents or grandparents played, they don’t excite me. Now, we’re always on our mobile devices or in front of a TV screen and these games match that.” Michael Green, an associate professor of history at UNLV who follows the region’s gaming industry, said technological advances in the presentation and complexity of slot machines have played a big role in attracting more millennial and Generation Z players.
“Younger people have grown accustomed to smartphones and devices on their wrists, and slots have advanced technologically too,” Green said. “I think back to when people used to stand there, pull a handle and watch a wheel spin and pop up cherry, cherry, lemon. The technology has advanced a lot.”
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Wheel of Fortune still top slot 25 years later
by Richard N Velotta, Las Vegas Review-Journal · August 5, 2021
You hear it all the time across the casino, the siren’s call to come play. Wheel … of … Fortune!
The game’s sound effects, tones and melodies peeled from the popular television game show are just one of the reasons IGT’s most popular slot machine has endured for 25 years. Since June 15 and over the next several months through Dec. 1, the company is observing “25 Weeks of Wheel of Fortune,” a silver anniversary tribute to the brand that includes special giveaways through the Wheel Facebook page. IGT says Wheel of Fortune marked the first licensed slot machine brand and is a forerunner for many more themed games featuring prominent movies, television shows and celebrities. And while Wheel of Fortune has a big visual impact on the casino floor with its 250 different game variations — some of them in cabinets that are more than 11 feet tall — it’s the sounds they make that seem to keep fans coming back.
Wheel zone
“You can’t walk across a casino floor without hearing it,” said Boris Hallerbach, IGT’s director of product management for premium products in Reno. “It’s like the games are calling out to the players.” That’s the same impression Plaza CEO Jonathan Jossel has. The downtown property has the Wheel of Fortune Slots Zone where a mix of different variations of the machine are grouped together. “It’s iconic,” Jossel said. “It’s the sound of the game, everyone knows those noises of the Wheel of Fortune game, whether you hear them in the airport or in the casino. It’s the first sound you hear when you get to Las Vegas and the last sound you hear when you leave. It’s almost synonymous with Vegas, that Wheel of Fortune song and the sound of those reels.” But those sounds traveled a lengthy path to get to the casino floor. By Hallerbach’s account, it began when former IGT Chairman Charles Mathewson attended an awards dinner and by “happy accident” sat next to an executive from Sony Pictures Television. During the dinner, they chatted about the potential of teaming to develop a game show collaboration on a slot machine. It wasn’t a slam-dunk deal. In 1996, when the details were being worked out, gaming still carried a stigma. “Getting an entertainment and television company to consider their content on slot machines was a little difficult,” Hallerbach said. “Sensitivity to how we represented the slot game and the experience was important and we wanted to have some separation from the television show and the slot machine.” While 1996 is acknowledged as the year Wheel of Fortune was born, a significant development occurred a decade earlier that eventually would create much of Wheel’s success.
Wide-area progressive jackpots
IGT introduced wide-area progressive jackpots, essentially linking machines from a broad area that feed money into one prize pool. IGT introduced the concept with another king of the slot floor, Megabucks. Ten years later, Wheel of Fortune would borrow the wide-area progressive system, assuring that some of the game’s biggest winners would become millionaires. The earliest Wheel of Fortune game that came out didn’t even have a wheel. It was just a three-reeled mechanical-reel nickel slot game with the game-show theme.
Anchor’s role
Around that time, a small Las Vegas company, Anchor Gaming, had a patented wheel that was a perfect fit to incorporate into Wheel of Fortune play. Anchor made slot games, including its Wheel of Gold, and operated casinos in Cripple Creek and Black Hawk, Colorado, and a tribal casino in California. But its biggest contribution to the industry was supplying the wheel that made Wheel of Fortune famous. IGT at first leased the rights to use the wheel. But in 2001, IGT had grown to a dominating international presence and acquired Anchor in a stock deal for $1.1 billion, forming, at the time, Nevada’s largest publicly traded company. “We used that wheel from Anchor in the process and created the game that combined the Wheel of Fortune brand with strong IGT base games like Double Diamond and created something that really struck a positive nerve with players,” Hallerbach said. “It was the first brand in slots and people with their familiarity with the show on television every night I think had an instant affinity to the Wheel of Fortune slot game.” With the popularity of the Wheel slot and the TV show climbing, IGT’s network of studios began inventing variations of the game that turned out to be as popular as the earliest versions. IGT introduced the video version of Wheel in 2001. As technology improved, IGT added more pay lines and mixed in more denominations for play, attracting a wider audience for the game. In 2006, IGT introduced the “Wheel of Fortune Super Spin,” a vehicle to get more people to the game’s bonus features faster. In 2009, thanks to those wide-area progressive jackpots, Wheel delivered its largest jackpot of all time, $14.4 million, to a gambler in Biloxi, Mississippi. Cabinets and displays got bigger for the game. Some versions had seats for multiple players. The graphics got crisper and more realistic. When IGT first promoted its True 3D screen products in 2016, the TV show’s Vanna White met and took pictures with people attending the Global Gaming Expo trade show in Las Vegas that year. She received the ceremonial Key to the City of Las Vegas as part of the celebration.
MegaTower arrives
IGT followed with the Wheel of Fortune MegaTower, standing just over 11 feet tall, in 2017, and in 2018, the company introduced a new visual element of the game, True 4D, in which elements of the game seemingly jump off the video screen and into the player’s lap. A total 250 different variations of the game currently are offered, and today players can sit down and play while the voices of host Pat Sajak along with co-host and letter-turner Vanna White interact with them. Players might also hear Jim Thornton, the television show’s announcer, whose voice also appears on Wheel slot games. For proprietary reasons, IGT officials won’t say how many Wheel of Fortune games are installed on casino floors across North America where the game is most popular, but Nick Khin, IGT’s chief operating officer for gaming, said it’s in the thousands. “Players are very loyal to the product; they trust the game because it’s been on casino floors for so long,” Khin said. “They’re very comfortable with it and many players have a relationship with the game that goes back a long time. Players will come to the casino specifically looking for that game.” The sounds, the progressive jackpots and the familiarity of the game has enabled Wheel of Fortune to develop a diverse player base. Another way IGT keeps Wheel in front of people is through lottery tickets. IGT is one of the largest worldwide operators of lottery games. In the United States, the company sells lottery tickets in 25 states. West of the Mississippi River, they can be bought in Oregon, Idaho, Arizona, New Mexico, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota and Texas.
Social media influencer
Possibly the most recognizable Wheel of Fortune slot machine player in the country is social media influencer Brian Christopher, a Toronto actor who moved to Southern California to try to make it in Hollywood and ended up becoming a YouTube sensation. “One day, I posted a couple of funny videos of me gambling and those videos ended up going viral,” Christopher said of the birth of bcslots.com and his company, BC Slots. Christopher travels around the country, mostly in the Southwest, and comes to Las Vegas several times a year, making YouTube videos of him playing and explaining slot machines. “I show how you win, how you lose and the excitement of just playing,” he said. He admits the variations of Wheel of Fortune are his favorites and notes that when he produces a livestream of him playing, one of his more than 500,000 fans invariably ask him to play a Wheel game. As much as possible, he obliges. “I think we all grew up with Wheel of Fortune at home and the excitement around it,” he said. “It was always a family game and something all ages could all enjoy together. I think everyone’s dream is to spin the wheel. Now you have a chance to do that in the casino. “Honestly, spinning wheels is always an exciting part of any slot machine, so when you mix the two things together you get this amazing game,” Christopher said. “And, of course, we’ve all come to love Vanna White and you see her in a lot of the newer games, interacting with the guests. There’s always the excitement of maybe this will be the one spin where I hit it big.” Christopher started off playing the low-denomination Wheel games and branched out as he became more financially stable with the sale of BC Slots merchandise on his website — hats, T-shirts, sweatshirts, lucky wristbands and, more recently, masks. A few years ago, Christopher was in the middle of a livestream when he won $10,000 playing Wheel of Fortune. He duplicated the feat in June while playing at Park MGM, a new favorite for him because he’s become an advocate for smoke-free casinos. When Plaza’s Jossel had Christopher on as a guest on his “On the Corner of Main Street” podcast, Christopher was asked what the future held for BC Slots and he half jokingly suggested that a resort produce a Brian Christopher-themed hotel room or slot machine area. Jossel took him up on the idea and produced an area in the Plaza casino — smoke-free, of course — that features Christopher’s favorite slot games. The only thing missing is a Wheel of Fortune game, but that’s OK with him because Plaza’s Wheel of Fortune Zone is right near him on the floor.
What’s next?
So what’s next for the nation’s most popular slot machine? Right now, IGT is enjoying the attention of the “25 Weeks of Wheel of Fortune” promotion that ends Dec. 1. IGT’s studios are working to come up with more game variations. “For 25 years, IGT has artfully captured the fun, excitement and authenticity of the Wheel of Fortune brand through its world-class Wheel of Fortune Slots portfolio,” said Suzanne Prete, Sony Pictures Television’s senior vice president of global licensing and brand management. “Wheel of Fortune Slots’ jackpot-paying legacy and capacity to entertain people across diverse generations, geographies and channels perfectly align with the global Wheel of Fortune brand.” Asked about the prospect of developing a skill-based game that involves solving a Wheel of Fortune word puzzle as they do on the game show, Hallenbach and Khin said there are no plans in the works — but Christopher thought it would be a cool feature if it could be done.
CDC Gaming Reports
Nonsmoking advocates insist smoking bans are good for casinos
by Rege Behe, CDC Gaming Reports · April 28, 2021
CDC Gaming Reports
Nonsmoking advocates insist smoking bans are good for casinos
by Rege Behe, CDC Gaming Reports · April 28, 2021
Mayor LaToya Cantrell of New Orleans was a councilwoman six years ago when she led an effort to ban smoking in casinos, bars, and restaurants in the city. Everywhere she went Cantrell was told that there was no way the measure would pass.
Instead, the New Orleans Smoke-Free Air Act passed by a 7-0 vote.
“We had the courage to stand up for our musicians who were saying their lungs were their instruments,” Cantrell said during a Wednesday conference call hosted by Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights. “We stood up for restaurants and bars and casinos, people who said we shouldn’t have to die to earn an honest living.”
In New Orleans, the indoor smoking ban affected just one casino – Harrah’s New Orleans – the only property operating within the city limits. Harrah’s created an outside smoking plaza for its customers.
Cantrell was one of several advocates who insist that nonsmoking casinos are not an impediment to the operators’ bottom lines, and are a boon to the health of employees. ANR President and CEO Cynthia Hallett said that because most brick-and-mortar casinos eliminated smoking because of health mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic, now is the time to continue those policies.
“We are urging casinos to keep these policies in place, even once the pandemic is behind us,” Hallett said.
Casinos have long resisted pleas to ban smoking, fearing they will alienate smokers. But according to slot influencer Brian Christopher, CEO of BC Slots who has more than 700,000 followers on his YouTube channel, those fears are misplaced. BC Slots surveyed its club members, and 19% of respondents were smokers.
“But a majority of them preferred nonsmoking casinos,” Christopher said, adding that 95% of all respondents stated a preference for nonsmoking casinos.
At least one casino that has banned smoking has no regrets. In November 2014, Ho-Chunk Casino Madison in Wisconsin decided to survey club members about their smoking preferences. The results were surprising.
“Gambling and smoking seemed to go hand in hand, but what we found out was 70% of our clientele was in favor of us going smoke-free,” said Missy Tracy, municipal relations coordinator for the casino.
Ho-Chunk went smoke-free in August 2015, and revenues “took a nice big dip,” Tracy said. “But by the fifteenth month, we exceeded revenue and we became our nation’s flagship casino. … Our headcount went down, but our coin in went up.”
Tracy added it’s also been easier to recruit new employees, many of whom are millennials who prefer to work in a non-smoking environment.
Small Screen
Top YouTube Channels for Casino Lovers
by Small Screen Staff · July 22, 2021
It isn’t uncommon for people to look to YouTubers when they need to learn more about a specific area of interest. You’ll find lots of fantastic resources for casinos if you are a fan of gambling video content. Obviously, most of the content will be about famous non-UK casinos similar to ones you can find on NonGamStopBets. However, it takes a lot of thorough searches to spot the best out of the lot. Here are the top YouTube channels for casino lovers:
BRIAN CHRISTOPHER
Brian Christopher is the host of the top-rated BCSlots DAILY YouTube channel, and you will find every single episode useful if you enjoy slot games. As a social media influencer whose video content revolves around the fun and highly rewarding world of the casino, Brian has more than 155,000 subscribers and records over 92 million views on every video. Brian has been a Forbes article subject, but it is fun to know he only started the YouTube channel as a hobby in 2016.
At the time, he was still a Hollywood actor. Once he realized that his subscriber count had begun to grow, he finally gave up his day job and fully committed to his channel. Much of his channel’s success is attributed to the fact that he posts his videos daily, but that’s not to dismiss their brilliance in any way. Travelling across the United States, Christopher Brian’s content primarily shows live streams of him visiting various casinos, losing, winning, and reacting in his trademark manner. He’s really great at what he does that he now has a fan club, who call themselves the Rudies.
VEGASLOWROLLER
Look past the funny name, and visit this YouTube channel with more than 80,000 subscribers. VegasLowRoller is one hugely popular YouTube personality who offers excellent content. His videos have an estimated combined view count of about 51 million, which tells so much about their quality. Based in Las Vegas, this channel is focused on his love affair with casino slots (popularly known as the one-armed bandit or fruit machine). He often travels around the many casinos in the city, filming his juicy wins and sharing them with everyone who cares to follow his channel. Although he calls himself a low roller, he’s still very successful, and that makes his content ideal for anyone who loves slots and needs the motivation to try a couple.
AMERICAN CASINO GUIDE
If the American Casino Guide sounds familiar, it’s because it has been published every year since 1992 and has been the number one bestselling publication in America on the subject of gambling and casinos. It has a very famous YouTube channel counterpart, with more than 85,000 subscribers and nearly 29 million regular views. Author Steve Bourie runs this YouTube channel, and it provides viewers with useful strategies and tips on how to be a super, more intelligent gambler, touching everything from baccarat to poker.
Poker is possibly the most loved and renowned gambling game, and a few historians claim it dates as far back as a 10th-century Chinese emperor! On the other hand, baccarat is a simple casino game where you get to draw three cards and place a bet on whether the dealer or you will be favoured. Covering every aspect of the play in a detailed manner is a very useful channel for players who want to play for real soon.
ROCKNROLLA’S GAMBLING CHANNEL
Although his choice of language is quite colourful and may not be the perfect choice for a more conservative player, this remains one YouTube personality who knows how to carry his viewers along with him as he experiences every high and low. Engaging, genuine, knowledgeable, and never attempting to avoid betting it all, his channel is a perfect place for some fantastic viewing.
SO, WHY SHOULD YOU WATCH IT?
Some people can easily feel an aversion to entitling other’s to success simply for doing what they enjoy. But while the YouTube high rollers live every day to share videos of themselves doing just that, you can’t deny the fact that their win count both in views and in their game is impressive. Plus, there’s a boatload of varied content out there with a dedication to a casino that it can’t be cake work to make the top ranks the way these guys have done.
However, it’s super easy to see how dedicated they are to what they do and how much knowledge they want to share with viewers with their engaging and honest presentational styles. Many other YouTubers put in a lot of work to create and deliver fantastic casino content, but these are a few of the ones you can bet your bottom dollar on.
Best US Casinos
YouTube social media influencer designs casino's slots floor
by Jeremiah Booker, Best US Casinos · February 27, 2021
10 years ago, you might have never guessed that a YouTuber playing slot machines would be a big deal. However, slots social media influencers have become quite popular.
Brian Christopher is one of the more-popular influencers. He’s amassed a YouTube following of over 336,000 thanks to his entertaining videos.
Christopher has become so big in the gaming world that he recently got the chance to design a casino’s real money slots area. You can read more on Christopher along with the details on his new venture.
“Brian Christopher Slots at the Plaza” Launches in Las VegasThe Plaza Hotel & Casino Las Vegas has teamed up with Christopher to present a newly designed slots section. Brian Christopher Slots at the Plaza features many of the YouTuber’s favorite slot machines in one spot.
Plaza CEO Jonathan Jossel spoke with the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Baily Schultz on the new gaming area. Jossel had this to say:
“Social media has transformed the casino experience, and we are very excited to partner with Brian on this unique space that I know our guests will enjoy.”
Some of the notable slot machines that are available in this space include Cleopatra II, Dollar Storm, Huff N Puff, and Lightning Zap. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held to celebrate the launch of this slots area, which includes 16 machines in all. Brian Christopher stated:
“For years, my fans have been asking which games were my favorite, and now I finally have a place where they can experience it for themselves, the new Brian Christopher Slots at the Plaza is like having my own miniature casino. I hand-selected the games that represent everything I love about playing slot machines.”
More on Brian Christopher
Christopher has been streaming his slots play for several years. He visits land-based casinos and provides glimpses of popular slot machines.
For example, one of his videos shows him playing Buffalo Gold and Dragon Cash for $25 per spin. Those who watch videos like these get to see games that they might not have played before along with high-stakes play.
After all, most gamblers can only afford to bet $1 or less per spin. Few have the bankroll to survive long with $25 spins.
Christopher’s videos have helped him draw over 302 million views to date. He’s arguably the most-influential slots influencer in the game today.
Slots & Casino Gaming YouTube Channels Are GrowingSlot machines are solo affairs that pit you against the games. Watching somebody else play slots doesn’t seem like it would be a thrill.
However, it actually does resonate with many gamblers. YouTubers like Christopher have gained large followings just by visiting casinos and playing slots.
SlotsLady is another popular influencer who has many followers. She often plays slot machines in downtown Vegas—rather than at the glitzier Vegas Strip venues.
Despite her name, SlotsLady also plays a fair amount of casino table games. She shows clips from blackjack, casino hold’em, and Let It Ride sessions.
The SlotsBoom channel showcases slot machines everywhere from Vegas to southern California. It offers in-depth explanations of how bonus rounds and other features work.
Launched in 2008, RocknRolla has been in the industry since the early days of YouTube. He plays a broad range of games, including blackjack, poker, roulette, and slot machines.
Casinodaddy is a popular YouTube channel that operates out of Europe. The three Swedish brothers who make up Casinodaddy offer highlight reels of their gambling sessions, including funny moments and big payouts.
What Will You Get Out of Following Casino YouTubers?
You can see that plenty of gamblers are gaining fame and fortune through their channels. But what exactly do they have to offer? Here are the main benefits to watching gaming YouTubers.
See Cool Casino Games
Unlike with online casinos, you can’t preview land-based casino games from home. You also can’t play them for free either.
They visit brick-and-mortar casinos and stream the games they’re playing. As a result, you get to see different land-based slot machines without even leaving the house.
Learn the Basics
The casino is an intimidating place when you’re new to gambling. You may wonder around aimlessly looking at all of the slots and table games.
As with SlotsBoom and VegasLowRoller, some YouTubers gear content towards beginners. They show everything from how certain slots bonuses work to the basics of blackjack.
Of course, you can learn some of this through basic research. However, social media influencers provide visual game instructions and familiarity with the casino environment.
Pick Up Gambling Tips
You can find slots strategy and tips for many other casino games across the internet. But you might also enjoy getting advice from YouTubers too.
A live streamer might play casino hold’em, for example, and provide tips afterward. They could also give advice on other strategic table games, such as blackjack, Caribbean stud, and three-card poker.
Check Out the Casinos
As mentioned before, visiting casinos takes time and money. You might not have enough cash to take a 2-hour casino trip—let alone fly out to visit Las Vegas or Atlantic City.
If you’re planning a future gambling trip someday, though, then you may appreciate seeing the casinos in advance. Watching a YouTube channel gives you a great look at a casino’s gaming floor.
Have Some Fun
You don’t always have to get something out of watching slots channels. Instead, you can just kick back and have fun.
If you’re a gambler, you may appreciate seeing a slots or blackjack session through the eyes of somebody else. You can critique their play, enjoy seeing new games, and celebrate in their big wins.
Will Gaming Social Media Influencers Stay Popular?
No slots YouTuber is anywhere close to taking over Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg (108 million subscribers) any time soon. However, this niche as a whole is definitely growing.
Back when RocknRolla started in 2008 hardly anybody was watching slots YouTubers. Things have changed greatly in this regard today.
Speaking of which, Christopher shows just how popular slots influencers have become. He has, after all, now designed a section of the Plaza’s slots floor.
Other slot machine YouTubers could also be in line for trend-setting moves like these. That said, you shouldn’t expect to see popular slots social media influencers going anywhere. They’ll only continue growing their audiences.
Should You Care About Social Media Influencers?
I don’t use social media much, and most of the old time gamblers I spend time around don’t either. For this reason, I don’t care much about what the social media influencers have to say about slot machines or gambling.
But I also know that the younger generation of gamblers uses social media a lot more than I do. And I also know that some of these influencers have a large sway over what some gamblers do and where they play.
If you’re a business owner you need to be aware of social media influencers. But if you’re just a gambler and don’t currently use social media much, there’s no need to start paying attention.
In the end, whether you care about watching real people gamble and what they have to do with slot machines is up to you.
Check Out Social Media Gamblers on YouTube
The slots YouTubing industry has become quite notable. Case in point, the Plaza Hotel and Casino tabbed Brian Christopher to choose some of their slot machines.
Christopher is a worthy choice for this honor. After all, he boasts more than 336k YouTube followers and 302 million-plus views.
The Plaza and Brian Christopher Slots may very well start a trend. It’s certainly possible that other casinos will partner with gambling YouTubers in various ventures.
The Press-Enterprise
5 construction and opening updates for Las Vegas
by Alex Groves, The Press-Enterprise · February 19, 2021
Contrary to the popular expression, what happens in Las Vegas doesn’t necessarily stay there, especially if that thing is news about long awaited projects and attractions — and there’s a lot to share on that front lately.
Casino operators and developers have recently been reversing course on a lot of the decisions they made earlier in the pandemic. Resorts that have been shuttering midweek plan to go back to full-time operation, attractions have opened up for tourists for the first time and the finish line is in sight for long awaited projects.
Here’s a look at what’s happening in Sin City.
1. MGM Resorts to resume midweek operations
MGM Resorts International announced Wednesday, Feb. 17, that it would resume 24/7 hotel operations beginning March 3 at its properties that had been closing midweek, including Mandalay Bay, Park MGM and The Mirage.
Those properties had been closing as travel waned due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, but MGM Resorts’ CEO and President Bill Hornbuckle said in the news release that the company was beginning to see “positive signs” about the public’s interest in traveling.
That increased interest, coupled with progress on vaccinations and decreasing numbers of COVID-19 cases, made resuming full-week operations an important step for the company, according to Hornbuckle.
2. Virgin Hotels Las Vegas announces planned opening
After pushing back its planned Jan. 15 opening date because of the novel coronavirus pandemic, Virgin Hotels Las Vegas now plans to open on Thursday, March 25, according to a news release from JC Hospitality, the company that owns the property.
Richard “Boz” Bosworth, president and CEO of JC Hospitality, said in a statement that confidently announcing a new opening date has been a journey.
“Today we are not only celebrating the fact that we finally get to welcome back guests to the most exciting resort to open in Las Vegas in years, but we also get to bring our team members back to work,” the statement from Bosworth said.
The property will have 1,505 rooms, a five-acre pool area, event lawn and a theater that can fit 4,500 people.
It will also have the first tribally operated casino in the city with Mohegan Sun Casino at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, according to a news release. The 60,000-square-foot casino will have slots, table games, high-limit areas and a race and sports book.
3. Sin City’s newest art installation
A supermarket-themed art exhibition featuring installation-filled rooms and more than 250 unique art projects opened for the first time to the public on Thursday, Feb. 18.
Omega Mart, which bills itself as “America’s Most Exceptional Grocery Store,” opened in AREA15, an arts and entertainment district located minutes from the Las Vegas Strip. It’s the second permanent installation from Meow Wolf, a Santa Fe-based arts and entertainment company. More than 300 artists helped create the attraction, according to the news release.
Pictures of the space have already made their way to Instagram. Some parts of the exhibit seemed to be supermarket-themed, with surreal artworks filling mock store shelves. Other parts of the exhibit had an otherworldly kind of feel with glowing hallways and geometric structures rising to the ceiling.
Pandemic-related safety precautions were in place at the exhibit, including keeping ticket sales exclusively online, limiting capacity to 25% and requiring visits to wear face masks, get their temperature checked and maintain social distancing.
Tickets were $45 general admission (with discounts available for children, seniors, military and Nevada residents) and could be purchased by visiting the attraction’s website.
4. Brian Christopher expands his influence
When it comes to casino slot machines, influencer Brian Christopher has become a well-recognized authority. His YouTube channel has amassed more than 330,000 followers and Christopher even has his own dedicated fan club. Now his brand is expanding.
The Plaza Hotel & Casino debuted the new “Brian Christopher Slots at the Plaza” gaming area late last month. The new area features some of Christopher’s favorite slot machines, including Cleopatra II, Dollar Storm, Lightning Zap, Huff N Puff and others.
The area started with 16 machines when it debuted, but more were expected to be added, according to a news release.
5. The Strat opens new High Limit Room
The Strat Hotel, Casino & SkyPod celebrated the opening of a new high limit lounge and the beginning of Lunar New Year with a traditional lion dance on Feb. 14.
The 3,600-square-foot lounge has eight table games, an on-site casino host, tea service and five high-definition TVs around its center columns, according to a resort news release.
Table games include two double-deck blackjack games, one six-deck blackjack table where the dealer stands on soft 17 and five baccarat tables.
Casino.org
Plaza Casino to open slot area with Brian Christopher, targets younger players
by Ed Silverstein, Casino.org · January 29, 2021
The gaming area at the downtown property will provide players the chance to try their luck on the popular games they have seen Christopher play in videos posted on YouTube and Facebook.
It will open with 16 slot machines, and more will be added to the mix in the coming months. Slot games at the new Plaza space include: Cleopatra II, Dollar Storm, Lightning Zap, and Huff N Puff.
Christopher’s online channels have over 302 million views and some 528,000 followers, his company says. Often in videos, he is shown playing slots worldwide.
The gaming space at the casino will formally be known as “Brian Christopher Slots at the Plaza.” A ribbon-cutting for the gaming area is to take place at 4:30 pm Friday.
A Draw to Younger Players
“This is just trying to provide entertainment to a much younger group of gamblers,” said the Rev. Richard McGowan, a finance professor at Boston College who closely follows gambling trends, to Casino.org.
Slots have traditionally been associated with older age groups,” McGowan said. “So Brian Christopher made playing slots acceptable for a much younger age group.”
But there’s another benefit to the partnership, according to James P. Whelan, a psychology professor at the University of Memphis, where he also directs the Institute for Gambling Education and Research.
“From the psychological end, people will be drawn to things that they believe will be enjoyable,” Whelan told Casino.org. “Certainly, it will draw the attention to those familiar with Brian Christopher’s YouTube page.”
For decades, slots have been a draw for Las Vegas’s gaming properties. Last month, a lucky slot player at Las Vegas’s Suncoast Hotel and Casino got a historic present Christmas Eve after winning almost $15.5 million during a brief stop at the Boyd Gaming property.
GGR Remains Low in Vegas
But the new gaming space at the Plaza comes as Truist Securities recently reported that December gross gaming revenue (GGR) on the Strip was down 51 percent when comparing year-over-year. That represents “the worst Y/Y figure since a 61 percent decline in June,” Truist’s Barry Jonas said in a note to investors.
Slot GGR was down 55 percent year-over-year on the Strip, he added in the report about December totals.
In contrast, GGR for downtown Las Vegas declined 28 percent year-over-year in December. Jonas said it was “likely impacted by decreased tourism and visitation.”
GGR on the Strip in November totaled $349.8 million, according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board. That’s a 32.5 percent reduction from November 2019.
The Toronto Star
Rude! This Burlington man became a YouTube sensation playing slots and it’s now his full-time job
by Morgan Bocknek, The Toronto Star · December 3, 2020
Did you ever think you could base a career off of gambling? More specifically: did you ever think you could make a living entirely on playing slot machines? Brian Christopher certainly didn’t. But not only has he made it his livelihood, he’s a rock star in the gambling world.
Christopher, 39, grew up in Burlington, Ont. His YouTube channel has 190 million views as of Nov. 17 and an average of 207,000 daily views. His channel is growing exponentially and, on Nov. 15, he reached 300,000 subscribers. He’s celebrating by gambling $30,000 on slots via a live stream on Dec. 10 at 8 p.m. on Live.BCSlots.com at San Manuel Casino in Highland, Calif.
But Christopher didn’t start a YouTube slot channel on purpose, at least at the beginning. In early 2016, he was living in Los Angeles with his husband, Marco, working as an actor (as well as driving for Uber, Lyft and working for a catering company, as actors do). He’d appeared regularly on the small screen: Hallmark’s “The Christmas Parade,” a Tim Horton’s commercial, as well as various TV shows, including CTV’s “The Listener,” and BBC’s “Copper.” So when he recorded himself playing slots while on his second ever vacation to Las Vegas, it was on a whim.
“I decided I would record some of my slot play because I had seen people doing it on YouTube. And I thought that would be kind of fun to do. But I didn’t really think much of it, there was no plan of action of ‘I’m gonna make this my job,’ it was just ‘let me film this for fun,’” Christopher said.
On April 18, 2016, Christopher posted his first video, which he said he thought only his friends and family would watch. Within a month, his following was growing so rapidly that he was invited to the YouTube partner program, allowing him to earn money from his videos. YouTubers in the program make an average of $3 to $5 per 1,000 views, meaning a video with one million streams would net up to $5,000, according to software company Intuit.
“I decided you know what, maybe I should follow this and see where it takes me. And I’m glad I did,” he said.
Christopher made YouTube his full-time job. He started booking trips and travelling to casinos to film content. He decided he wanted to upload a new video every day, as no one else who was filming themselves playing slots was posting at that pace.
“I think that’s what really definitely helped my channel grow very rapidly as well. I had no idea where this was gonna take me, but I’m like, ‘This is so much fun.’ I love to gamble and I love to entertain and I’m doing everything together,” he said.
After one year, Christopher hired a video editor. He worked hard: on top of posting daily, he took classes on how to best use YouTube, attended conferences and constantly reached out to casinos across the U.S. to see if they were interested in hosting him. He was also genuinely good at being in front of the camera from the get-go, which he credits to his acting experience.
“I always pretend my audience is right there with me. It’s just me basically talking to them the whole time.”
In the first year, Christopher lost money overall on the machines, but said he knew he was going to profit soon, and not from the slot machines themselves.
“I was OK with (not profiting) at the time, because it was an investment. I could see, month over month, my viewership was growing, my income was growing, and I knew there was going to be a point where they would cross and I’d start making more money.”
He also routinely tells viewers that it is impossible to make money just by playing slots.
“Slot machines are designed to take your money. So I always tell people: ‘If you’ve made a dollar, cash out, take your money and run. Because you’ve already beat the system.’”
As his audience grew, so did their appetite for Christopher. They latched onto phrases he’d repeat. Christopher’s first catchphrase was “rude,” whenever he didn’t win on a spin. This became the foundation of his fan club, the Rudies, and the words Christopher would attach to his merchandise. This past June, Christopher continuously mispronounced the word “banzai” as “banza” whenever he won while playing a Karate Kid-themed slot machine during a livestream. His team, now a staff of five with an office, had shirts for sale featuring the word before the stream had ended.
Christopher’s most dedicated fans don’t just watch his videos. Many follow him on all social media platforms. While subscribing to a YouTube channel is free, many of his fans pay to join his tiered fan club, run through Patreon, where users choose incremental monthly fees to have more access to creators.
In Christopher’s case, $5 a month gets you access to a private Facebook group; $10 means he’ll follow you back on social platforms and give you access to monthly live chats. $20 gets you all that, plus occasional postcards. Christopher has over 2,000 members of his fan club. He also gives his fans the opportunity to gamble with him in real life.
“He continues to evolve to ensure his channel doesn’t get stale,” said Joshua O’Connell, 38, based in West Haven, Ct., who operates Know Your Slots, an educational gambling blog.
“I had been watching slot videos on YouTube for a few years by the time I found Brian. YouTube would periodically recommend new channels I had not encountered and Brian came up quite early in his channel’s existence. When he got started there were still only a handful of people doing it and now there’s hundreds,” O’Connell said.
O’Connell first went to a meetup Christopher hosted in New York City in late 2017 and said he’s been to “easily a dozen” meetups since.
O’Connell attended the first “Rudies Weekend” and combined money with another Rudie. They ended up winning O’Connell’s first and only “hand pay,” meaning a win of $1,200 or more. This amount has to be filed with the U.S. federal government and casino staff will typically bring cash winnings over by hand.
“Some of my experiences with other fans are among the most fond memories I have from visiting casinos in recent years,” he said.
Even with the COVID-19 pandemic tearing through the United States, Rudies are still coming to see Christopher play slots. The main differences are they’re physically distant and masked, often wearing a Brian Christopher branded mask. To date, they’ve sold over 15,000 masks.
The Centers for Disease Control, a United States federal agency, has put forward detailed considerations for reopening and reducing virus spread. Christopher notes that these rules vary by state. Though his channel had a bit of a lull in March, he’s now halfway booked through the next year. Christopher says some casinos currently see his channel as a way to promote how they have safely reopened with protective measures in place.
Christopher notes operators that told him a year ago they weren’t interested in hosting him have now changed their tune, often seeing it as a way to show patrons how they have safely reopened.
“You can put a billboard up or commercial up on the TV network. And maybe like 10 per cent or five per cent of people that watch it are actually your customers whereas, you know, when I put something up, 100 per cent of people watching are gamblers,” he said.
Another major industry that Christopher will pioneer through reopening is United States cruises. He’ll be celebrating his 40th birthday aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise liner for the “Rudies Cruise” in February, which is completely sold out online.
Royal Caribbean is currently running “test cruises” docked in the United States to prove to their customers and regulators that they can now operate safely, and plan to start sailing again once they have approval from the CDC. As of late last month, over 100,000 people had signed up for these trials.
“It’ll be a different feeling than our last few, but hopefully it’ll be great,” says Christopher.
Though he can travel through many states, he’s been unable to visit home, cancelling a trip to visit his family in September, unable to take two weeks off work to quarantine. But one of his next goals is to break into his home turf.
“They seem to be a little more hesitant to allowing a camera in the casino, but I’m hoping that one day we’ll be able to break (into the) market,” he said.
Christopher, 39, grew up in Burlington, Ont. His YouTube channel has 190 million views as of Nov. 17 and an average of 207,000 daily views. His channel is growing exponentially and, on Nov. 15, he reached 300,000 subscribers. He’s celebrating by gambling $30,000 on slots via a live stream on Dec. 10 at 8 p.m. on Live.BCSlots.com at San Manuel Casino in Highland, Calif.
But Christopher didn’t start a YouTube slot channel on purpose, at least at the beginning. In early 2016, he was living in Los Angeles with his husband, Marco, working as an actor (as well as driving for Uber, Lyft and working for a catering company, as actors do). He’d appeared regularly on the small screen: Hallmark’s “The Christmas Parade,” a Tim Horton’s commercial, as well as various TV shows, including CTV’s “The Listener,” and BBC’s “Copper.” So when he recorded himself playing slots while on his second ever vacation to Las Vegas, it was on a whim.
“I decided I would record some of my slot play because I had seen people doing it on YouTube. And I thought that would be kind of fun to do. But I didn’t really think much of it, there was no plan of action of ‘I’m gonna make this my job,’ it was just ‘let me film this for fun,’” Christopher said.
On April 18, 2016, Christopher posted his first video, which he said he thought only his friends and family would watch. Within a month, his following was growing so rapidly that he was invited to the YouTube partner program, allowing him to earn money from his videos. YouTubers in the program make an average of $3 to $5 per 1,000 views, meaning a video with one million streams would net up to $5,000, according to software company Intuit.
“I decided you know what, maybe I should follow this and see where it takes me. And I’m glad I did,” he said.
Christopher made YouTube his full-time job. He started booking trips and travelling to casinos to film content. He decided he wanted to upload a new video every day, as no one else who was filming themselves playing slots was posting at that pace.
“I think that’s what really definitely helped my channel grow very rapidly as well. I had no idea where this was gonna take me, but I’m like, ‘This is so much fun.’ I love to gamble and I love to entertain and I’m doing everything together,” he said.
After one year, Christopher hired a video editor. He worked hard: on top of posting daily, he took classes on how to best use YouTube, attended conferences and constantly reached out to casinos across the U.S. to see if they were interested in hosting him. He was also genuinely good at being in front of the camera from the get-go, which he credits to his acting experience.
“I always pretend my audience is right there with me. It’s just me basically talking to them the whole time.”
In the first year, Christopher lost money overall on the machines, but said he knew he was going to profit soon, and not from the slot machines themselves.
“I was OK with (not profiting) at the time, because it was an investment. I could see, month over month, my viewership was growing, my income was growing, and I knew there was going to be a point where they would cross and I’d start making more money.”
He also routinely tells viewers that it is impossible to make money just by playing slots.
“Slot machines are designed to take your money. So I always tell people: ‘If you’ve made a dollar, cash out, take your money and run. Because you’ve already beat the system.’”
As his audience grew, so did their appetite for Christopher. They latched onto phrases he’d repeat. Christopher’s first catchphrase was “rude,” whenever he didn’t win on a spin. This became the foundation of his fan club, the Rudies, and the words Christopher would attach to his merchandise. This past June, Christopher continuously mispronounced the word “banzai” as “banza” whenever he won while playing a Karate Kid-themed slot machine during a livestream. His team, now a staff of five with an office, had shirts for sale featuring the word before the stream had ended.
Christopher’s most dedicated fans don’t just watch his videos. Many follow him on all social media platforms. While subscribing to a YouTube channel is free, many of his fans pay to join his tiered fan club, run through Patreon, where users choose incremental monthly fees to have more access to creators.
In Christopher’s case, $5 a month gets you access to a private Facebook group; $10 means he’ll follow you back on social platforms and give you access to monthly live chats. $20 gets you all that, plus occasional postcards. Christopher has over 2,000 members of his fan club. He also gives his fans the opportunity to gamble with him in real life.
“He continues to evolve to ensure his channel doesn’t get stale,” said Joshua O’Connell, 38, based in West Haven, Ct., who operates Know Your Slots, an educational gambling blog.
“I had been watching slot videos on YouTube for a few years by the time I found Brian. YouTube would periodically recommend new channels I had not encountered and Brian came up quite early in his channel’s existence. When he got started there were still only a handful of people doing it and now there’s hundreds,” O’Connell said.
O’Connell first went to a meetup Christopher hosted in New York City in late 2017 and said he’s been to “easily a dozen” meetups since.
O’Connell attended the first “Rudies Weekend” and combined money with another Rudie. They ended up winning O’Connell’s first and only “hand pay,” meaning a win of $1,200 or more. This amount has to be filed with the U.S. federal government and casino staff will typically bring cash winnings over by hand.
“Some of my experiences with other fans are among the most fond memories I have from visiting casinos in recent years,” he said.
Even with the COVID-19 pandemic tearing through the United States, Rudies are still coming to see Christopher play slots. The main differences are they’re physically distant and masked, often wearing a Brian Christopher branded mask. To date, they’ve sold over 15,000 masks.
The Centers for Disease Control, a United States federal agency, has put forward detailed considerations for reopening and reducing virus spread. Christopher notes that these rules vary by state. Though his channel had a bit of a lull in March, he’s now halfway booked through the next year. Christopher says some casinos currently see his channel as a way to promote how they have safely reopened with protective measures in place.
Christopher notes operators that told him a year ago they weren’t interested in hosting him have now changed their tune, often seeing it as a way to show patrons how they have safely reopened.
“You can put a billboard up or commercial up on the TV network. And maybe like 10 per cent or five per cent of people that watch it are actually your customers whereas, you know, when I put something up, 100 per cent of people watching are gamblers,” he said.
Another major industry that Christopher will pioneer through reopening is United States cruises. He’ll be celebrating his 40th birthday aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise liner for the “Rudies Cruise” in February, which is completely sold out online.
Royal Caribbean is currently running “test cruises” docked in the United States to prove to their customers and regulators that they can now operate safely, and plan to start sailing again once they have approval from the CDC. As of late last month, over 100,000 people had signed up for these trials.
“It’ll be a different feeling than our last few, but hopefully it’ll be great,” says Christopher.
Though he can travel through many states, he’s been unable to visit home, cancelling a trip to visit his family in September, unable to take two weeks off work to quarantine. But one of his next goals is to break into his home turf.
“They seem to be a little more hesitant to allowing a camera in the casino, but I’m hoping that one day we’ll be able to break (into the) market,” he said.
The Press Enterprise
How to win slots and influence people
by Alex Groves, The Press Enterprise · November 6, 2020 at 9:34am
Influencer Brian Christopher is all smiles outside Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa Rancho Mirage on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2020. The popular YouTuber has an office not far away in Palm Springs. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
A few years ago, Brian Christopher had just moved to Los Angeles from San Francisco to build his acting career and planned his first trip to Las Vegas. When he did a quick search of YouTube for information on what casinos he should visit, Christopher found himself sucked into watching videos of people playing slot machines.
“I thought it was kind of weird that anyone would watch that kind of stuff, but I checked it out and I kept watching it so I said, ‘Oh maybe when I get up to Vegas, I’ll film a couple and put them on my YouTube acting channel just for fun’,” Christopher said. “So I did that for fun and it turned out to be more than that.”
Those videos blossomed into Christopher’s full-time career as an influencer. He’s turned his YouTube channel and various social media accounts into a business where he reaches a vast audience of a niche interest: casinos and slot machines.
Christopher makes videos of himself playing slot machines, showing off casino amenities and, more recently, talking about safety measures being taken by the casinos during the novel coronavirus pandemic. More than four years since that fateful trip to Las Vegas, he has racked up nearly 300,000 subscribers for his YouTube channel, Brian Christopher Slots, and has three full-time staffers helping him expand his increasingly popular brand.
Now, Christopher not only finds himself stopped by fans on gaming floors but also frequently invited out by the casinos to make videos.
“More and more they’re reaching out to us as they become more familiar with what we do,” he said. “I think when I first started doing this a casino would shy away from a camera being on their slot floor, but now that we have 180 million views on our channel, they realize, ‘Hey wait a minute, he’s onto something here.’ And we can utilize that.”
Building the brand
Before dedicating his YouTube channel to slot play, Christopher might have only visited a casino three or four times a year. Now, he visits casinos weekly, primarily in Southern California and Las Vegas.
Each visit usually spans about three nights. During the day he’s continuously filming content to be edited later and for two of the nights, he’ll stream his live slot play for 90 minutes each.
Christopher uses his own money to gamble with, but does earn free play with his player’s club cards like those any gambler can sign up for at various properties.
At his Palm Springs office, Christopher said, there’s a ton of preparation work. He’s always in meetings with casinos, slot manufacturers and other partners and working with his staff to make sure his videos have catchy titles that will draw the attention of audiences.
There’s also a merchandising side to what Christopher does: YouTube views on their own aren’t lucrative, so to support his business he does a mixture of sponsorships, fan clubs and products.
Christopher said his fan shop sells between 1,000 and 2,000 products a month. Merchandise on his website includes T-shirts, face masks, wrist bands, souvenir poker chips and lanyards.
He has also has a very active fan club of about 2,000 people. There are varying membership tiers ranging in cost from $5-$20 monthly. The most basic tier gives fans access to a special private Facebook page where they can see behind-the-scenes posts and special livestreams.
For the highest tier, Christopher will follow fans back on Facebook, Snapchat or Instagram; do monthly private live chats with his fans; and send his fans signed postcards that either feature his photo, or a photo he took, every three months.
YouTubing during the pandemic
Many of Christopher’s recent videos have been dedicated to casino safety measures during the novel coronavirus pandemic.
“Because of what I do people look up to me for advice on things related to the casinos and so I really wanted to make it a point to visit these casinos,” he said.
He estimated he’s visited 25 casinos in different parts of the country so far since casinos reopened after closing due to the coronavirus.
In his videos, Christopher will take his fans through the motions of what it’s like to visit casinos during the pandemic from before you enter to what it looks once you get onto the gaming floor itself.
Christopher said most casinos take the same safety measures, including mandatory masks and requiring social distancing, but some casinos have gone the extra mile. Some measures he thought were particularly interesting were the casinos changing out pens between each customer; putting cards indicating when a machine had just been cleaned in the slots for player’s club cards; and temperature checking guests before they even exited their vehicles.
A personal touch
Christopher said he isn’t afraid to get personal in his videos, telling stories about his life when he’s not spinning the reels. He said he’s frequently stopped by fans who talk to him about the experiences he’s shared as well as his positive energy in videos.
“That means the world to me that we can have that kind of impact by just playing slot machines and having a good time,” he said.
“I thought it was kind of weird that anyone would watch that kind of stuff, but I checked it out and I kept watching it so I said, ‘Oh maybe when I get up to Vegas, I’ll film a couple and put them on my YouTube acting channel just for fun’,” Christopher said. “So I did that for fun and it turned out to be more than that.”
Those videos blossomed into Christopher’s full-time career as an influencer. He’s turned his YouTube channel and various social media accounts into a business where he reaches a vast audience of a niche interest: casinos and slot machines.
Christopher makes videos of himself playing slot machines, showing off casino amenities and, more recently, talking about safety measures being taken by the casinos during the novel coronavirus pandemic. More than four years since that fateful trip to Las Vegas, he has racked up nearly 300,000 subscribers for his YouTube channel, Brian Christopher Slots, and has three full-time staffers helping him expand his increasingly popular brand.
Now, Christopher not only finds himself stopped by fans on gaming floors but also frequently invited out by the casinos to make videos.
“More and more they’re reaching out to us as they become more familiar with what we do,” he said. “I think when I first started doing this a casino would shy away from a camera being on their slot floor, but now that we have 180 million views on our channel, they realize, ‘Hey wait a minute, he’s onto something here.’ And we can utilize that.”
Building the brand
Before dedicating his YouTube channel to slot play, Christopher might have only visited a casino three or four times a year. Now, he visits casinos weekly, primarily in Southern California and Las Vegas.
Each visit usually spans about three nights. During the day he’s continuously filming content to be edited later and for two of the nights, he’ll stream his live slot play for 90 minutes each.
Christopher uses his own money to gamble with, but does earn free play with his player’s club cards like those any gambler can sign up for at various properties.
At his Palm Springs office, Christopher said, there’s a ton of preparation work. He’s always in meetings with casinos, slot manufacturers and other partners and working with his staff to make sure his videos have catchy titles that will draw the attention of audiences.
There’s also a merchandising side to what Christopher does: YouTube views on their own aren’t lucrative, so to support his business he does a mixture of sponsorships, fan clubs and products.
Christopher said his fan shop sells between 1,000 and 2,000 products a month. Merchandise on his website includes T-shirts, face masks, wrist bands, souvenir poker chips and lanyards.
He has also has a very active fan club of about 2,000 people. There are varying membership tiers ranging in cost from $5-$20 monthly. The most basic tier gives fans access to a special private Facebook page where they can see behind-the-scenes posts and special livestreams.
For the highest tier, Christopher will follow fans back on Facebook, Snapchat or Instagram; do monthly private live chats with his fans; and send his fans signed postcards that either feature his photo, or a photo he took, every three months.
YouTubing during the pandemic
Many of Christopher’s recent videos have been dedicated to casino safety measures during the novel coronavirus pandemic.
“Because of what I do people look up to me for advice on things related to the casinos and so I really wanted to make it a point to visit these casinos,” he said.
He estimated he’s visited 25 casinos in different parts of the country so far since casinos reopened after closing due to the coronavirus.
In his videos, Christopher will take his fans through the motions of what it’s like to visit casinos during the pandemic from before you enter to what it looks once you get onto the gaming floor itself.
Christopher said most casinos take the same safety measures, including mandatory masks and requiring social distancing, but some casinos have gone the extra mile. Some measures he thought were particularly interesting were the casinos changing out pens between each customer; putting cards indicating when a machine had just been cleaned in the slots for player’s club cards; and temperature checking guests before they even exited their vehicles.
A personal touch
Christopher said he isn’t afraid to get personal in his videos, telling stories about his life when he’s not spinning the reels. He said he’s frequently stopped by fans who talk to him about the experiences he’s shared as well as his positive energy in videos.
“That means the world to me that we can have that kind of impact by just playing slot machines and having a good time,” he said.
Los Angeles Daily News
Southern California casinos welcome social media influencers who can bring in a crowd
by Alex Groves, The Press Enterprise · November 5, 2020
Brian Christopher plays a slot machine at Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa Rancho Mirage on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2020. Christopher’s YouTube channel, Brian Christopher Slots, has nearly 300,000 subscribers and has had more than 180 million views. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
There’s a certain kind of guest coveted by many of Southern California’s casinos, one who gets special access to the gaming floor, first dibs at a new restaurant or complimentary spa treatments and hotel stays.
But these perks aren’t being showered on just high rollers anymore; they’re increasingly being provided to social media influencers, whose currency is measured in views and followers rather than credit lines or stacks of cash.
As the role of social media continues to increase in society, casinos have increasingly embraced influencers — people who promote products or experiences for their niche but relatively large audiences on social media — hoping that their posts and videos will translate to more visitors walking through the casino doors.
Casinos such as San Manuel Casino near Highland, Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa near Cabazon and Harrah’s Resort Southern California in Northern San Diego County have brought influencers in for visits to expand their marketing reach, sometimes sharing new amenities or promotions at the properties and other times capitalizing on an idea from the influencer.
This shouldn’t be a surprise: Influencers have come into their own as marketing forces in the last few years in a range of industries, and so it’s unsurprising that casinos would want in on the action.
It’s a marked change from the early 2000s when people were often bothered by the idea that a blogger was being paid or doing product placement in their writing, said Heather Honea, chair of the marketing department at the Fowler College of Business at San Diego State University. However, with today’s social media influencers, people accept that the job is basically product placement — as long as the products endorsed fit the influencer’s brand.
According to guidelines issued by the Federal Trade Commission, influencers have to disclose when they’ve been paid or received something of significant value in exchange for their endorsement. However, if they receive a product for free with the expectation that they’ll promote or discuss the product, they don’t have to disclose that.
To attract influencers, casinos might promise lavish experiences or grant the influencer early access to a new amenity.
At Harrah’s Resort Southern California, time is spent getting to know influencers and what it is they’re looking to promote before they’re brought on the property so that a specialized itinerary can be put together to capitalize on the partnership, said Amber Lussier, Harrah’s director of resort marketing.
At Harrah’s, part of the marketing is telling the story of its own city, “Funner,” which has included honorary celebrity mayors such as David Hasselhoff and Rob Riggle. The swearing-in of the new mayor of Funner is one of the biggest influencer events at the resort.
“We really roll out the red the carpet and we customize everything that we do for them so when they show up, they’re going to walk out to a cabana that’s fully decked out with maybe a foot bath and their favorite beer in a bucket of ice and some balloons and decorations,” Lussier said.
San Manuel Casino has worked with influencers for almost five years, said General Manager Peter Arceo, and they have become an important part of the casino’s marketing strategy, particularly when the complex opens a new venue or amenity.
Fitting the brand
Some casinos are more selective in their approach to influencers.
Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa only does two or three engagements with influencers a year, according to Executive Director of Marketing Simon Farmer.
He said that the casino looks at a variety of factors beyond how many followers an influencer may have. Casino officials will consider the influencer’s content, how they represent themselves, what demographics they’re speaking to and where their audience is located. He said that if an influencer does not draw in an audience that’s traditionally apt to gamble or visit a casino, or if that audience is in a different geographic area, then they may not be the best choice to work with.
“It’s not simply reach or exposure for the sake of exposure that we’re looking for; we’re looking for effective exposure,” Farmer said.
Honea said that having a small audience isn’t necessarily a bad thing either.
“It can be really valuable to get a little more niche where they have a really committed set of loyal followers,” she said.
Michael Felci, public relations manager for Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, said Fantasy Springs doesn’t currently work with influencers. He said getting people in to play on the gaming floor is the most important thing and that Fantasy Springs’ research indicated there wasn’t enough of a crossover between their gaming customer base and social influencers.
“We haven’t seen enough data on that to make it a relevant thing for us at this point,” he said.
Casinos get influencer-friendly
Brian Christopher is a well-known YouTube influencer whose channel, Brian Christopher Slots, has amassed an audience of nearly 300,000 loyal fans.
He frequently visits casino floors in Southern California and elsewhere in the country to film videos of himself checking out the newest and most popular slot games. His channel and videos have grown more sophisticated over time, and now he also livestreams from gaming floors.
“We’re always trying to go the next step and see what else we can do that’s new and different and exciting,” he said.
Filming slots may not seem that groundbreaking when everyone has a video camera on their phone, but what Christopher is doing was — and still is — taboo. Many casinos still shy away from filming on the gaming floor, but some are warming up to it.
Arceo said Christopher was the first influencer San Manuel worked with after loosening the policy on taking photos and videos of slot play nearly 5 years ago.
Since that time, because of Christopher’s popularity, and San Manuel’s easy-going policy, the casino has seen more influencers putting together similar content — and they seem to be getting results.
“When we see people coming in within a day or two, or sometimes hours after a broadcast, then we know it works because it’s stimulated someone to get out of their house or wherever they’re at, walk in the door and search for the game that they just saw someone playing online,” he said.
The impact of the pandemic
Some casinos have even utilized influencers to help with their communication during the coronavirus pandemic.
When San Manuel reopened after a months-long closure on June 15, they invited Christopher and several other influencers to spread the word about the reopening and the casino’s safety precautions.
“We just said, ‘Look, when you come here, feel free to tell your followers what the difference is’,” Arceo said.
In his video, Christopher shared details about San Manuel doing two temperature checks and said he thought it was smart that staff had been professionally trained to ask COVID screening questions. Another YouTuber was quick to point out the thermal cameras and plexiglass.
And having someone else share that made all the difference, Arceo said.
“We can say it all day long, but I think when people see real people talking about it then it’s received better that way,” he said.
Lussier said she saw the number of influencers visiting Harrah’s decrease after it reopened from its coronavirus closure in May, which she attributed that to people being cautious about traveling and staying in hotels.
“We’ve seen a steady increase throughout the year, and now I feel like we’re cranking,” Lussier said. ” We’re almost back to where we were pre-COVID.”
Arceo anticipates that social media influencing will continue to rise in prominence and more people will adopt it as part of their strategy.
“I think most people don’t understand it,” he said. “They shy away from it because they don’t understand how it works, but I think just like anything else, once people get the hang of it and see how successful others have been with it, I think they’ll follow suit.”
But these perks aren’t being showered on just high rollers anymore; they’re increasingly being provided to social media influencers, whose currency is measured in views and followers rather than credit lines or stacks of cash.
As the role of social media continues to increase in society, casinos have increasingly embraced influencers — people who promote products or experiences for their niche but relatively large audiences on social media — hoping that their posts and videos will translate to more visitors walking through the casino doors.
Casinos such as San Manuel Casino near Highland, Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa near Cabazon and Harrah’s Resort Southern California in Northern San Diego County have brought influencers in for visits to expand their marketing reach, sometimes sharing new amenities or promotions at the properties and other times capitalizing on an idea from the influencer.
This shouldn’t be a surprise: Influencers have come into their own as marketing forces in the last few years in a range of industries, and so it’s unsurprising that casinos would want in on the action.
It’s a marked change from the early 2000s when people were often bothered by the idea that a blogger was being paid or doing product placement in their writing, said Heather Honea, chair of the marketing department at the Fowler College of Business at San Diego State University. However, with today’s social media influencers, people accept that the job is basically product placement — as long as the products endorsed fit the influencer’s brand.
According to guidelines issued by the Federal Trade Commission, influencers have to disclose when they’ve been paid or received something of significant value in exchange for their endorsement. However, if they receive a product for free with the expectation that they’ll promote or discuss the product, they don’t have to disclose that.
To attract influencers, casinos might promise lavish experiences or grant the influencer early access to a new amenity.
At Harrah’s Resort Southern California, time is spent getting to know influencers and what it is they’re looking to promote before they’re brought on the property so that a specialized itinerary can be put together to capitalize on the partnership, said Amber Lussier, Harrah’s director of resort marketing.
At Harrah’s, part of the marketing is telling the story of its own city, “Funner,” which has included honorary celebrity mayors such as David Hasselhoff and Rob Riggle. The swearing-in of the new mayor of Funner is one of the biggest influencer events at the resort.
“We really roll out the red the carpet and we customize everything that we do for them so when they show up, they’re going to walk out to a cabana that’s fully decked out with maybe a foot bath and their favorite beer in a bucket of ice and some balloons and decorations,” Lussier said.
San Manuel Casino has worked with influencers for almost five years, said General Manager Peter Arceo, and they have become an important part of the casino’s marketing strategy, particularly when the complex opens a new venue or amenity.
Fitting the brand
Some casinos are more selective in their approach to influencers.
Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa only does two or three engagements with influencers a year, according to Executive Director of Marketing Simon Farmer.
He said that the casino looks at a variety of factors beyond how many followers an influencer may have. Casino officials will consider the influencer’s content, how they represent themselves, what demographics they’re speaking to and where their audience is located. He said that if an influencer does not draw in an audience that’s traditionally apt to gamble or visit a casino, or if that audience is in a different geographic area, then they may not be the best choice to work with.
“It’s not simply reach or exposure for the sake of exposure that we’re looking for; we’re looking for effective exposure,” Farmer said.
Honea said that having a small audience isn’t necessarily a bad thing either.
“It can be really valuable to get a little more niche where they have a really committed set of loyal followers,” she said.
Michael Felci, public relations manager for Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, said Fantasy Springs doesn’t currently work with influencers. He said getting people in to play on the gaming floor is the most important thing and that Fantasy Springs’ research indicated there wasn’t enough of a crossover between their gaming customer base and social influencers.
“We haven’t seen enough data on that to make it a relevant thing for us at this point,” he said.
Casinos get influencer-friendly
Brian Christopher is a well-known YouTube influencer whose channel, Brian Christopher Slots, has amassed an audience of nearly 300,000 loyal fans.
He frequently visits casino floors in Southern California and elsewhere in the country to film videos of himself checking out the newest and most popular slot games. His channel and videos have grown more sophisticated over time, and now he also livestreams from gaming floors.
“We’re always trying to go the next step and see what else we can do that’s new and different and exciting,” he said.
Filming slots may not seem that groundbreaking when everyone has a video camera on their phone, but what Christopher is doing was — and still is — taboo. Many casinos still shy away from filming on the gaming floor, but some are warming up to it.
Arceo said Christopher was the first influencer San Manuel worked with after loosening the policy on taking photos and videos of slot play nearly 5 years ago.
Since that time, because of Christopher’s popularity, and San Manuel’s easy-going policy, the casino has seen more influencers putting together similar content — and they seem to be getting results.
“When we see people coming in within a day or two, or sometimes hours after a broadcast, then we know it works because it’s stimulated someone to get out of their house or wherever they’re at, walk in the door and search for the game that they just saw someone playing online,” he said.
The impact of the pandemic
Some casinos have even utilized influencers to help with their communication during the coronavirus pandemic.
When San Manuel reopened after a months-long closure on June 15, they invited Christopher and several other influencers to spread the word about the reopening and the casino’s safety precautions.
“We just said, ‘Look, when you come here, feel free to tell your followers what the difference is’,” Arceo said.
In his video, Christopher shared details about San Manuel doing two temperature checks and said he thought it was smart that staff had been professionally trained to ask COVID screening questions. Another YouTuber was quick to point out the thermal cameras and plexiglass.
And having someone else share that made all the difference, Arceo said.
“We can say it all day long, but I think when people see real people talking about it then it’s received better that way,” he said.
Lussier said she saw the number of influencers visiting Harrah’s decrease after it reopened from its coronavirus closure in May, which she attributed that to people being cautious about traveling and staying in hotels.
“We’ve seen a steady increase throughout the year, and now I feel like we’re cranking,” Lussier said. ” We’re almost back to where we were pre-COVID.”
Arceo anticipates that social media influencing will continue to rise in prominence and more people will adopt it as part of their strategy.
“I think most people don’t understand it,” he said. “They shy away from it because they don’t understand how it works, but I think just like anything else, once people get the hang of it and see how successful others have been with it, I think they’ll follow suit.”
Brian Christopher has his own channel on You Tube, Brian Christopher Slots, with nearly 300,000 subscribers and more than 180 million views. He plays slot machines all over Southern California. Pictured is Christopher doing one of his live shows at Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa Rancho Mirage on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2020. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
Virtual G2E
Property leaders discuss ‘the ‘scramble drill’ in closing and reopening casino
by Howard Stutz, CDC Gaming Reports · October 14, 2020
Property leaders discuss ‘the ‘scramble drill’ in closing and reopening casino
by Howard Stutz, CDC Gaming Reports · October 14, 2020
Top left, moderator Brian Christopher; bottom left, Hollywood Toledo GM Justin Carter; top right, Firekeepers CEO Kathy George; bottom right, Coeur d’Alene CEO Laura Stensgar.
When word came down in mid-March that Ohio’s gaming market was closing due to the spreading coronavirus pandemic, Hollywood Casino Toledo General Manager Justin Carter sent members of his team to the neighboring Home Depot to purchase heavy-duty locks for the building’s front doors.
The property operates 24/7, so the deadbolts were rarely used.
“When you have to lock the doors to a casino, that’s never a good thing,” Carter said during an hour-long panel discussion Wednesday, which served as a prelude to this month’s Virtual Global Gaming Expo.
“Fortunately, we had an idea (the closing would be announced). We were able to move quickly because we had to close by midnight,” Carter said. “The scramble drill started.”
Nearly 1,000 commercial and tribal casinos in 43 states closed throughout March when governors, regulators, and tribal governments ordered the shutdown in an effort to slow the pandemic. Roughly 90% of the properties have reopened.
Laura Stensgar, CEO of Coeur d’Alene resort in Idaho, said her state’s shutdown was only anticipated to last a couple of weeks but went on for five weeks until the property reopened in early May. Coeur d’Alene, which is operated by the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, was the first casino in the country to reopen.
“We wanted to ensure safety and always be looked upon as a good community member,” said Stensgar, noting the tribe and management reviewed numerous government and Centers for Disease Control health and safety guidelines and the protocols authored by Wynn Resorts in Las Vegas.
Carter and Stensgar were joined by Kathy George, CEO of Firekeepers Casino in Michigan, during the discussion titled. “Leading through COVID-19.” The session was moderated by social influencer Brian Christopher, who publishes BCSlots.com.
The Virtual G2E is scheduled for Oct. 27-29 and is a substitute for the annual G2E conference and tradeshow in Las Vegas, which was canceled due to the pandemic.
The discussion covered both the issues surrounding closing down a property during an emergency, but also how to reopen safely under new guidelines. At the outset, Christopher asked the three property leaders if the casinos’ revenues had increased year-over-year. All three answered yes.
George said the key was the Firekeepers’ employees, who had many additional job duties in wake of the ongoing pandemic.
“They embraced all the business protocols and we hired extra staff to clean and sanitize areas of the property,” George said. “We felt the need to increase communication more with both our customers and our employees.”
She added that some of the new communications efforts will continue beyond the pandemic.
Carter said he found himself doing different jobs to help get the Hollywood property open. The casino was one of the first entertainment locations to open in the Toledo area when the state allowed gaming to restart in early June.
“We were able to learn from what others were doing,” he said. “It was all hands on deck to do any job we could so we could reopen our facility. We wanted to create an environment of fun and service while protecting people and making them feel safe.”
That said, Hollywood Toledo had “gallons of hand sanitizer” and “secured very bit of alcohol wipes” to add to the health and safety guidelines.
All three executives their customer make-ups had changed, with properties skewing younger and others attracting an older crowd. Stensgar said a good portion of the Coeur d’Alene’s customer base comes from neighboring Canada, the border crossing has been closed due to the pandemic.
“We have been able to regain revenues because we’re attracting true gamers. Some customers came from competitors that had not opened,” Stensgar said.
The return of non-gaming entertainment is being viewed as a potential boost for next year.
George said Firekeepers’ entertainment line-up all picked out new dates for 2021. Stensgar said comedian Bill Engvall is the property’s first planned headliner for Feb. 26, 2021.
“We’re keeping our fingers crossed,” she said.
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming Reports. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgaming.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
CDC Gaming Reports
Three casino operators to share COVID-19 reopening experiences for virtual G2E kick-off
by Howard Stutz, CDC Gaming Reports · September 16, 2020
The virtual Global Gaming Expo will kick-off on Oct. 14 with a discussion involving three casino operators with first-hand experience reopening their regional and tribal gaming properties following the COVID-19 pandemic shut down this spring.
Producers of G2E – the American Gaming Association and Reed Exhibitions – said the event is a prelude to the two-day virtual conference, scheduled for Oct. 27-28, with a program that includes keynote addresses, education sessions, pre-planned meetings, and networking opportunities.
In the Wednesday morning (8 a.m. PT, 11 a.m. ET) session, Justin Carter, general manager of Hollywood Casino Toledo in Ohio; Kathy George, CEO of Firekeepers Casino in Michigan; and Laura Stensgar, CEO of Coeur d’Alene resort in Idaho, will participate in the discussion on how the pandemic has impacted employees, communities, and business.
Nearly 1,000 commercial and tribal casinos in 43 states closed when governors, regulators, and tribal governments ordered the shutdown during the middle of March in an effort to slow the spreading coronavirus pandemic. Nearly 90% of the properties have reopened.
Brian Christopher, a social influencer for casinos and slot machines who publishes BCSlots.com and two channels on YouTube, will lead the discussion on how the casino operators lead through the crisis and create strategies to move forward.
Christopher wrote a commentary for CDC Gaming Reports in August detailing his visit to 21 casinos in nine states following the more than two months of shutdowns.
“From the kickoff keynote to our last networking session, the goal for G2E 2020 is to provide insights, connections, and business opportunities that participants cannot find elsewhere and directly support our industry’s recovery,” Cait DeBaun, AGA’s senior director of strategic communications and responsibility, said in a statement.
The virtual G2E is replacing the annual three-day event in Las Vegas that was canceled by organizers in July due to global travel restrictions and currently unknown guidance on large public gatherings during the pandemic.
G2E’s two-day program will offer networking, business opportunities, and feature content from thought leaders to share perspectives on pressing gaming industry topics, including COVID-19 recovery, modernization of payments, tribal gaming, and the expansion of legalized sports betting in America.
G2E’s virtual platform will also enable exhibitors and buyers to conduct business through virtual showrooms, product demos, AI-driven matchmaking, and one-on-one meetings.
“Every year, G2E spotlights the latest trends through education and product discovery and facilitates personal connections that empower gaming companies and industry leaders for success,” said Korbi Carrison, G2E’s event director. “This year will be no exception. We’re excited for the opportunity G2E’s virtual format gives us to expand the universe of speakers and reach larger audiences worldwide.”
Additional details can be found at https://www.globalgamingexpo.com/virtual-event/.
G2E, the casino industry’s largest conference and tradeshow, was planned for October 5-8 at the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas. Current Nevada state regulations ban public gatherings of 50 people or more and the state also saw a spike of COVID-19 infections during the summer.
G2E attracts nearly 30,000 attendees annually from across the globe, including top executives and managers from the industry’s largest manufacturers and gaming equipment providers. The world’s top casino operators, sports betting companies, and FinTech and digital payments facilitators, are often represented at G2E.
Organizers said they have scheduled the 2021 G2E from October 4-7 at the Sands Expo.
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming Reports. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgaming.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
Producers of G2E – the American Gaming Association and Reed Exhibitions – said the event is a prelude to the two-day virtual conference, scheduled for Oct. 27-28, with a program that includes keynote addresses, education sessions, pre-planned meetings, and networking opportunities.
In the Wednesday morning (8 a.m. PT, 11 a.m. ET) session, Justin Carter, general manager of Hollywood Casino Toledo in Ohio; Kathy George, CEO of Firekeepers Casino in Michigan; and Laura Stensgar, CEO of Coeur d’Alene resort in Idaho, will participate in the discussion on how the pandemic has impacted employees, communities, and business.
Nearly 1,000 commercial and tribal casinos in 43 states closed when governors, regulators, and tribal governments ordered the shutdown during the middle of March in an effort to slow the spreading coronavirus pandemic. Nearly 90% of the properties have reopened.
Brian Christopher, a social influencer for casinos and slot machines who publishes BCSlots.com and two channels on YouTube, will lead the discussion on how the casino operators lead through the crisis and create strategies to move forward.
Christopher wrote a commentary for CDC Gaming Reports in August detailing his visit to 21 casinos in nine states following the more than two months of shutdowns.
“From the kickoff keynote to our last networking session, the goal for G2E 2020 is to provide insights, connections, and business opportunities that participants cannot find elsewhere and directly support our industry’s recovery,” Cait DeBaun, AGA’s senior director of strategic communications and responsibility, said in a statement.
The virtual G2E is replacing the annual three-day event in Las Vegas that was canceled by organizers in July due to global travel restrictions and currently unknown guidance on large public gatherings during the pandemic.
G2E’s two-day program will offer networking, business opportunities, and feature content from thought leaders to share perspectives on pressing gaming industry topics, including COVID-19 recovery, modernization of payments, tribal gaming, and the expansion of legalized sports betting in America.
G2E’s virtual platform will also enable exhibitors and buyers to conduct business through virtual showrooms, product demos, AI-driven matchmaking, and one-on-one meetings.
“Every year, G2E spotlights the latest trends through education and product discovery and facilitates personal connections that empower gaming companies and industry leaders for success,” said Korbi Carrison, G2E’s event director. “This year will be no exception. We’re excited for the opportunity G2E’s virtual format gives us to expand the universe of speakers and reach larger audiences worldwide.”
Additional details can be found at https://www.globalgamingexpo.com/virtual-event/.
G2E, the casino industry’s largest conference and tradeshow, was planned for October 5-8 at the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas. Current Nevada state regulations ban public gatherings of 50 people or more and the state also saw a spike of COVID-19 infections during the summer.
G2E attracts nearly 30,000 attendees annually from across the globe, including top executives and managers from the industry’s largest manufacturers and gaming equipment providers. The world’s top casino operators, sports betting companies, and FinTech and digital payments facilitators, are often represented at G2E.
Organizers said they have scheduled the 2021 G2E from October 4-7 at the Sands Expo.
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming Reports. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgaming.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
CDC Gaming Reports
21 casinos. 9 states. 107 days. This player’s journey of staying COVID-19 free.
by Brian Christopher, CDC Gaming Reports · August 18, 2020
Brian Christopher at Coeur D’Alene Casino
I’d like to take a gamble that I have visited more casinos in the U.S. since they re-opened post COVID-19 than anyone else.
Since attending the first major casino re-opening by Coeur D’Alene Casino in Idaho the first week of May, I have visited a total of 21 casinos across nine states. I have done so with the utmost care and precaution, while ensuring to follow all state guidelines. Having been tested numerous times, I have never held a trace of antibodies and continue to test negative as recent as a few days ago at the time of writing this article.
As a social influencer for casinos, my followers look to me for guidance and answers. So, I took it upon myself to show them what life is like now in casinos. The results varied – some casinos went above and beyond their required duties, while others fell far behind.
The best casinos I visited implemented the following rules:
And most importantly…
The properties who exceeded my expectations took extra steps including providing a clean pen for every guest when signing receipts (putting the dirty one to a “sanitize later” pile), wiping down the counters between each guest, taking temperature checks from peoples cars prior to entering the property and allowing patrons to press the ‘service’ button in order to get a slot machine. Some went too far in my opinion, like not providing soap or shampoo in the hotel room or making the room key expire every single day in order to have guests take a new temperature check to get the key. Of course, I’d much prefer they go too far than not far enough.
The casinos I visited that put the least effort into making a safe environment had no mask policy in place (though were eventually forced to), removed “some” amount of chairs from the gaming floor, and had zero enforcement for mask wearing or social distancing. There were even some dance floors open with zero masks worn.
In the casinos that allowed it, smoking proved to be a major issue that negated other preventative measures.
Aside from the fact the US is one of the few countries left in the world that has no nationwide restrictions on smoking indoors, being a non-smoker in a smoking casino and wearing mask was completely horrific. It also proved to me that by allowing patrons to smoke in casinos basically gave them a hall pass to walk around mask-free so long as a cigarette was in their hand.
Fast-forward over 100 days from the first re-openings and I’m sad to report that while COVID-19 cases are on the rise, many casinos have eliminated most of their original implementations. Casinos have gone from turning off every other slot machine and/or removing half of the chairs to the approach that seems to say ‘We prefer to leave all slot machines turned on and let the players decide how to social distance on their own’. The ones I talked to claimed they felt bad turning off machines that some people would specifically want to play.
My safety should not be a gamble when walking into a casino. I have visited 21 casinos with varying levels of rules in place and have managed to stay safe and healthy while enjoying casino amenities. By sticking to the guidelines of wearing a mask (triple-layered are cheap and effective), washing your hands often and not touching your face, you can help mitigate risk.
Casinos are among the most populated areas allowed open at the moment, so another wave coming could result in them being shut down again. Just this week, increasing cases in Illinois have prompted the government to enact an earlier closing time on casinos in the St. Louis-area. To ensure they remain open, casinos simply must put the health and safety of all its customers and staff first.
Brian Christopher is a top social media influencer for casinos and slot machines. He manages BCSlots.com and two channels on YouTube with a combined audience of over 300,000. He can be reached at brian@bcslots.com.
Since attending the first major casino re-opening by Coeur D’Alene Casino in Idaho the first week of May, I have visited a total of 21 casinos across nine states. I have done so with the utmost care and precaution, while ensuring to follow all state guidelines. Having been tested numerous times, I have never held a trace of antibodies and continue to test negative as recent as a few days ago at the time of writing this article.
As a social influencer for casinos, my followers look to me for guidance and answers. So, I took it upon myself to show them what life is like now in casinos. The results varied – some casinos went above and beyond their required duties, while others fell far behind.
The best casinos I visited implemented the following rules:
- Went smoke-free (over 150 casinos have!) and moved the smoking section to outdoors only
- Turned off every other slot machine
- Temperature checks and questions about exposure at the door
- Socially distanced tables at restaurant and closed bartop seated service
And most importantly…
- Staff followed AND enforced the above policies
The properties who exceeded my expectations took extra steps including providing a clean pen for every guest when signing receipts (putting the dirty one to a “sanitize later” pile), wiping down the counters between each guest, taking temperature checks from peoples cars prior to entering the property and allowing patrons to press the ‘service’ button in order to get a slot machine. Some went too far in my opinion, like not providing soap or shampoo in the hotel room or making the room key expire every single day in order to have guests take a new temperature check to get the key. Of course, I’d much prefer they go too far than not far enough.
The casinos I visited that put the least effort into making a safe environment had no mask policy in place (though were eventually forced to), removed “some” amount of chairs from the gaming floor, and had zero enforcement for mask wearing or social distancing. There were even some dance floors open with zero masks worn.
In the casinos that allowed it, smoking proved to be a major issue that negated other preventative measures.
Aside from the fact the US is one of the few countries left in the world that has no nationwide restrictions on smoking indoors, being a non-smoker in a smoking casino and wearing mask was completely horrific. It also proved to me that by allowing patrons to smoke in casinos basically gave them a hall pass to walk around mask-free so long as a cigarette was in their hand.
Fast-forward over 100 days from the first re-openings and I’m sad to report that while COVID-19 cases are on the rise, many casinos have eliminated most of their original implementations. Casinos have gone from turning off every other slot machine and/or removing half of the chairs to the approach that seems to say ‘We prefer to leave all slot machines turned on and let the players decide how to social distance on their own’. The ones I talked to claimed they felt bad turning off machines that some people would specifically want to play.
My safety should not be a gamble when walking into a casino. I have visited 21 casinos with varying levels of rules in place and have managed to stay safe and healthy while enjoying casino amenities. By sticking to the guidelines of wearing a mask (triple-layered are cheap and effective), washing your hands often and not touching your face, you can help mitigate risk.
Casinos are among the most populated areas allowed open at the moment, so another wave coming could result in them being shut down again. Just this week, increasing cases in Illinois have prompted the government to enact an earlier closing time on casinos in the St. Louis-area. To ensure they remain open, casinos simply must put the health and safety of all its customers and staff first.
Brian Christopher is a top social media influencer for casinos and slot machines. He manages BCSlots.com and two channels on YouTube with a combined audience of over 300,000. He can be reached at brian@bcslots.com.
CDC Gaming Reports
Smoking ban would prove casinos want to protect health
by Mark Gruetze, CDC Gaming Reports · July 20, 2020 at 4:00 pm
A leading YouTube influencer on a mission to extol the fun and excitement of slot machines has a message for casinos: If you’re serious about protecting health, ban smoking now.
“This is the best time to make this change,” says Brian Christopher, who has more than 300,000 YouTube followers for daily videos showing him playing slots at casinos throughout the United States. “If we make this change right now (after the coronavirus closures), people will come back. And they will stay and they will play. Nobody’s going to give up gambling just because they can’t have a cigarette while doing it.”
He says a survey on his site, available here, backs up his claim. The survey, written in conjunction with the American Nonsmokers Rights Foundation, is still accepting responses. As of July 18, Christopher says, 1,300 people had filled it out, with these results:
Christopher, originally from Canada, now lives in Los Angeles, where he moved several years ago in hopes of starting an acting career. That path hasn’t worked out yet, but he started posting videos of himself playing slots after a family trip to Las Vegas. In about three months, he had 4,349 subscribers and was invited to join the YouTube partner program, according to his blog. He put acting on hold and now has two YouTube channels, plus 70,000 followers on Facebook and 20,000 on Instagram. He says he’s the world’s number-one influencer on slot machines and casinos.
A few months after starting his YouTube slots channel, he attended the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, saw the ANRF booth and offered to help its campaign. The foundation is a non-lobbying, educational, nonprofit organization that provides resources for schools, health departments, medical organizations, and others interested in issues involving smoking and secondhand smoke. Its projects include SmokeFreeCasinos.org, which focuses on secondhand smoking risks to staff and customers in America’s commercial and tribal casinos and other gaming facilities.
A former smoker, Christopher says America’s smoking rules flabbergasted him. “My jaw hit the floor when I saw people smoking in casinos still,” he says. “I had no idea that people could still do that anywhere in the world.”
The foundation has sponsored some of Christopher’s casino trips, as have casinos and slot manufacturers. Christopher says all his gambling money comes from his own pocket.
His current travel plans include a stop in Oklahoma, five days in Maryland, then on to Oregon and back to Oklahoma for four days. He posts at least one 30- to 90-minute video every day and does two to four live streams per week.
He declines to give his age publicly, but classifies himself as a Millennial, the generation that supposedly doesn’t enjoy slot machines. “I love everything about slots,” he says. “It’s the thrill, the excitement. And it’s something I’ve done with my friends a lot.”
Casinos trying to attract Millennials should do a better job of soliciting their opinions and listening to them, he says, rather than doing what they think is exciting. “We (Millennials) are different birds, and we do like to keep our money more,” he says. “We’ve learned that from our parents.”
He says his father worked his life at a job he did not like, staying only because it paid a good wage.
“He instilled in me to make sure you follow your dreams and your passions and be happy and not follow the buck. I think that’s what our generation is all about. We do want to have fun, but we also want to be responsible about it and not throw all our money away.”
He noted that more than 150 casinos nationwide have become nonsmoking, at least temporarily, since the coronavirus shutdowns. He urges casinos to make that change permanent.
“It’s really important to look outside of the United States at countries that have made the change and have made it work,” he says. The smoke-free approach protects staff, reduces sick days, and cuts expenses such as ventilation and cleaning.
“Honestly, if you really want to earn long-term gamblers,” Christopher adds, “wouldn’t you want them to live longer?”
“This is the best time to make this change,” says Brian Christopher, who has more than 300,000 YouTube followers for daily videos showing him playing slots at casinos throughout the United States. “If we make this change right now (after the coronavirus closures), people will come back. And they will stay and they will play. Nobody’s going to give up gambling just because they can’t have a cigarette while doing it.”
He says a survey on his site, available here, backs up his claim. The survey, written in conjunction with the American Nonsmokers Rights Foundation, is still accepting responses. As of July 18, Christopher says, 1,300 people had filled it out, with these results:
- 20 percent of respondents are full-time smokers (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the most recent nationwide figure is 13.7 percent).
- 78 percent say now is the time to make casinos smoke-free.
- 82 percent of the smokers say they would patronize non-smoking casinos that offer an outdoor area with slot machines where smoking is allowed.
- 94 percent of respondents believe secondhand smoke is harmful to health.
Christopher, originally from Canada, now lives in Los Angeles, where he moved several years ago in hopes of starting an acting career. That path hasn’t worked out yet, but he started posting videos of himself playing slots after a family trip to Las Vegas. In about three months, he had 4,349 subscribers and was invited to join the YouTube partner program, according to his blog. He put acting on hold and now has two YouTube channels, plus 70,000 followers on Facebook and 20,000 on Instagram. He says he’s the world’s number-one influencer on slot machines and casinos.
A few months after starting his YouTube slots channel, he attended the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, saw the ANRF booth and offered to help its campaign. The foundation is a non-lobbying, educational, nonprofit organization that provides resources for schools, health departments, medical organizations, and others interested in issues involving smoking and secondhand smoke. Its projects include SmokeFreeCasinos.org, which focuses on secondhand smoking risks to staff and customers in America’s commercial and tribal casinos and other gaming facilities.
A former smoker, Christopher says America’s smoking rules flabbergasted him. “My jaw hit the floor when I saw people smoking in casinos still,” he says. “I had no idea that people could still do that anywhere in the world.”
The foundation has sponsored some of Christopher’s casino trips, as have casinos and slot manufacturers. Christopher says all his gambling money comes from his own pocket.
His current travel plans include a stop in Oklahoma, five days in Maryland, then on to Oregon and back to Oklahoma for four days. He posts at least one 30- to 90-minute video every day and does two to four live streams per week.
He declines to give his age publicly, but classifies himself as a Millennial, the generation that supposedly doesn’t enjoy slot machines. “I love everything about slots,” he says. “It’s the thrill, the excitement. And it’s something I’ve done with my friends a lot.”
Casinos trying to attract Millennials should do a better job of soliciting their opinions and listening to them, he says, rather than doing what they think is exciting. “We (Millennials) are different birds, and we do like to keep our money more,” he says. “We’ve learned that from our parents.”
He says his father worked his life at a job he did not like, staying only because it paid a good wage.
“He instilled in me to make sure you follow your dreams and your passions and be happy and not follow the buck. I think that’s what our generation is all about. We do want to have fun, but we also want to be responsible about it and not throw all our money away.”
He noted that more than 150 casinos nationwide have become nonsmoking, at least temporarily, since the coronavirus shutdowns. He urges casinos to make that change permanent.
“It’s really important to look outside of the United States at countries that have made the change and have made it work,” he says. The smoke-free approach protects staff, reduces sick days, and cuts expenses such as ventilation and cleaning.
“Honestly, if you really want to earn long-term gamblers,” Christopher adds, “wouldn’t you want them to live longer?”
Global Gaming Business
Slot Stars Bring New Audience to the Gaming Floor
by Frank Legato · December 8, 2019
Photo Courtesy by Global Gaming Business
The phenomenon of YouTube “slot influencers” has more casinos allowing filming on the slot floor. Among the most popular: Brian Christopher (l.), whose BCSlots YouTube channel has more than 200,000 subscribers and more than 4 million views per month.
Gambling in a casino traditionally was an anonymous activity. Players didn’t want to be known, to the point that many have resisted joining slot clubs to retain their anonymity. Consequently, outside of planned marketing, casinos traditionally forbade customers from even taking pictures inside a casino.
In general, you won’t get thrown out of a casino for snapping a cellphone photo of a slot jackpot these days, although in most places, it’s still officially frowned upon—and some casinos still forbid even a simple Instagram moment.
However, as more casinos warm up to the benefits of social media, those old traditions are beginning to fade. Some casinos now not only permit pictures, but a once-unthinkable practice—random video of gambling inside a casino.
The rise of YouTube and other social networks led to a new type of celebrity—the “YouTube star,” also called a “social media influencer.” These are people who establish credibility in a certain activity or industry and develop a large audience of followers on a social network. The No. 1 YouTube channel is Pewdiepie, run by Swedish comedian Felix Kjellberg, who hosts videos to more than 100 million followers worldwide in which he introduces and plays video games.
It was only a matter of time before the YouTube phenomenon reached casinos, where a number of channels are now run by “slot influencers” who pick a slot game and stream iPhone videos of themselves spinning reels, getting bonus rounds and winning jackpots. They host the sessions as if they were hosting a TV show or sporting event, doing play-by-play for every spin and getting excited like a sports announcer when big wins hit. And YouTubers eat it up, with slot-influencer YouTube videos garnering hundreds of thousands of views.
Some of the slot influencers are like rock stars on a casino floor, with instant recognition from fans who spend hours watching videos introducing the newest slot games. One of the most popular is Brian Christopher, whose BCSlots YouTube channel boasts more than 200,000 subscribers and more than 4 million views per month.
In the three years since Christopher began using an iPhone to film his own slot play, his fans have amassed 124 million views of his videos. The majority of Christopher’s fans are aged 18 to 44. Two-thirds are male, and most watch on their phones. In other words, Christopher’s followers are in the sweet spot of the younger demographic casinos are beginning to court to eventually replace the older female demographic that’s dominated the slot floor traditionally. And many casinos are beginning to welcome him with “open filming policies.”
Christopher, a former actor, launched his YouTube channel as a hobby in 2016. It’s now his full-time job. He tours casinos across the country, drawing crowds as he streams video of slot games in action. He even has an executive assistant who provides a second camera angle. Fans cheer him on as he plays, and thousands watch online. His YouTube channel hosts more than 1,700 videos, and they also are available on bcslots.com, his website. He has more than 10,000 email subscribers.
Casinos are taking notice. Mohegan Sun recently flew Christopher to Connecticut for that property’s first-ever live stream of slot play. While most big Las Vegas Strip casinos still forbid video, Christopher and other influencers are welcomed at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas because he brings his fans in the door with him, and his business is beginning to spread across the country as the pre-internet barriers begin to tumble.
“I wasn’t the first person to upload my slot play,” Christopher told GGB News. “There are a few channels that had already started doing that, but after my channel started, it definitely started going in a whole new direction.
“Cosmo is the only location on Strip that has an open filming policy. A few others have allowed some filming on occasion, including the Linq, Wynn, Aria and MGM, but it’s not necessarily the rule. I have yet to start visiting local casinos, but we have commenced reaching out to them recently. We have worked with multiple casinos in Michigan, Indiana, Atlantic City, Maryland, Oklahoma, Reno, Vegas, California and New York—around two dozen casinos and growing.”
Christopher says the growth of his fan base was 100 percent organic. “It was word of mouth, mainly,” he said. “I was completely shocked when my numbers started rising so fast at the beginning, because I was new to the whole YouTube world. And it just keeps growing, and whenever I see fans, most of them say, ‘Oh my sisters or my husband used to watch you all the time and now I watch.’”
Slot influencers also are the only people who can actually make a living playing slot machines, through ads on their YouTube pages, subscriptions, and swag sold on their websites. “Sometimes we’ll have sponsors for some videos, and there are other ways of generating income,” Christopher said.
While the number of casinos that allow folks like Christopher to do their thing is growing, he says San Manuel Casino in Highland, California and the Cosmopolitan and Plaza in Las Vegas are currently his biggest hosts.
“Social media influencers have been around since the early days of blogging,” Peter Arceo, general manager of San Manuel Casino, told GGB News. “I have always been on the lookout for positive influencers in our industry. I get excited when I see people having fun in videos from our floor and enjoying the thrilling atmosphere that our team works very hard to create for our guests.
“Working with influencers allows us to show how much fun our casino can be for slot players. Some audiences prefer to receive information through the lens of a person that they have come to trust and whose content they enjoy, rather than content published directly from a casino. Allowing an influencer to convey their perspective and their experience to their audience is just another way for us to reach those people.”
“I can absolutely say that the Cosmopolitan was the first in Vegas to embrace the slot filming community,” said Kevin Sweet, vice president of slot operations and marketing at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, in an interview with GGB News. “There was always a stigma that filming in a casino was completely illegal, which simply wasn’t true. We live in a social age. It’s 2019, and everyone has a cellphone. We can’t run from technology or the world around us. It was common sense from my perspective to find a way to let this type of activity happen in our casino.
“I’ve been pretty active with the slot influencer community since early 2016. I am in full support of anything that increases the popularity and reach of casino gaming, and slot-playing videos being posted on YouTube or live-streamed certainly do that.”
Sweet said there are simple ground rules, such as limiting filming to handheld devices and limiting videos to a player and one machine, but the activity boosts business, so it’s welcome.
The influencers appreciate it. “At the San Manuel and the Cosmo, anyone can just record their slot play if they want to or take photos, and they’re encouraged to do so,” Christopher said. “I was stopped by a security guard at the Cosmo and he said, ‘I just wanted you to know that what you’re doing is totally fine with us.’ And because of that, all my fans go to those two casinos.”
San Manuel’s Arceo says the influencer phenomenon has broadened the casino’s audience. “It has widened the audience of people who have become familiar with the San Manuel Casino brand,” he said. “People from as far away as Hawaii have talked to me about Brian. In fact, my cousins in Hawaii have told me that they watch his videos and can’t wait to visit the casinos that Brian has featured.
“We’ve done controlled tests, and in one case allowed Brian to host an event that was attended purely by his audience. The results were great, which is why we continue to work with influencers.”
Sweet reports similar results at the Cosmo. “For every one complaint or issue we encounter in this space, there are 25 interactions where a customer asks a member of my slot team about a machine location because they saw their favorite streamer playing it at my casino and now they want to go play it,” he said. “I don’t think it’s attracting any one particular demographic. This isn’t a millennial play, in my opinion. This is a play for people who like gambling, who like to see nice slot jackpots, and for people who share an interest and want to belong to a larger community.”
According to Christopher, while there is still widespread resistance to filming or even photographing slot play, things are slowly changing. “I know fans who have been removed from casinos because they didn’t want to delete a (jackpot) photo off their phone. And, I’ve been removed from the casino once before because I filmed a bonus.
“We’re slowly breaking down those barriers. We just filmed in Palm Springs, and it was the first time that they allowed such a thing, and part of it was due to the fact that they had some new people coming in because of social media. They recognize the power of an influencer.”
“Some of these influencers themselves partner with cruise lines and bring hundreds of people out for weeklong cruises; it’s very impressive,” said the Cosmopolitan’s Sweet. “Maybe I should hire them as casino hosts.”
Gambling in a casino traditionally was an anonymous activity. Players didn’t want to be known, to the point that many have resisted joining slot clubs to retain their anonymity. Consequently, outside of planned marketing, casinos traditionally forbade customers from even taking pictures inside a casino.
In general, you won’t get thrown out of a casino for snapping a cellphone photo of a slot jackpot these days, although in most places, it’s still officially frowned upon—and some casinos still forbid even a simple Instagram moment.
However, as more casinos warm up to the benefits of social media, those old traditions are beginning to fade. Some casinos now not only permit pictures, but a once-unthinkable practice—random video of gambling inside a casino.
The rise of YouTube and other social networks led to a new type of celebrity—the “YouTube star,” also called a “social media influencer.” These are people who establish credibility in a certain activity or industry and develop a large audience of followers on a social network. The No. 1 YouTube channel is Pewdiepie, run by Swedish comedian Felix Kjellberg, who hosts videos to more than 100 million followers worldwide in which he introduces and plays video games.
It was only a matter of time before the YouTube phenomenon reached casinos, where a number of channels are now run by “slot influencers” who pick a slot game and stream iPhone videos of themselves spinning reels, getting bonus rounds and winning jackpots. They host the sessions as if they were hosting a TV show or sporting event, doing play-by-play for every spin and getting excited like a sports announcer when big wins hit. And YouTubers eat it up, with slot-influencer YouTube videos garnering hundreds of thousands of views.
Some of the slot influencers are like rock stars on a casino floor, with instant recognition from fans who spend hours watching videos introducing the newest slot games. One of the most popular is Brian Christopher, whose BCSlots YouTube channel boasts more than 200,000 subscribers and more than 4 million views per month.
In the three years since Christopher began using an iPhone to film his own slot play, his fans have amassed 124 million views of his videos. The majority of Christopher’s fans are aged 18 to 44. Two-thirds are male, and most watch on their phones. In other words, Christopher’s followers are in the sweet spot of the younger demographic casinos are beginning to court to eventually replace the older female demographic that’s dominated the slot floor traditionally. And many casinos are beginning to welcome him with “open filming policies.”
Christopher, a former actor, launched his YouTube channel as a hobby in 2016. It’s now his full-time job. He tours casinos across the country, drawing crowds as he streams video of slot games in action. He even has an executive assistant who provides a second camera angle. Fans cheer him on as he plays, and thousands watch online. His YouTube channel hosts more than 1,700 videos, and they also are available on bcslots.com, his website. He has more than 10,000 email subscribers.
Casinos are taking notice. Mohegan Sun recently flew Christopher to Connecticut for that property’s first-ever live stream of slot play. While most big Las Vegas Strip casinos still forbid video, Christopher and other influencers are welcomed at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas because he brings his fans in the door with him, and his business is beginning to spread across the country as the pre-internet barriers begin to tumble.
“I wasn’t the first person to upload my slot play,” Christopher told GGB News. “There are a few channels that had already started doing that, but after my channel started, it definitely started going in a whole new direction.
“Cosmo is the only location on Strip that has an open filming policy. A few others have allowed some filming on occasion, including the Linq, Wynn, Aria and MGM, but it’s not necessarily the rule. I have yet to start visiting local casinos, but we have commenced reaching out to them recently. We have worked with multiple casinos in Michigan, Indiana, Atlantic City, Maryland, Oklahoma, Reno, Vegas, California and New York—around two dozen casinos and growing.”
Christopher says the growth of his fan base was 100 percent organic. “It was word of mouth, mainly,” he said. “I was completely shocked when my numbers started rising so fast at the beginning, because I was new to the whole YouTube world. And it just keeps growing, and whenever I see fans, most of them say, ‘Oh my sisters or my husband used to watch you all the time and now I watch.’”
Slot influencers also are the only people who can actually make a living playing slot machines, through ads on their YouTube pages, subscriptions, and swag sold on their websites. “Sometimes we’ll have sponsors for some videos, and there are other ways of generating income,” Christopher said.
While the number of casinos that allow folks like Christopher to do their thing is growing, he says San Manuel Casino in Highland, California and the Cosmopolitan and Plaza in Las Vegas are currently his biggest hosts.
“Social media influencers have been around since the early days of blogging,” Peter Arceo, general manager of San Manuel Casino, told GGB News. “I have always been on the lookout for positive influencers in our industry. I get excited when I see people having fun in videos from our floor and enjoying the thrilling atmosphere that our team works very hard to create for our guests.
“Working with influencers allows us to show how much fun our casino can be for slot players. Some audiences prefer to receive information through the lens of a person that they have come to trust and whose content they enjoy, rather than content published directly from a casino. Allowing an influencer to convey their perspective and their experience to their audience is just another way for us to reach those people.”
“I can absolutely say that the Cosmopolitan was the first in Vegas to embrace the slot filming community,” said Kevin Sweet, vice president of slot operations and marketing at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, in an interview with GGB News. “There was always a stigma that filming in a casino was completely illegal, which simply wasn’t true. We live in a social age. It’s 2019, and everyone has a cellphone. We can’t run from technology or the world around us. It was common sense from my perspective to find a way to let this type of activity happen in our casino.
“I’ve been pretty active with the slot influencer community since early 2016. I am in full support of anything that increases the popularity and reach of casino gaming, and slot-playing videos being posted on YouTube or live-streamed certainly do that.”
Sweet said there are simple ground rules, such as limiting filming to handheld devices and limiting videos to a player and one machine, but the activity boosts business, so it’s welcome.
The influencers appreciate it. “At the San Manuel and the Cosmo, anyone can just record their slot play if they want to or take photos, and they’re encouraged to do so,” Christopher said. “I was stopped by a security guard at the Cosmo and he said, ‘I just wanted you to know that what you’re doing is totally fine with us.’ And because of that, all my fans go to those two casinos.”
San Manuel’s Arceo says the influencer phenomenon has broadened the casino’s audience. “It has widened the audience of people who have become familiar with the San Manuel Casino brand,” he said. “People from as far away as Hawaii have talked to me about Brian. In fact, my cousins in Hawaii have told me that they watch his videos and can’t wait to visit the casinos that Brian has featured.
“We’ve done controlled tests, and in one case allowed Brian to host an event that was attended purely by his audience. The results were great, which is why we continue to work with influencers.”
Sweet reports similar results at the Cosmo. “For every one complaint or issue we encounter in this space, there are 25 interactions where a customer asks a member of my slot team about a machine location because they saw their favorite streamer playing it at my casino and now they want to go play it,” he said. “I don’t think it’s attracting any one particular demographic. This isn’t a millennial play, in my opinion. This is a play for people who like gambling, who like to see nice slot jackpots, and for people who share an interest and want to belong to a larger community.”
According to Christopher, while there is still widespread resistance to filming or even photographing slot play, things are slowly changing. “I know fans who have been removed from casinos because they didn’t want to delete a (jackpot) photo off their phone. And, I’ve been removed from the casino once before because I filmed a bonus.
“We’re slowly breaking down those barriers. We just filmed in Palm Springs, and it was the first time that they allowed such a thing, and part of it was due to the fact that they had some new people coming in because of social media. They recognize the power of an influencer.”
“Some of these influencers themselves partner with cruise lines and bring hundreds of people out for weeklong cruises; it’s very impressive,” said the Cosmopolitan’s Sweet. “Maybe I should hire them as casino hosts.”
CDC Gaming Reports
Adams Analysis Q2 2020: Influencers and A New Spectator Sport
by Ken Adams, CDC Gaming Reports · June 26, 2020
A new category of influencers has emerged recently: YouTube slot players. The host of a YouTube video goes to a casino and plays slot machines while making a videocast of the action. Followers and subscribers sit at home and watch the action. If they like what they see they may go out and play the games themselves. Subscribers pay a monthly fee to have full access to the videocasts and a two-way dialogue with Brian.
One of this new variety of influencers, spinning the slot reels, is Brian Christopher, who has been playing slot machines and recording that for his YouTube videocasts for four years. The followers enjoy the opportunity to learn about new slot machines, see different casinos, and get the vicarious thrill of watching spinning reels and feeling the rush of anticipation. Brian has 250,000 followers and is starting to get the attention of casinos and slot companies.
While he plays, Brain explains games, themes, symbols, pay-lines, and bonuses. He keeps up a rapid-fire, non-stop, play-by-play narrative of hope, despair, and joy. “Come on, sevens, right now! Ooh, almost, so close. I need that bonus now. Uggh, a near miss, maybe next spin. Oh my god! Oh god, look at that, amazing, I can’t believe it!” When he walks toward the next game, he begins a new storyline, which might start “Now, I am going to play [name of game], I played it yesterday and won. It is an IGT game and I love it.” His narrative sounds like the internal dialogue of a regular slot player, at least as I imagine that.
While Brian is playing and talking, his followers post messages to him. He reads some of the messages and responds live. People comment on the games he is playing, suggest others, wish him luck, and invite him to visit their favorite casino. One woman even invited him to help her have a baby, “Oh, you are sooo handsome.” YouTube slot players like Brian also talk about the casino, food, employees, social distancing, and their family. Brian is careful not to show other players unless they wish to be on camera. He also limits actual footage of the casino floor in accordance with casino policy.
Brian’s YouTube channel is under his own name, but other influencers have names like Slot Queen, NG Slot, Slot Cats, King Jason Slots, Windy City Frenzy, and Neily 777. At the moment, Brian seems to be the top star in the field, a position he probably solidified in April. On April 27th the Coeur d’Alene casino in Idaho was the first casino in the country to reopen. Brian was on hand and broadcasting, which gained him national attention. His presence was reflective of his sense of marketing – there are no accidentals in his activities.
Brian has created a successful business by marketing images of himself playing in casinos. He seems to have tapped into a phenomenon that few people even knew existed: lots of people like to watch other people play slot machines. And in the process, he has gained the power of influencing which slot machines people play.
There have always been people who influenced other people. The clothes that Jackie Kennedy wore shaped the fashion of her time, just as the wardrobe, attitude, and lifestyle of Lady Gaga, Madonna, Cher, and hundreds of other famous entertainers have done. The men who exert the most influence over fashion are athletes, although rappers certain have an impact. Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and LeBron James became very rich not only because of their athletic abilities but due to their value to advertisers. “Be Like Mike!” – and millions of young men tried to do just that. It is conceivable that without Michael Jordan, Nike might have slid into obscurity along with most other athletic shoe companies of the 1980 and 1990s. Instead, it is a $120 billion clothing giant.
Celebrity endorsements have been around for a very long time. A hundred years ago, famous people started appearing in magazines touting cigarettes, soap, soup, coffee, cars, breakfast cereal, crackers, cameras, tea, toothpaste, watches, gasoline, and thousands of other products. In the early years, a celebrity would make simplistic statements like, “I smoke Camels, they are mild, refreshing and they agree with my throat.” Fred Astaire, Phil Silvers, Dennis O’Keefe, Dick Haynes, Dick Powell, Henry Fonda, Margaret Piazza, Ava Gabor, and Maureen O’Hara all embraced Camels with words like that.
Beginning in the 1930s, radio and television joined in the fun. Opera and popular singers sang company ditties with the same enthusiasm that they brought to other songs. Dinah Shore encouraged us to “See the USA in your Chevrolet” and Nat King Cole sang of the joys of using Wildroot Cream Oil Hair Tonic. It seemed that almost no product was off-limits for a star to use and no celebrity was above accepting advertisers’ dollars. By the 1980s, marketing had become more sophisticated. Celebrities were still shown with the product, but their endorsements were more subtle.
Television was the perfect medium for celebrity endorsements, showing a celebrity actually using a product. Those commercials – or to more exact, the money paid to show those commercials – made television possible. Without those products, television would never have come to dominate the culture the way that it did before the internet arrived. Today the internet is slowly but certainty supplanting television as the place we all go for information and for entertainment. It is ubiquitous, available everywhere we go. With its constant presence comes instant feedback. The 24-hour news cycle of television news is, on the internet, closer to a 24-second news cycle – as soon as something happens it is being shared online.
It might not hold center stage any longer, but television changed our national culture. It created a nation of spectators. Television made it possible to sit at home and watch a presidential inaugural parade, historic votes in congress, famous funerals, demonstrations, and the fireworks around the world on New Year’s Eve. But perhaps most importantly, television allowed a fan to attend almost any sporting event in the country.
Television creates a culture of watching, not doing. The only thing that television encouraged members of the audience to do was to use the products it advertised. People watching sporting contests on televisions are not encouraged to jump up and go play sports. Rather, they are enticed into sitting at home and watch the action while eating and drinking. The internet extended the events that can be attended vicariously, adding big things (riots, arrests) and, now, small ones (birthday parties, family game nights, drinking together). It also added new places where a celebrity could sell products – anywhere a screen was in use, whether on a home computer, a tablet, or a smartphone.
The internet also gave rise to a new kind of celebrity – a self-appointed taster of life and an influencer of others. Like Brian Christopher, influencers sell subscriptions to watch them live an exciting life, as well as getting income from product placement and endorsements. Except for being self-appointed, an influencer is not much different from a 1930s movie star smoking cigarettes and telling his/her fans that a Camel is a great smoke. Both are motivated by money, the desire to create a larger fanbase, and the ability to charge advertisers for their recommendations.
That brings me back to Brian Christopher and slot influencing. In marketing himself, he appears to have targeted three different audiences. His fans are of course the primary target – he needs their monthly subscriptions to pay his staff, travel expenses, and his own salary. Without those loyal subscribers, it would be difficult to influence anyone.
Brian plays slot machines in real-time and talks about the games – he names them as he plays, and he identifies the game manufacturer. When he wins, regardless of how small the win, he talks up the game and celebrates. His comments excite his followers and subscribers and influence them to seek out those same games when they are in a casino. That makes slot manufacturers another target.
Brian does not always name the manufacturer; that’s his choice. He sets limits on his play on any game, either a specific amount of money to be wagered or lost, or a time limit. When he reaches that limit, Brian moves to another slot machine. His choice of games is entirely his own. Without violating any trust between himself and his subscribers Brian could choose one manufacturer’s games more often than another; identifying the manufacturer when it suits his purpose. As his popularity grows, why wouldn’t manufacturers offer to sponsor him? It would be a great way to introduce new games to an enthusiastic and dedicated base of potential players.
Casinos are the third target of Brian’s marketing. When he went that Idaho casino, it was in coordination with the casino’s management because the casino thought that Brian’s presence would help them publicize the opening. In an interview with the local press, he said he was also in discussions with other casinos to be at their openings. In one videocast, he was wearing a mask and discussing some of the social distancing and other safety measures the casino had introduced. It was a good way for the casino to show what it is using to protect customers. At the same time, Brian showed it was possible to be out playing slot machines and having a good time. And Brian wins again with yet another potential source of revenue.
Where all of this will lead is an interesting question. It might lead to relatively little – mostly evaporating into cyberspace when people return to their normal lives, once the COVID-19 crisis is over. On the other hand, the crisis may have grown the slot watching fan base and made possible a more permanent, viable institution. If Brian and the others like him do continue to gain popularity, the casinos and slot companies are certain to take more notice.
Direct connections between a would-be gambler and the game maker, and between a would-be gambler and the casino, would solve an old problem. It has always been a challenge to use advertising to show the excitement of casino gambling to prospective customers. Paid actors aren’t quite the way to do it; and it is either illegal or bad policy, or both, to film random gamblers in action.
Willing, enthusiastic gamblers with a gift for gab and a desire to be celebrities can create direct lines from manufacturers and operators to would-be gamblers. In a perfect world, Brian gets rich and famous, the casino shows off its fun atmosphere, and the slot company demonstrates the excitement of its games. And at home, quietly watching the action and seeing thrill of the spin, vicariously, are potential slot players.
Las Vegas Review-Journal
YouTube slot machine stars to help bring back Vegas tourists
by Bailey Schultz, Las Vegas Review-Journal · May 2, 2020
Casinos across the country have been shut down for weeks, but that hasn’t stopped Joshua O’Connell and others from experiencing the rush of a slot machine jackpot.
The Connecticut resident sets aside time every day to watch his favorite slot machine YouTubers, a growing niche of the internet where creators film their slot play.
“You get that authentic moment of the win (in these videos),” O’Connell said. “I watch because I get to learn what’s new (with slots) … and the personalities coming through make the channels. It’s a nice pick-me-up in the day.”
O’Connell used to watch an average of four videos every day, but his viewing time has been cut in half in recent weeks. New uploads have dropped dramatically since the YouTubers lost the ability to create more content inside casinos, resulting in a major drop in views and pay for some.
“We can empathize with those furloughed and waiting to return to work,” said Heidi Clemons, half of the husband-wife duo behind The Slot Cats channel. “Our income is down about two-thirds from where it was a year ago.”
A growing community
A growing community of slot-focused content creators have started to make a living off YouTube, posting videos of them risking — and sometimes winning — large sums of money in casinos across the U.S.
When YouTuber Brian Christopher uploaded his first slot video four years ago — a shaky video titled “’Lightning Strikes’ — HUGE WIN on Vegas Slots! $3,75/Bet” filmed inside Paris Las Vegas and Planet Hollywood casinos on the Las Vegas Strip — he expected a couple of views from friends. Instead, the video garnered Christopher thousands of views and roughly 1,000 subscribers in only one week and propelled his career as a full-time YouTuber.
“I did not expect those videos to explode the way they did,” said Christopher, a Canadian actor who had been driving for Lyft in Los Angeles before his channel took off.
He had roughly 245,000 subscribers as of February, and business had been successful enough for him to sell merchandise — including lanyards, rubber wristbands and autographed headshots — and hire five employees.
While all U.S. commercial casinos have been shut down temporarily, that hasn’t stopped Christopher and others from posting content, at least for the time being.
He said his team films up to two months in advance and can sustain his regular posting schedule until mid-May.
“We are happily working from home, as is advised, and also hosting premiere lives of prerecorded videos and streaming live online slots,” Christopher said.
Bringing in business
Even when casinos were open, finding a place to film wasn’t always easy. Casinos have a reputation for strict anti-camera policies, but Christopher said that has started to change in recent years.
“We’ve slowly been able to convince them that it’s actually a good thing for them for us to promote them,” he said. “We’re getting to the point now where casinos are now finding us and approaching us.”
The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas’ vice president of slots, Kevin Sweet, said he began working with the slot YouTube community in 2016. He has personal relationships with at least three YouTubers and encouraged them to film slot play back when casinos were open.
“It absolutely brought us new business (when the casino was open),” he said, adding that he has lost count of how many times guests have asked where to find a slot machine they saw someone playing on YouTube.
Slot manufacturers also have discovered the benefits of working with slot vloggers.
Jonathan Jossel, CEO of the Plaza, told the Review-Journal that the downtown property had embraced the slot YouTuber community. He said the Plaza saw a spike in business and gained a stronger social media presence after it started allowing them to film in the property.
He thinks they will be just as important to business once the casinos are allowed to reopen.
“We will continue to work with them for sure,” Jossel said. “Having them communicate that casinos are open, fun, and safe thanks to extra precautions and efforts is going to be important.”
Sweet agreed, saying that the industry will be able to recover faster with more people advocating that casinos have taken the necessary steps to protect employees and guests.
“Each casino will undoubtedly share with their guests the precautions they are taking, but those guests with a large social media following can only help to echo those efforts and broaden its reach,” Sweet said. “We of course look forward to welcoming (the social media influencers), along with the rest of our guests.”
$9,000 for one video
The YouTubers in this article wouldn’t disclose exactly how much money they make off their channels, but it’s lucrative enough for many to have left their day jobs, even as they regularly spend large amounts of money on casinos and travel expenses.
“It’s probably one of the most expensive channels you can run on YouTube because it’s a losing sport,” Christopher said. “You lose tens of thousands of dollars a year gambling. It took awhile before we became profitable.”
A YouTube channel needs 4,000 watch hours and 1,000 subscribers over the past 12 months before it can enter the company’s partner program and monetize videos.
While the money that videos earn per thousand ad views is fickle, some can end up being worth thousands of dollars.
Francine Maric, who runs the Lady Luck HQ channel, posted a video in January explaining how a viral slot video from September hit nearly 2 million views and made her almost $9,000.
Many YouTubers have found other income avenues. Some, like the user behind Sarah Slotlady, have a Patreon page that allows fans to pay $5 to $25 each month to suggest slot games or access behind-the-scenes videos. Others, like Maric, offer merchandise. Her fans can buy $16.99 Lady Luck HQ crew socks or a $14.99 mug with a cartoon image of her face.
She also offers a channel membership to fans, starting at $4.99 a month, that gives subscribers extra perks such as special emojis they can use when commenting on her videos.
“It’s just a more social way to connect with your audience but also turn it into a business,” Maric said.
Coronavirus impact
But many slot YouTubers’ pay has taken a hit amid the shutdowns as they have to cut back on new videos.
Heidi Clemons said she has had to reduce her posting schedule to three videos a week, instead of seven.
March views for The Slot Cats — run by Heidi Clemons and her husband, Fred Clemons — were down nearly 60 percent year over year, from 370,000 views to 150,000.
The couple face even more challenges in the coming weeks; the two were set to run out of unused videos to post last week.
Heidi Clemons said finances would be more of a concern if she hadn’t won a $20,000 jackpot the week before the shutdown.
“It was good timing,” she said.
Christopher said income from his videos has gone down about 40 percent since the shutdown. He pointed to a drop in advertising revenue for YouTube, causing a trickle-down effect that hurts his ad revenue.
According to a Wednesday regulatory filing from Alphabet, parent company of Google, YouTube ads revenue growth was “slightly offset” by a decline in revenue growth in March, driven by the effects of COVID-19.
“The marketing dollars aren’t there because no one can sell anything,” Christopher said. “I’m not going to complain, though. I’m still able to make income and pay all my employees their normal wages.”
Why so many watch
It’s been about seven years since O’Connell first started watching slot videos. A lot has changed since the early days, he said, pointing to the growing number of content creators and improved production quality.
“It’s exciting seeing how far (the channels have) come in just a few years,” he said.
A Reno-based YouTuber who goes by Diana Evoni said people are drawn to slot videos for a variety of reasons.
Some live miles from any casinos. Others don’t have the money to play themselves but still want to experience the rush of hitting a jackpot. But most are just looking for entertainment.
Las Vegas-resident Jim Hilliard watches at least one or two slot videos every day. One of his favorite channels is Evoni’s — he pays for a channel membership and said he and his wife plan to visit Reno at some point to try out some of the machines featured in her videos.
“It’s helped us identify the places we like to play,” he said. “You feel like you’re one with the game and the player (in these videos). … You learn from the videos, which really makes it fascinating when you don’t get the chance to see the game in person.”
Maric likened it to watching video games online — which get thousands of views on YouTube and Twitch — or watching an NFL game on ESPN. Viewers could play the games if they wanted to, but many think watching is just as fun.
Christopher said his subscribers are the reason he plans to be one of the first customers once casinos lift their shutdowns.
“I miss the interactions with the fans,” he said. “I need more content, but I also want to be there reporting to people, letting them know what the casinos are like and the steps they’re taking to make sure the casinos are safe for everybody.”
Others, like Evoni, plan to wait a bit longer before returning. She said she misses interacting with friends and fans but doesn’t want to risk spreading the coronavirus to her 86-year-old mother.
“There’s a lot to worry about,” she said. “If our (confirmed cases count) goes up in Reno … I’m going to have to wait a long time.”
The Spokesman-Review
‘We’re here, live in Idaho’: Well-known gambling YouTuber streams experience at reopened CdA Casino
Jared Brown, The Spokesman-Review · May 10, 2020
When well-known gambling YouTuber Brian Christopher reached out to the Coeur d’Alene Casino this month about streaming live video of him playing gaming machines at the first casino to reopen after nationwide pandemic-related closures, managers were hesitant.
The casino had never allowed anyone to film their experience inside, marketing director Yvette Matt said.
Luckily for Christopher, he had a track record with Matt from her previous job at the San Manuel Casino in California, which used his videos to promote new machines.
Allowing Christopher to film, Matt said, was a win-win, because Christopher was running out of content from several weeks of casino closures and the Coeur d’Alene Casino wanted to educate people about its safety measures.
“I feel it’s kind of like my duty to help support them during this time,” said Christopher, who has 250,000 subscribers on his main YouTube channel and has reached out to dozens of casinos. “I thought it would be a good opportunity to show everyone in the U.S. what it’s like to be in a casino right now.
“I want to kind of put them at ease,” Christopher, who is from Los Angeles, added during an interview. “We can get through this together.”
He started doing YouTube full time a few years ago in the months after videos he posted for fun of him playing slot machines in Las Vegas found a following. His viewership kept growing and now his channel sees more than a million views each week.
“It’s super rewarding to have a voice, to have a position to make a difference,” Christopher said about his job as a YouTuber. “I’m very grateful that I’m able to do something.”
Christopher arrived at the Spokane International Airport Tuesday after testing negative for COVID-19 in California right before his trip. He then drove straight to the reservation casino in a car he rented.
“It was beautiful scenery on my drive,” Christopher said, adding that he wants to return and explore more of the outdoors.
Employees followed Christopher during his videos to ensure he held to his policy of just recording himself and the machines, not other people. Matt was with him to make sure he had correct information to give YouTube viewers about casino precautions.
“His fans would say, ‘Do you feel comfortable? Are you afraid to be out in a casino?’ ” Matt remembered. “He was like, ‘No, I’m not afraid at all.’ ”
The casino reopened May 1 with strict social distancing and cleaning guidelines in place after maintaining wages and benefits for employees for weeks. The reservation and Benewah County have had no confirmed COVID-19 cases.
The facility quickly hit capacity during its first day back open and some waited in line for as long as 45 minutes to get inside due to strict limits on capacity. The casino has seen a lower volume of steady traffic since, Matt said.
Christopher made a point not to announce his travel plans, so hundreds of fans wouldn’t travel to see him, as they usually do. He also said during videos that he wouldn’t greet fans or take photos, though some people did recognize him at the casino.
Matt said she didn’t think Christopher’s presence brought a noticeable increase in traffic while he was there.
In his first video, which was streamed by more than 4,000 people, Christopher described how his temperature was checked, the mask requirements and the hand-washing stations.
“It’s amazing to be back,” he said during the video.
He also decided to donate to casino staff about $1,600 he raised from viewers who sent him money during two livestreams from Idaho. Funds from a third video went to COVID-19 research efforts, according to Christopher.
“I think it was a pretty cool experience, and I would hope that maybe moving forward we work with him again,” Matt said. “Then we could actually do a promotion with him where we encourage people to come see us.”
Christopher returned to Los Angeles on Saturday and plans to visit more casinos as they reopen in the coming weeks.
He said he reached out to Northern Quest Resort & Casino, which opened Tuesday and does not allow video on the gaming floor. He was turned down for a number of reasons, according to the facility.
Northern Quest, Coeur d’Alene and Kalispel casinos are among 14 other casinos that have opened across the country in the last week, according to the American Gaming Association. They are the only facilities open on the West Coast.
“Northern Quest has extremely limited marketing and advertising campaigns in internal markets only at this time,” Julie Holland, a casino spokesperson said in an email. “While we understand that Northern Quest is one of the only casinos currently open for business in the United States, we don’t encourage cross-country travel.”
Christopher said he’s used to being turned down, as well as being the first person to film in a casino.
“They are coming around to it because they are realizing the power of social media,” he said.
Strictly Slots Magazine
The Slot Influencer: Brian Christopher turns playing slots into a successful business
Most people play slots as a form of entertainment. They know that, while they may win from time to time, in the long run the house has got you beat. But there is another way to make money from the slots, and Brian Christopher has tapped into that rich vein. He travels from casino to casino playing his favorite games, just like so many of us. The difference is, he shares his adventures on YouTube.com—and makes money doing it.
How popular is he?
“I have quickly become the top influencer for slot machines and casinos on YouTube,” said Brian. “I average 2 million views per month—with millennials accounting for more than half of my viewers—and my videos are watched in 213 countries worldwide, with the U.S. representing 73 percent of the traffic.
“Who would have thought that watching someone else play slot machines would be so popular? But when you think of it, it makes complete sense. The #1 channel on YouTube with 57 Million subscribers is Pewdiepie – a guy who plays video games. So me playing slot machines is basically the same thing… only more elevated, because it involves money! You could say I’m like a Pewdiepie of Slots, only with G-Rated language.”
Of course, it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to get to the top—and even more to stay there.
“I upload at least one video every day, and each week I’ll throw in additional live streams either gambling in a casino or as a Q&A from home. I came up with regular daily themes like Millionaire Mondays where I play games with jackpots over a million dollars, Thousand Dollar Thursdays where I gamble with $1000 cash, or Get High Fridays where I only play High Limit Games.
“My friends are shocked by my success. I mean, all I do is play slot machines. What they don’t see is that managing a massive YouTube Channel is a full-time job and I have had to hire a talented Editor and a hard-working Social Media Manager, just to keep up! I’m not complaining though, I love what I do – I was born to be online.”
Beyond regular gambling videos, Brian often partners with casinos and slot
manufacturers to showcase new games, online apps, host special events or feature new and exciting amenities. It’s the perfect win-win scenario for all parties, because it allows the most progressive companies in this space to tap into their ideal market base—gambling millennials. “No other platform, be it TV, radio, or billboard advertising, has the ability to engage their target audience the way that I do. Everyone who watches me is a gambling and casino enthusiast, or is interested in joining in the experience,” said Brian.
If you watch his channel, don’t expect some sugar-coated video, where it’s all winning all the time. Brian takes viewers on a fun, and sometimes raucous, but realistic journey with him as he plays.
“My channel is all about keeping it real. I show all of my wins and losses and don’t hide the fact that statistically, I will lose in the long run. My fans love that they can literally see themselves in me. In fact, I treat all of my recordings as if I’m playing right beside them, with sayings like ‘I hope WE get the bonus’ or ‘WE won!’ It also helps me not feel as crazy talking to myself at a machine. And yes, I get a lot of stares.”
Most people play slots as a form of entertainment. They know that, while they may win from time to time, in the long run the house has got you beat. But there is another way to make money from the slots, and Brian Christopher has tapped into that rich vein. He travels from casino to casino playing his favorite games, just like so many of us. The difference is, he shares his adventures on YouTube.com—and makes money doing it.
How popular is he?
“I have quickly become the top influencer for slot machines and casinos on YouTube,” said Brian. “I average 2 million views per month—with millennials accounting for more than half of my viewers—and my videos are watched in 213 countries worldwide, with the U.S. representing 73 percent of the traffic.
“Who would have thought that watching someone else play slot machines would be so popular? But when you think of it, it makes complete sense. The #1 channel on YouTube with 57 Million subscribers is Pewdiepie – a guy who plays video games. So me playing slot machines is basically the same thing… only more elevated, because it involves money! You could say I’m like a Pewdiepie of Slots, only with G-Rated language.”
Of course, it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to get to the top—and even more to stay there.
“I upload at least one video every day, and each week I’ll throw in additional live streams either gambling in a casino or as a Q&A from home. I came up with regular daily themes like Millionaire Mondays where I play games with jackpots over a million dollars, Thousand Dollar Thursdays where I gamble with $1000 cash, or Get High Fridays where I only play High Limit Games.
“My friends are shocked by my success. I mean, all I do is play slot machines. What they don’t see is that managing a massive YouTube Channel is a full-time job and I have had to hire a talented Editor and a hard-working Social Media Manager, just to keep up! I’m not complaining though, I love what I do – I was born to be online.”
Beyond regular gambling videos, Brian often partners with casinos and slot
manufacturers to showcase new games, online apps, host special events or feature new and exciting amenities. It’s the perfect win-win scenario for all parties, because it allows the most progressive companies in this space to tap into their ideal market base—gambling millennials. “No other platform, be it TV, radio, or billboard advertising, has the ability to engage their target audience the way that I do. Everyone who watches me is a gambling and casino enthusiast, or is interested in joining in the experience,” said Brian.
If you watch his channel, don’t expect some sugar-coated video, where it’s all winning all the time. Brian takes viewers on a fun, and sometimes raucous, but realistic journey with him as he plays.
“My channel is all about keeping it real. I show all of my wins and losses and don’t hide the fact that statistically, I will lose in the long run. My fans love that they can literally see themselves in me. In fact, I treat all of my recordings as if I’m playing right beside them, with sayings like ‘I hope WE get the bonus’ or ‘WE won!’ It also helps me not feel as crazy talking to myself at a machine. And yes, I get a lot of stares.”
Comped Travel
Brian Christopher’s YouTube Channel takes “hand pay” to “paycheck”
Stace · July 22, 2020
For most of us who play slots, we expect to put our money into the machine and hope to get paid. Imagine, just for a second, how amazing it would be to get paid to put your money into the machine, and then get paid when you win! If that sounds like a dream, then meet the man living that dream: YouTube Channel Creator and Star and “Slot Machine Influencer,” Brian Christopher! Listen to podcast version.
URComped CEO Craig Shacklett recently had the chance to interview the YouTube Star. For Christopher, his self-described “entrepreneurial instinct” inspired him to transform his love of slot machines and take that passion and monetize it by creating YouTube gaming videos (1:52).
Christopher explains to Shacklett how it “literally took about a month” (2:08) for him to realize that his project could become something that would generate income when he began to see his YouTube subscriber numbers rapidly grow. These numbers led to an invitation to join YouTube’s partnership program. Even though Christopher says he was familiar with YouTube, this area was new to him. That partnership program enabled YouTube to attach advertisements to his videos (2:34). For Christopher, this was especially fortuitous. His YouTube channel was now making a little bit more than he had as an Uber and Lyft driver, which, as he says “was supporting my acting career” (2:45). As the YouTube channel began to take off, he says he had to put his dreams of acting on the backburner to take advantage of the incredible opportunity in front of him.
Christopher explains that he had always dreamed of making the move to Southern California from his native Canada to pursue his goal of becoming a movie star. He says he and his husband, Marco, had long planned the move, and he worked hard, wanting to make sure he had a professional enough resume before making the move to the Golden State. Christopher was forced to work for free for his first several months waiting for his work visas to come through. He says just as his acting career began to take off in Hollywood, so too did his YouTube channel. Timing, as they say, is everything!
So how does one go from acting in the Great White North to becoming an actor/slot machine influencer? For Christopher, it began with a love of gambling (5:02). The legal age for playing Bingo in Canada is 18 and playing slots is 19. Christopher says that he began with Bingo and as soon as he reached 19, he headed into the casinos and to the slot machines, where he fell in love.
While Christopher is one of the major names when it comes to slot machine influencers, he wasn’t the first. Craig wanted to know how Brian Christopher came to be the leader in the YouTube slot machine world. Shacklett was curious how Christopher took the existing concept and expanded it to the level that he is at today.
Christopher cites YouTuber Phillip DeFranco as one of his favorite personalities to watch and listen to. In addition to finding inspiration in DeFranco’s channel, Christopher says he “started seeking out classes to take and books to read, and to learn more about how it all works” (6:18). In addition, he began to attend conferences, including the G2E (the Global Gaming Expo–which Craig explains is “the biggest conference in the world where a lot of bigwigs from casinos around the world and casino vendors are all there” (7:29), where he gained confidence in the connections he had made and in what he was doing. He explains, “I was definitely confident. Because of the growth happening so quickly, there was a little buzz around the channel. So I was able to use that to get in and make some contacts at the beginning. And one of the contacts I actually made there at the beginning was a great contact. But we didn’t work together for about two-and-a-half or three years after that. But we stayed in contact the whole time. And we always knew there’s going to be some time where we would work together. And so it shows you that those little baby steps and those nudges you do at the beginning of will pay off.”
For Christopher, the red carpet is not always rolled out to meet him when he contacts a casino about recording slot play in their venues. As he explains (8:22), “most of them don’t allow recording at all. And some of them are open to the idea. But most of the time, I have to do a lot of nudging and convincing.” Christopher says he will often point out that they can “watch any one of my two thousand videos and see what I do, and you’ll notice that I’m not doing anything bad. It’s actually good for you.” The hardest thing, he says, “is just convincing people that don’t know the importance of social media, how important it really is” (8:48).
Like most of the gaming industry, Christopher says his YouTube channel’s revenues also suffered because of advertisers who pulled ads during the pandemic shutdown. He explains that his company shoots videos 2-3 months in advance, so they were able to continue to upload new content but were definitely ready to get back to work. For Christopher, that work came in the form of Coeur D’alene Casino in Idaho, which was among the first casinos to reopen. Christopher explains that the casino management wasn’t exactly excited about being put front and center of this new normal, but Christopher explained how their new safety protocols could be seen as a model, and in the end, the casino received positive feedback all around.
Christopher is not only an avid slot influencer, he is also an advocate of what he believes in. As he explains to Craig, he is an advocate of mask usage as we navigate this pandemic. Additionally, he is a staunch believer in non-smoking casinos. He says, “I’ve got dozens and dozens of emails from casinos repeatedly saying, ‘Your health is our number one priority. The health and safety of our people. And we’re doing… We’re speaking with all the health experts and everything else.’ And I’m like, ‘I want to call BS on it’ and be like, ‘If you really care about our health and safety, you would ban smoking in your casino.’ You can have outdoor patios. There are many casinos that even have outdoor patios with slot machines or… That works. But when you’re making the staff and the patrons breathe it in non-stop. That’s not really fair to everybody. So I’m loving the changes that are happening and I hope that continues. And masks need to be mandatory everywhere if you want to just flatten this curve. I keep reading that the worst is still yet to come and that’s pretty darn scary. The last thing we want is for all these things to close up again. And we’re talking about entertainment here, right? Casinos are supposed to be fun and entertaining. So if you really want to have your entertainment, then put on a darn mask already” (13:44).
While Christopher is excited about his advocacy work, it is still the slots that brought him where he is today. But lest we think that his life is hanging out in the casino dropping coins, Christopher says gaming only counts for about 5% of his work. He says most of his time is spent shipping merchandise (including masks, btw) from his offices. In addition, his time is spent negotiating on the phone with casinos as he tries to gain access into their venues so he can shoot the games we all want to play. After that, there’s also video editing, promotions, scheduling–in other words, it’s a real job (although a pretty cool one!).
Check out Brian Christopher’s amazing videos at bcslots.com–and be sure to check in with your URComped travel host to sign up for one of the URComped sailings with Brian and his “Rudies.” You never know–you just might hit the next hand pay he features in one of his videos!
VoyageLA
Meet Brian Christopher of BrianGambles.com
Editor, Contributor · August 14, 2018
Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Christopher.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Brian. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
When I booked my first trip to Las Vegas, I looked to Youtube to find out what games to play and at which casinos. To my amazement (and shock!), there were videos of people playing slots online! Why would anyone want to watch that? Well apparently I did, and I watched a lot. It encouraged me to try my hand at it too. I only uploaded my videos for fun but spruced them up with intros and outros to make them more enjoyable. After they went viral (for my subscriber base!), I made some more and they too went viral! So I kept up with them and I suppose I did something right because I now get a million views a week!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
A lot of what I have done has been uncharted territory. I had to figure everything out on my own. I would buy film equipment like green screens and lighting – with zero clues how to use them. I even dabbled in 360 videos for a while. The biggest hurdle is finding the time to get everything done, which is why I’m on the hunt for more staff!
BrianGambles.com – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I upload videos daily of me playing slot machines. I also hold events all over the world like meet and greets, slot tournaments, cruises and group slot pulls. I’m super proud in how far we as a channel have come, and how our amazing ‘Rudies’ family has grown. The Rudies is my fan club, and they are just awesomely supportive and positive. They named themselves off of one of my catchphrases ‘Rude!’ (when the slots don’t quite line up how I’d like them. My channel is a bit different in that it’s all about the viewer’s experience.
They’re not literally sitting in the chair playing, but I do my best to make them feel a great part of the experience. I try and be as personal and interactive as I can which is also why I hold so many events. I absolutely LOVE getting face time with them.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
In June my YouTube Channel was shut down without cause. It was ONE day before my 4 week East Coast tour of 8 casinos. Rather than freak out and cancel the tour, I boarded my plane and kept my cool. It all paid off because the next day my channel was back and I was able to live stream and I hit my BIGGEST Jackpot LIVE by hitting $10,000 on Wheel of Fortune (the biggest number on the wheel)!
Contact Info:
- Website: BrianGambles.com
- Email: contact@briangambles.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/JustBrianC
- Facebook: Facebook.com/JustBrianC
- Twitter: Twitter.com/JustBrianC
- Other: Snapchat.com/add/JustBrianC
YouTube: BCSlots.com
Forbes
YouTube Slot Controversy Shows The Perils Of Your Side Hustle
by David G. Schwartz, Contributor · June 11, 2018 at 8:58am
It happened without warning.
On June 3rd at 7:28 in the morning, Brian Christopher got an email from “The YouTube Team” telling him that his video, “Smokin' Hot Gems, BIG WIN Mammoth Power Slot Machine Pokies w Brian Christopher” had been taken down for violating content restrictions on “violent or dangerous acts that have an inherent risk of serious physical harm or death.” This was his first strike. Seconds later, he got another email telling him that “due to repeated or severe violations” of YouTube’s community guidelines, his account had been suspended. His channel, which he had been building for two years, had vanished. Hundreds of his videos, all of which feature him playing slot machines and winning jackpots, were wiped out.
Just like that, a big piece of Christopher’s life—he spends about eight to 12 hours a day on his channel, and employs three people who help him—was gone. Erased. Deleted.
Around the same time, Scott “The Raja” Richter, whose slot channel, The Big Jackpot, features videos like “Biggest Live Jackpot In History | $600 A Pull | Black Widow @ The Cosmopolitan” logged on and found that his channel, too, was gone.
Christopher and Richter had used YouTube to turn a money-losing pastime, playing slot machines, into a respectable side hustle, even a level of celebrity. Richter’s videos have clocked more than 2 million unique monthly views, and his channel has more than 115,000 subscribers. He even has a dedicated fan club, known as the Bomb Squad (after Richter’s trademark “#BOOM” graphic that accompanies each big win). Christopher has about 50 million total views and 82,000 subscribers, with his videos drawing thousands of views a day, and his own fan club, the Rudies. Bomb Squad and Rudies alike, in addition to commenting on videos and offering advice during live feeds, follow their mentors to casinos around the country and even go on cruises with them. One highlight of these events is the “group pull,” where players pool their cash and take turns pressing play on a high limit slot.
In addition to revenue generated directly from YouTube (which Richter says, for a popular channel, can reach as high as $20,000 a month) both Richter and Christopher sell a range of merchandise, from bobbleheads to coffee mugs to shot glasses. While this may have started out as a hobby, it has clearly become something bigger. Christopher, for instance, found out about his channel being removed while traveling for a planned multi-state East Coast tour.
Andy Warhol famously said back in 1968 that in the future, everyone would be world famous for fifteen minutes. Fifty years later, we’re in the future, and Warhol was half right. Everyone’s not world famous for fifteen minutes. Instead, they are famous to their fanbases of a few hundred thousand for as long as they can keep cranking out new content. Platforms like YouTube have redefined the nature of celebrity itself. It’s no longer about musical or athletic talent, looks, or even being in the right place at the right time. It’s about being able to market original content that drives clicks.
You have a good idea of what it takes to get fired from your job: punching the boss is out, as is destroying company property, showing up drunk, or doing all three. But in the side hustle economy, where you let people watch you play slots, drive them to the casino, or even write about what they do there, the rules—to the extent that there are rules—are much less transparent. Both channels had been, presumably, making good money for YouTube. As far as the creators knew, they were doing exactly what the platform wanted them to: generate and promote original content that brings clicks.
“It was like a stab in the back.” Christopher says. “I devoted my entire life to YouTube. I gave them 1,100 videos and made them a lot of money. For them to turn around and shut me down with zero explanation hurts.”
Christopher immediately filed an appeal. “I didn’t know what I was appealing,” he explains, “since I didn’t know what I did wrong.” He just told the anonymous authority that his channel was clean and promoted responsible gambling. Hours later, he got a curt email informing him his appeal was denied—again, with no explanation of what policies he had violated.
Then, without an apology or any other acknowledgement, both channels were reinstated. Christopher simply got a brief email that said that, after a re-review, it was determined that his videos did not, in fact, violate any guidelines. That’s good news for Richter, Christopher, the Bomb Squad, and the Rudies, but the entire situation shines a light on the very real dangers of the side hustle economy.
The side hustle economy is a natural reaction to the collapse of the old work economy. It’s increasingly rare to score a solid 9 to 5 job right out of school, clock a few decades, and retire with a secure pension and gold watch, all the while enjoying financial security. More and more people are turning to a variety of side hustles—freelance work, MLMs, YouTube videos, even writing—in an effort to stay ahead of the game.
The side hustles I’m thinking about are different from simply working a second job hostessing or parking cars because they usually involve a significant outlay of resources—sometimes financial but always time. This species of hustle is also dependent on what we can loosely call “tech” but is more accurately a form of digitally-assisted connectivity. YouTubers like Christopher and Richter, documenting their thousands of dollars in slot jackpots for tens of thousands of fans are at one end, with Lyft and Uber drivers and designers selling custom drawn logos on fiverr at the other.
In theory, side hustling gives creative, ambitious, or just broke and bored people a chance to turn their time and effort into money. In practice, it’s not always that easy, and with so much of the hustle dependent on impersonal, impenetrable tech, it is an incredibly unstable base on which to build a brand, let alone a future. You might cultivate a great presence as a Lyft driver, but when self-driving cars are ready to roll, it’s over, no matter how hard you've worked. Or an inoffensive piece of your content trips a digital wire somewhere, and you’re flagged, then suspended, with no clear path to appeal.
We still don’t have any idea why the channels came down: was it really part of an orchestrated harassment campaign by a rival, as some fans alleged, or was it just both channels running afoul of an algorithm? After all, with 300 hours of video uploaded to the channel every minute, no human can sit and watch them all for violations. And, remember, computers can do operations quickly and efficiently but don’t have common sense or empathy. So your passion project that you’ve been pouring your life into for the past few years with decent results and no controversy might get flagged or your channel removed, just because a machine read something into it that you never intended. There are humans involved in the policy violation process (10,000 of them at YouTube's last count), but, with about 3 million videos flagged for review each month, that’s still about 1,000 videos a day per human—if humans never took days off.
Perhaps appropriately for Richter and Christopher, the side hustle economy that we all participate in might have something in common with playing slot machines. Because even when we fear it might be a negative expectation game, when we see other people hitting the jackpot, we have no choice but to get back to the grind.
For his part, Christopher’s return to YouTube is not without issues. While his videos were restored, they were not remonetized, meaning that he can’t make any money from them. He was assured that they would be remonetized in 24 to 48 hours but, five days later, it had not happened. So, like the rest of us, it’s back to posting content, but with no guarantee that it will pay off.
Worse, the phantom violation makes brings a nagging uncertainty to his life. “It just leaves it open for them to do it again,” Christopher says. “I have zero way of getting any answers from anybody.”
There is one silver lining in all this. The night that his channel returned, Christopher was back playing slots live on YouTube. Alongside his Rudies, both in person and on livestream, Christopher hit the biggest jackpot of his life, $10,000.
The look on his face when those reels line up…that’s what we’re all chasing, and that tells us why, even if it’s a lot of work with an uncertain pay off, we’re going to keep chasing our side hustles.
