What is a slot streamer?
Slot streamers are a relatively new phenomenon in the gambling world. They are often affiliated with a casino operator and play slot games online to an audience. There are a number of streaming platforms out there, including but not limited to; YouTube, Twitch and Kick.
Streamer audiences are able to see one screen showing the streamer themselves – and crucially their reactions to what is going on in the game – and another screen showing the game they’re currently playing.
People had been playing video games on these platforms for years and some bright spark copped that it would be a good idea to watch people playing online slots due to the unpredictability of the games. As slots became more volatile, this unpredictability has also increased, making for arguably more memorable content.
There is a lot of controversy around slot streamers who are apparently able to afford playing games at massive stakes. It is nigh on impossible to know if a streamer is in fact legitimately playing with their own money, or if the casino is funding their play with bonus money that they can never actually withdraw to their own bank accounts. You will have to make your own mind up whether you believe a streamer is playing with their own money, or not.
Give me the name of some slot streamers so I can go and have a look for myself.
I have personally been watching streamers for 4 or 5 years now. I find some of them very entertaining, but a lot are only able to make interesting content by virtue of the excitement created by the games they play.
I believe that a large percentage of these streamers are making content using money they have been given directly by the casinos. I further believe that in the rare cases where they are funding play themselves, they are getting unbelievably attractive offers from the site to enable the high stakes play they engage in.
I won’t go into naming names of all streamers, but I’ll discuss two examples here for reference. The first is The Bandit. He’s a British streamer with his own website; www.backinamo.com and YouTube channel; https://www.youtube.com/@YouBanditTube. I don’t know the history of all streamers but I would imagine he was one of the earlier gambling content creators. He doesn’t appear in his videos, instead he narrates the play we see on screen. He did dabble in Live-Streaming when setting up a Twitch account, but this didn’t last long and he soon reverted back to his standard YouTube video format.
I personally find him to be very entertaining. His cursing and shrieking when winning or losing big is funny and creative and I often find myself empathising with his journey through the video.
Originally, he played on sites like Paddy Power, Betfair, BetVictor, Casumo and others, but at the time of writing this, he has moved to crypto casinos. He would likely argue he had little choice due to the very restrictive regulations brought in by the UKGC (more on these in a separate blog post). These restrictions included the removal of auto spins, the introduction of a 3 second gap between spins, stake limits, the removal of bonus buys and lots more. It certainly made life difficult for UK-based streamers so a lot of them moved abroad or resorted to using the unregulated crypto casinos, like The Bandit.
He claims to play with his own money and I for one believe him. However it’s worth pointing out that he does earn what must be a substantial amount from affiliate deals he has with casinos. These affiliate deals are very attractive for content creators. They earn money from losses of players who sign-up through links on their websites. So if you go to The Bandit’s website and join one of the casinos listed, using a sign-up promo code, the operator will pay him a percentage of all losses from that player’s account going forward.
Of course, he also earns revenue from his YouTube channel – ad revenue can be very lucrative if your content gets a lot of views, especially if people actually watch the ad videos contained within.
Obviously some people won’t believe that he plays with his own money, and that’s a perfectly reasonable position to take. The reason that I believe him is due to the authentic reactions he has. I actually think some of the sites he played on probably did give him “fake” money to play with because some of them did not seem like genuine reactions. But it’s very difficult to know one way or another. Some audience members will likely claim that unless he shows all of his bank account deposits and withdrawals in & out of these sites, then he can’t claim to be legit. But I mean come on! Who is going to actually show all that information on a live video? It would be madness, knowing all the scammers out there today. And yet, without that level of transparency, some people will just never believe these guys.
Another streamer that I watch is Spinlife. This was originally run by one Swedish guy, but over time he has turned it into a business and now there are multiple guys playing on the channel. The stakes they play at are much, much higher than those The Bandit plays at. If The Bandit’s average spin value is £2, these guys are betting $10. It might not seem like a lot at first glance, but you go and play these games at $10 per spin and see how long your cash lasts (important note; don’t actually do that - you’ll lose it all faster than the time it’s taken you to read this sentence).
I personally do NOT believe that these guys are playing with their own money. They seem to play across multiple gambling accounts – a big no no of gambling operators. If you try to open multiple accounts with one operator, you will quickly find them shutting down these duplicates and forcing you to use one account, only. There are different balances on each account with some suddenly appearing to have more funds than before, without any mention of a deposit being made. They also have very generous deposit match bonuses for every single deposit that they make. They might get 200% matched on a deposit of maybe $100k. While the wagering requirements appear to be high, they do not seem to be bound by the standard T&Cs an ordinary punter must contend with. For example, they are able to buy bonuses which is not allowed on any operator I have ever used. They are also able to make spins at much higher level than any bonus I have ever had.
Some of these bigger gambling streamers have “chat mods” who help them manage the live chat on their streams. These mods are there primarily to ensure people are not being rude, offensive or spamming other chatters. However, I have also noticed that any chat challenging the legitimacy of their play is quickly brushed aside, removed or the person blocked. Sure, some of these people are only there to disrupt the chat and cause mayhem, so it’s understandable that they are removed. Others do bring up legitimate points but are often met with derision and scorn by the streamer, their mods and often other participants in the chat too. It does make me question why they are so afraid of seemingly fair criticism.
For example, I have watched these guys doing a $250k bonus hunt, where average spin is around €20. While doing this, I have heard them talking about saving money on small household items. It does come across as more than a little ridiculous when someone betting a quarter of a million euro on slot machines in a single night would need to pinch their pennies.
I also wonder why they continuously wager more and more each night. If they were playing with their own funds, you would imagine they would make withdrawals more frequently.
It’s a debate that is frustratingly never likely to be solved. Unless you know the streamer personally and can actually see the money going in and out of their bank account, how will you ever know for sure if it’s real? And to be honest, who are any of us to demand such proof? Would we want to share that kind of information with strangers over the internet? I know I wouldn’t. It has been suggested that an independent third party organisation be setup in order to verify slot streamers play, but questions would continue to be asked – how do we know this org are legit? How can we trust them, etc etc. My personal take on it all is that if you find the content engaging and entertaining, then try and just enjoy it for what it is. Don’t get sucked into the debates around legitimacy as it’ll drive you mad. And for what it’s worth, I find both The Bandit and Spinlife (at least some of the guys involved!) to be entertaining to watch.
One thing I would really like to see implemented for all streamers however, is an overall channel Profit & Loss. Every time a stream starts and finishes, I would like to see their lifetime position. Preferably this would cover every casino they play at combined, rather than cherry-picking those they’ve done better with. It should show their start and end balance, including all deposits and withdrawals made and it should show total amount staked, won and lost for each game too. Unfortunately, I think this is extremely unlikely to ever be implemented.
Why do streamers appear to win more than me?
I have covered some of this in the discussions above already, but I think this is down to a number of things. Firstly, slot streamers are probably playing a lot more than you are. Don’t forget, this is their job! They are literally making their living by playing slots for hours on end. So of course they are going to win big occasionally.
They are also going to highlight their big wins, because of course it’s the most exciting and engaging content they are likely to have. Social media will also amplify their big wins as they share these videos across casino big win aggregator sites like CasinoGrounds. If we look at Spinlife again, their YouTube channel not only shows their live stream videos in full, they also have shorts and highlight compilations that show off their big wins. I don’t have any issue with these, because it’s understandably going to get more views than a collection of times they have lost a lot, but it is worth making yourself aware that these videos don’t represent their session as a whole. In fact, I have seen lots of their compilation videos where it will say something like: “massive bonus hunt with huge wins”. When I go to watch the video, they might start the bonus hunt with a balance of say $100k and end up with a balance of $93k. So, they have in fact lost $7k, but the video title would make you think they’ve won big.
Do streamers have secret “sweetheart deals” with operators or game providers?
It’s difficult to get to the truth on this one unless you’re involved in these types of deals from one side or the other. We have to take it on trust from the streamers that they’re telling the truth.
I believe they have extremely favourable deals with the casino operators they work with – with the match deposit bonuses they receive, as one example. In relation to the game providers, I would suggest they simply ask a streamer to promote their content in exchange for a fee. But the streamer would still have to play on the operator’s site with “their own funds”.
It’s a bit murky and nobody on the outside can say with any degree of certainty if these types of deals exist or not. You do occasionally hear some of them mention the types of deposit bonus they have, but even taking these into account, the types of bonus they play with don’t appear to be the same as the ones offered to ‘regular’ players. They are able to stake at much higher rates per spin, they are able to buy bonuses and they can engage in ‘bonus hunts’ seemingly without issue. These are all things that would get a regular player’s bonus being annulled.
However, I do know that the games play the same for everyone. The streamers don’t have access to a ‘cheat’ version of the game – where they are guaranteed big wins. That is just not how slot games work. The games do have a developer version - where makers can test certain features etc - but once a game is live on an operator’s site, then the streamers are playing the same game as you or me.
If they are legitimate, then why don’t streamers simply advertise their overall profit and loss, for all to see?
This is a great question and it’s something that I’d really like one of the streamer channels to do. Some of them do talk about how they are often losing a lot, but it would be really beneficial and informative for them to record their overall P&L, the exact bonus structure that they are availing of etc. Basically, I’d like to see a lot more transparency than what we currently get.
The best sports tipsters (something I’ll talk about in another blog) record their overall channel P&L so that prospective buyers can see how much they’re making over a particular period (usually monthly).
I fully appreciate the fact that streamers are not tipsters and are not trying to pretend to be, but I think it’s incredibly disingenuous to let people think they are doing well, when in fact they are all losing lots of money. As we discussed earlier, these games play to a specific RTP, so over time, all streamers will lose. They play games that are guaranteed to pay out at a loss, so it’s really simple; they can’t win.
If a streamer were to shout about their overall channel P&L, I think this would open viewers eyes to the reality of playing these games. Sure they can go through huge swings and have some really big wins, but after all is said and done, they will lose money.