Now it’s idiots like me, whipping out their phone on a Thursday night, destined to endanger another $20 on a doomed three-leg parlay. Yet, somehow, he has managed to turn losing money into an enviable living—and is one of the only people on Earth to do so. Having picked up nearly a million a followers across the various social media networks, Vegas Matt’s videos are everywhere and Howie Mandel recently invited Stephen Matt Morrow onto his show where a hilarious exchange called into question the age old ‘reality versus Instagram’ paradox. At the end of the night, Morrow decompressed in the casino lounge, toasting both his winnings and the viewers who’ve come along for the ride. The next day, after a couple of way-too-strong gin and sodas, I withdrew the $100 I had, at the beginning of the trip, made peace with losing. “This is cliché, but for someone who had a hard time getting a date to the prom, or who wasn’t picked to be on the basketball team at recess, it’s fun to be like, Hey, maybe I am doing all right.” “Even at 61 years old, it’s a rewarding experience when people from your past, going back decades, reach out.
I was actually on a bit of a hot streak by the time I hit the poker table, where a quintet of players much richer than I bled me dry in record time. Now it was time to become reacquainted with the city as I’ve always understood it. My eight hours as a high roller were officially over. The old world was calling, the one I shared with the other 40 million tourists who come to Las Vegas every year, composed of $10 baccarat bets and gouging ATM premiums. I remembered that in a matter of hours, I would no longer be in his orbit. I was reminded again of just how easy life in Las Vegas appears to be for Morrow, how this citadel of scams seems to loosen at his touch. (“Are you up or down?” asked an inquisitive Mandel at the beginning of the episode.) Morrow, along with the rest of his group, is a special guest of Mandel tonight. It has made Vegas Matt a celebrity, which, as I learned, is much more of a thrill for him than the money is.
The other half was cheerfully loaned out by the casino. He has mixed business with pleasure, and naturally, business is winning out. Vegas Matt, on the other hand, is unable to take a break from reality with the intoxicating assistance of excess. Those doses of depravity—meted out in 36-hour intervals—are the spice of life. A great Vegas trip, for my money, consists of a sudden and violent psychological displacement. The thrill of risking money that I can never recover, with YouTube metrics or otherwise, is one of my most cherished sins.
YouTube ad revenue
FanDuel signed Vegas Matt as an ambassador in a long-term partnership that includes content, promotions, branding, and appearances at customer events. This is the clearest “non-guess” revenue line because it’s publicly announced. Gambling content can have inconsistent CPMs due to advertiser sensitivity, age gating, and platform policies. High-limit slots and table games can produce massive upswings, but they aren’t a reliable wealth-building engine for most people. Vegas Matt presents himself as someone who has done various ventures, including operating a bed-and-breakfast and working as a Hollywood film producer/financier. This page appears when Google automatically detects requests coming from your computer network which appear to be in violation of the Terms of Service.
Vegas Matt is generous, flashing a big smile for everyone in line—after all, it’s really his fans who pay his bills. My Instagram algorithm is littered, alongside Vegas Matt, with deep-fried, postironic gambling memes, all of which seem to simultaneously celebrate and parody the impotence of this enterprise. Around that time, a renewed interest in the game minted a fresh generation of stars, like Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, and Phil Ivey, who had clairvoyant talents on the felt. It was always possible to become a celebrity by gambling, but, historically speaking, the luminaries of this world were expected to win. But most of all, I wanted to know if his life was as enticing as it looked on camera. How can he stand to lose so much money? While I’ve thought of him mostly as a gambling cryptid—Bigfoot if he were in way too deep at the roulette wheel—I was also mystified by his persona.
But then he revealed they were trying hard to win a specific jackpot (at $170K) and actually ended up losing a ton of money that day… That begs the question, does it really count as a jackpot if you lose $140,000 in the same session? His videos are actually where I learned the rules of baccarat and discovered it’s not nearly as complicated as I previously though. There are plenty of things I will always envy about Morrow, but I’m glad that the sacred, brain-healing ritual of a Saturday night at the casino with the boys will never become routine, or even boring. I might be playing at much smaller stakes—I’ve never come close to losing $30,000 in a day—but of the two of us, it’s me who really has something to lose. I was attracted to his videos for their effervescent bachelor-party texture, a vision of a life unencumbered by anything but gratification. Vegas Matt films at the El Cortez because, since 2017, it’s been one of the few casinos in the city that allow patrons to shoot video of their table games. But by far, the place Vegas Matt is most famous is the El Cortez, where he films the bulk of his videos and, therefore, where people know they have the best chance of running into him. He uploaded video after video of his trips to the casino, fleshing out the character his fans know today.
He told me that other properties around Las Vegas, ones that have historically obfuscated the misery of this business, are not. Vegas Matt has correctly identified a sea change in the gambling industry. If I did a meet and greet and they promoted it, I could get 2,300 people there, but instead of a bunch of screaming girls, they’d be gamblers. “This place will pay Carrie Underwood $2 million a weekend to get 2,300 people into that theater. He hopes that one of those gleaming casinos on the Strip—away from the low-slung ceilings of the El Cortez—will offer him an exclusive deal. Morrow would like to replicate this business model across Las Vegas. “People come in here to buy my merchandise, and then they lose $5,000,” quipped Morrow, unshy about the revenue he generates for the game room. Wiesberg has leaned into the partnership to the point that the casino’s gift shop is brimming with Vegas Matt–branded shirts and sweaters.
Yes, Vegas Matt has managed to nullify the perils of gambling, but he has done so by leveraging social media—yet another casino, replete with long odds and enthralling opportunity—where the numbers can always get bigger. It’s a sentiment that clarifies the twinge of humiliation I felt after watching him cut out a baccarat bet of roughly the same value as my 401(k). Over and over again, he told me that the only thing he’s ever wanted to Commonwealth Casino do with his life is have fun. For the first time in our entire day together, there is a flash of venom. He lived in Los Angeles, where he unsuccessfully tried his hand at stand-up comedy and ended up helping finance a couple of kitschy horror movies in the late 1980s, including the infamous Night of the Demons. Wiesberg has put faith in the idea that people like me have become immune to the traditional ways the gambling industry has marketed itself.
How Vegas Matt Made His Money
I’d been with Vegas Matt—the YouTube tycoon whose millions of followers salivate over his every bet—for only a few hours. At a private baccarat table near the back of the El Cortez Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on a chilly January afternoon, a crowd of fans gathered to watch one of the world’s most famous gamblers at work. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. His work appears across TechieGamers’ network of partners, including Google News. He doesn’t need to publicise the specifics, and it’s smarter not to. A widely shared clip/storyline had him describing a $170,000 jackpot with an “asterisk,” because he implied the broader session results were not necessarily a clean win overall. One of his most famous documented slot wins is a $230,775 “Buffalo” win, posted as a full video and framed as a major highlight. Some profiles claim he has real estate interests (including in Costa Rica).
Because I too have sat at a blackjack table deep into the witching hour, and even on my best nights, I don’t think I’ve ever wandered to the payout window feeling totally satiated. “We’re looking for cool people,” he said, advocating for Vemma. To become a gambling influencer, one must already be pretty rich, and that tracks with the single ambition Vegas Matt seems to have. They say, ‘Oh it’s a scam,’ ” he said. “So many people fail, and they don’t want to take responsibility for their failure. And yet, after several hours together, I’m still unable to pierce Vegas Matt’s gaudy persona. Halfway through my day with Morrow, it became clear that he intended to impress me.