How To Beat The Casino: Why Bluff Loses $100,000's To Make Millions

24:09Because I genuinely have no idea why you got fired. I couldn't figure it out online. And I'm dying to know. I got fired twice actually um so the whole shift from the scootering to the mechanic world basically came as I was with an ex and she wanted to live in Vegas but you know riding a scooter and uh I wasn't making enough money to basically afford life unless I was a bum basically um so I was like all right I have to get into like getting my first job well technically not my first job but I had to get into getting a job to afford, you know, uh, uh, an adult life. So I couldn't afford school.

24:48I knew I couldn't go to school because I don't have a diploma. I don't have a GED. I don't have an elementary diploma even. So, uh, my thought process was like, okay, I'm just going to get real world experience at a lube shop, you know, very basic, no experience needed. And you could do oil changes and stuff like that. Change fluids on cars. so I started there it was called Valvoline I did that for about two years and I got you know hands on experience basically better than trade school learned about cars during my off time and then I applied as an apprentice at a dealership here in Vegas and I ended up getting hired which was awesome so I got I got pushed under I was under someone's wing basically at this dealership and they're teaching me about the cars and how to replace all these parts and you know the mechanic industry is a little, I think it's shady, personally.

25:42Why? You don't get paid hourly. You get paid a flat rate system. So if you come in with your BMW and your water pump is leaking and your car is under warranty,

25:55you're not going to pay a dime. You bring the car in. We do the diagnostic. We replace the part. BMW has a book that says how much you'll get paid for replacing this part. and let's just say it'll be two hours. You'll get two hours to replace this part. If it takes you 10 hours, you only get two hours. If it takes you 30 minutes, you get two hours. So in some sense it works, some sense it doesn't, but almost every single time when a car is under warranty and they say it's gonna take you two hours, it'll take you three hours or four hours. It's so hard to beat it unless you do all these crazy shortcuts and find different things to sprucing up your story and make more money.

26:37what about upcharging like the classic middle-aged woman who goes to the mechanic to get something simple fix she ends up getting sold on a million other things and upcharged like crazy is this true i'm sure it's it's true in some sense but typically when you bring your car into a dealership you know you get an inspection and nowadays people are getting videos from their mechanic that are showing showcasing all the things that are wrong with their car and most of the times like a lot of things you don't really have to replace. Like you can live your life and it'll be fine, but we are supposed to protect ourselves from, you know, our boss.

27:14Like if, if you were to take your car and I told you, Oh, you need to, you need to replace this part. But you were like, Oh, I just took this into another shop and they didn't say anything about it. Then if that lady ends up complaining to the first shop, that technician is the one that bites the bullet, you know? So you have to like basically look at everything, even if it's like on the way out or you don't need to replace it. It's not like that detrimental, but it's torn a little bit and you don't mention it, then that's on you and you take the liability. So the air filters, if you go in to get an oil change and they say you need a new air filter, is that true?

27:46Oh, for the most part. Yeah. I mean, they shouldn't lie about an air filter. It's only like$20. I feel like if they charge you so much Every single time. Every time I go in, I could drive in with a Tesla to get an oil change and be like, yeah, your oil looks fine, but you need a new air filter. I'm like, oh my God. Yeah, yeah. I swear. You were going to die if you took place a service immediately. And I always go, do I need it? And they go, well, you know.

28:09Graham Stephan:It's like, oh, how much is it? $300. Yeah, a lot of the times the air filters, they do upcharge a buttload on them, which doesn't really make sense. All you do is just like. Yeah, you just replace the filter. It's really not that hard. Sometimes there's a couple screws and bolts. I mean, there are some cars that are like, it is a pain to replace, but, uh, for the most part, it's a couple of screws and you just swap it out. Final car question. Cause you're not technically a car YouTuber, but I'm just so curious. What is the best car to work on and the worst car to work on? Oh God. Like I know Volvo's are very compact.

28:38Like they suck to work on something that's easy, you know? Um, I think the best car to work on would be like a Toyota or a Honda. Cause they're very easy, easy to do. There's a lot of space in there typically. and to replace the thing like if you need to replace the motor it's way faster than anything else um i haven't worked on a ton of different brands i've done like bmw and jaguar and a couple like off-brand stuff here the range rovers and the jaguars are hands down what i've heard the worst cars to work on hands down interesting first off they're the most unreliable at least they were i know i know nowadays they actually are like top 10 i think and most reliable which is crazy and then there's no space to work on them.

29:22And to replace one thing, you literally have to replace, you have to remove the engine. It's just so stupid. So explain how did you get fired twice as a mechanic? Okay, so this is the whole scenario where I was telling you about how warranty doesn't pay much. So you'd come up with, you know, you'd make up these stories and, you know, let's say someone's massaging seat wasn't working and then you find that a fuse is blown and, you know, you get paid nothing. You'll make literally nothing, right? And it takes you 30 minutes, maybe with some paperwork, a little extra, whatever. You know, instead of saying, oh, just the fuse blown.

30:02Well, all right. The wiring harness was chafing and I had to trace, I had to do, you know, I had to check continuity. I've traced the break in the wire harness here. I removed the seat. I repaired the wire harness. And then you make two and a half hours or whatever you may make, which is 100%. It's called warranty fraud is what it is. You're basically defrauding the warranty system and saying you did this stuff. So the customer doesn't pay. No, no, no. Exactly, exactly. But you did nearly exactly what I just asked if people do. Yes. Well, no, no, no. Not to a customer, though. There's no way I would never, ever do that to a customer.

30:37This is the warranty company. The warranty. Yeah. Because you got to imagine, like, every single day you go to the shop and you're just getting shafted, shafted, shafted on every single job that they do. You're just going to even it out a little bit. That's all. Tilt the odds in your face. So basically all it was was a fuse and you just replaced the fuse, but you said you did all of this other stuff. That's not what I did, but yeah, it's kind of like - Allegedly. Yeah, yeah. It's basically like saying, what I got fired for was saying, I replaced this part, but I did not replace it. Right. And how did they find that out?

31:06This episode is in partnership with Airbnb. Graham and I are literally always traveling for the podcast. and in fact, these past few weeks have been very brutal. We have worked so much, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. I'm actually going to both Thailand and Japan for the next three weeks with a couple of close friends. I cannot tell you how excited I am for that. The beaches in Thailand, to die for. The food in Thailand, amazing. And I'm telling you, it's gonna be a blast.

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31:59At one point, I hosted my place on Airbnb. I kid you not, the guy that checked in was a fan of the channel. I've never said this before. It was a crazy experience, but the entire setup was very straightforward. everything ran smoothly and it turned into a genuinely great experience overall. If you're interested in hosting and you want a little help getting started, find a co-host at airbnb.com slash host.

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33:04Graham Stephan:So visit upwork.com slash copy right now and post your job for free. Again, that is Upwork.com slash coffee to connect with top talent ready to help your business grow. The link is also down below in the description. That is UPWORK.com slash coffee, Upwork.com slash coffee. Right. And how did they find that out? Because the car came back the next week. And the technician that actually had trained me had saw, you could see the repair history, saw that it said I replaced this part and came in and it clearly wasn't replaced. And then he told my boss and then my boss brought me in and I was like, yeah, like I didn't replace it, but you know, whatever.

33:43And then he was just disappointed. So he had to let me go. And then the next place, same thing. Um, yes. I said, well, like I was, there was this thing I was chasing. This engine was misfiring basically. And like they had me take the timing chains off, retime the whole thing, replace the engine harness, do all this stuff. And like, realistically, I was probably like 60 hours into this car and I was probably making 28 hours or something. So I said that I changed one of the camshafts or one of the solenoids, the VCT solenoids, and I did not. And you got caught. Yeah, yeah. There was a foreman that knew that I didn't do it.

34:19Let's just say you have a hypothetical situation where you take an exact copy of this world, exact copy of you. How many times did this exact copy of you get away with this? compared to the two times you didn't oh god i mean i'm very honest it's probably over 200 that probably more so it's worth it so no that was easy it was easy i would never do it to like a paying customer because like i just like i mean i have i have morals of course but like i would never do it to someone that's actually using their hard-earned money to like pay for that but for a warranty company that just shafts you every single day like you have to you have to make it work.

34:56It's just, you have to like even the playing field.

35:00Graham Stephan:I love the playing field. I hate warranty companies. I've had two experiences. One was with my wife's Audi, took it in for warranty work, and it was very clearly a warranty problem. They came back with a repair bill that was worth more than the car costs, which is crazy. And then guess what? They offered to buy it back. Of course they did. Apply it to a new car. Gotta love the dealerships, man. The other ripoff is the home warranty scams where they say, oh, for a thousand dollars, we'll cover your entire house. Good luck ever getting something fixed. I had a dishwasher immediately broke. Well, guess what?

35:37Graham Stephan:I pay a seventy five dollar call fee. They don't tell you that's not part of the warranty. Seventy five bucks. Then their warranty company comes in, which takes days to come in, by the way. And then they say, oh, it's actually not this warranty part. It's something else. And that's normal wear and tear. And that's going to be triple the cost of, again, what it would cost. new. Yeah. That is never seen a home warranty actually fix anything ever in my entire 15 plus years in real estate. Not once have I seen a home warranty company like actually replace an AC or refrigerator, any app. Never. It's actually so funny because I just bought a home warranty.

36:12Graham Stephan:Take the cash. Always take the cash because I promise you just as an experiment, try calling them out. Yeah. Just for fun and just see how much money they quote you for the same. It's it's It's the exact same thing in the auto industry. It's just, it's all a sham. I mean, there are some extended warranties, like, in the auto industry that are actually really good. Like, the CarMax is, like, really, really good. Yeah. But everything else is just, like, it's all a sham. It's, you gotta think. That's how they make their money. So what's the craziest thing you've done for money? I've done some crazy things.

36:46I ate a hissing cockroach. I tried to eat a hissing cockroach. I should say that. I did not eat it. Was it alive? It was alive. How do you get one to begin with? My buddy got it for me. I don't know. Where? I think he got it at like a reptile store. Okay. Because they feed it. Or like people had those as pets. They do. Which is weird. A cockroach is a pet. Yeah, this is like, I actually did this because I started Bluff. I had just started Bluff. That was my second video. I was trying to like do things that were like different in the gambling space. And then I was eating bugs to like introduce Bluff.

37:19And it was just not the right idea. So on the topic of ups and downs, we spoke to Togi. And I asked Togi about dopamine. Because gambling is one of those things that spikes your dopamine, which is effectively like your excitement, your motivation to do something. And then it completely flattens it and then spikes it and flattens it. Do you think that you've experienced some form of like extreme dopamine dosing? Do you think you need a detox? like how has this affected you in like other areas of life are you just like bored by most things i think no i think you i think you're more right than wrong for sure i i don't know how you do like a dopamine detox but i mean i could definitely see how that would affect people and i'm sure it's affected me like i'm almost positive just saying like like the whole car thing like i just don't feel like like when i would get a new car when i was you know years ago before bluff um i would get a new car and i was like excited and i just wanted to drive and like that's all i wanted to do and now like i get a new car and it's like i'll drive it and i'm like enjoying and having fun but i just don't feel like that like accomplishment you know it's it's weird it could be compartmentalizing your life so like obviously you need to be gambling and stuff for like your source of income and work.

38:39But then outside of that, maybe you try for like a month or two to drive a beater car, you know, that just has like functioning AC and then you put your phone in black and white and you like basically make your life a little bit more boring outside of the compartmentalized like area of work. But this is just me like coming up with. Yeah. No, I mean, I think that's a really good idea. It's kind of like bringing yourself back down to like, you know, reality instead of just like this whole crazy social media lifestyle. I think I might actually do something like that. So in terms of gambling, what's the most you've won and lost?

39:10The most I've won in a day was$100 ,000 by myself. I won$100 ,000. Actually, it was$98 ,500. And the most I lost was...

39:24How much was the most I lost? Maybe$80 ,000, I think. Did I lose more than$80 ,000?

39:33Graham Stephan:I think it was about$80 ,000. What felt more intense? making$100 ,000 or losing$80 ,000? Making. It was that feeling of making$80 ,000 or$100 ,000 was, like, I can't even compare it to anything. It was so crazy. How'd that happen? I lost, so I do that series where I gamble, like, one video's revenue worth, and I call it gambling my paycheck. And if I don't double it, I let the audience choose a punishment in the comment section. so whoever has the most likes um i failed to double it and then the most the highest like comment was um take my win loss statement from el cortez last year whatever i was down i had to win it back with that amount so i think i had i had lost 144 000 in the last year so i took 144 000 to the casino and had to go to a different casino because the limits were too low at el cortez and I went out with I only used like 40 ,000 maybe 50 ,000 and I won 98 ,000 off of that I was playing craps so I went on like a really good roll at the craps table and then I played like a one Baccarat hand and had like a crazy huge win where I bet like 25 ,000 150 and I was like yeah screw it I'm done like I was just like I'm not even gonna keep chasing it because like if I just lose this 100 ,000 like I'm just gonna be devastated and like yeah my dopamine is gonna to be at the complete pit.

41:03So it was like, I'm just going to take the a hundred thousand. I'm just going to walk away. I actually liked that. Cause I watched that video and I was rooting for you. And that was one of the few times I've seen a creator say, Hey, look, if this is the punishment, I'm going to do it. And you like half did it. Like you gambled a lot. You didn't gamble the max amount. You didn't double it, which you were supposed to do by the top comment, but you're just like, Hey, look, like, and it was a very humanizing moment. Cause I'm like, dude, I see this guy for a guy who's stoked. He made all this money.

41:28I get it. Like, don't, but like, I get it. And so I don't blame him for wanting to call it quits. Did you experience any hate for going back on your word for that? I don't think I experienced anything. Most of the time, luckily, my audience is so heartwarming and loyal and supportive that if I would have continued and let's say I lost that$98 ,000 and then lost$144 ,000 that I had started with, they would have said, you were so dumb. Why didn't you just take it when you were at$98 ,000? You don't have to go all the way. Like everyone is like super supportive of me, which is super cool to see. And I could like truly feel the love through the comment section.

42:05But yeah, everyone, like when I cashed out the 98 ,000, everyone was like, good idea. Like, I'm so glad you took that and you didn't continue going. Like, we don't care about the punishment. Like, you know, we just want you to win. That's all they care about. Literally every video, it's like, we just want you to win. We hate seeing you lose. So, um, I knew when I was stopping halfway that I didn't complete the punishment, but I was just like, I just, I already know like the audience is going to be okay with it because first off, we won$100 ,000 and like, you know, we didn't push the limits too far.

42:36What's the biggest win you've ever seen in person? I walked past someone in a casino and they hit a grand and it was like$280 ,000. So that was the most I've seen. And I can only imagine the dopamine they got from that.

42:49Graham Stephan:So when you go to a casino, is there any trick to figure out which machines pay out the most? there's this world of ap slot players which like i think in long term isn't really going to last that long and like there's certain machines that have like a must hit buy and whatnot i guess you can get lucky with that but you also will are you you are gambling you know you're gonna you're gonna go against the odds so sure there's maybe a certain amount of time that that'll that'll work but no, there's no trick to it. It's all computer algorithms and getting lucky and showing them at the right time and hitting their button at the right second.

43:29It's all randomized. So is there any way to beat the casino? There is technically if you're counting cards playing blackjack. And if, well, technically you can't do it with poker, but if you're counting cards with blackjack, which is why most casinos ban counting cards and kick you out, But you could get a slight edge playing blackjack if you're counting cards, and you could beat the casino long-term. But you're struggling with being able to stay in the casino playing. Have you ever seen someone get kicked out for counting? Oh, God, yeah, every day. Really? Yeah, every day. Counting is like a huge community.

44:11What's the tell? How do they get caught? Bet variants. so if they're playing blackjack and you know they have three thousand dollars in blacks and five hundred dollars in greens and they're betting 25 hands the count's low and then the count's high they do a thousand and then they win and then they go back down to 25 you know it's they they change their bet sizing depending on the count so if the count's uh high you know positive that means there's a lot of face cards that are still in that deck so they start betting high Obviously, you're still, you know. Do you know how to count cards? I do not, no.

44:44Truly, I do not. I barely know how to count.

44:48Graham Stephan:Is there any way that someone would be able to get away with counting cards? Yes. There are people that do. But because of the way it works and how much you have to change your bet sizing with the variants, it's hard to stay undercover. But there are some casinos that don't mind it. Like in California, I believe. Actually, I think they just got rid of blackjack and card rooms. But typically in a card room, there's the casino where they're the dealer and then there's a third party that's a banker. And that's how they got around like the casino law. So the casino doesn't care if you count cards because they're just making a commission or they're splitting percentages or whatever.

45:29Just a banker would have an issue, but they can't do anything about it. Got it.

45:33Graham Stephan:So is it ever profitable to go to the casino for the average person? No, God, no, no. You'll lose. There's no profitable strategy ever. No, no. Unless you somehow win one time you play and then walk away forever. What do you think about Mickey Mays, who says that he has a strategy for Baccarat? Yeah, doesn't exist. It's funny. I actually met him right before he started all of his social stuff. Right before he started it. Where'd you meet him? uh at uh right across the street actually right down the street from here just like funny enough at a park at a park yeah so i was uh it was during covid yeah and uh all of our all of us we were riding scooters and bikes and stuff and we'd go to like you know a park if there was like a street spot there basically that we'd all ride like a stair set with a rail and everything and yeah out of nowhere this guy shows up and you know he's all tatted up and i don't have any issues with Mickey at all.

46:28He shows up and someone was telling me he's like a huge high limit gambler. I was like, oh, that's cool. He did not have social media at all at this time. And yeah, within like a month, he had started up his Instagram and everyone's sharing him and he's doing all these videos talking about, you know, high limit Bach rod. He won 11 million. Now I have someone, I do know my friend has actually worked on Mickey's team. And a lot of those stories are true. Like he did win$11 million and he did do this and he did do that. But you know, you don't get banned from casinos for winning. Nobody's going to ban you for winning unless you're counting cards, right?

47:02Nobody's going to ban you from winning. They're going to ban you because you're a jerk. You're, you're, you know, your manners are whatever. You're, you're a dick. That's what I'm going to say. If you treat the staff like a dick, or if you treat their property like trash, they're going to kick you out and they're going to ban you. You're not going to get banned for winning. They want you to come back in because they have the edge long-term. they want their money back. So, yeah, that's the only way you get banned from properties. And then, you know, the Bacra strategy just doesn't exist. If you know, do you guys know how Bacra works?

47:33Yes. There's no strategy. You can't make a strategy. It's impossible. You can't tell what card is going to come next. Could you try counting cards in Bacra or no? It's too many. You technically, I guess you could, but there's so many decks. There's eight decks, and I guess there's like some sort of math that you could do, But you also, most of the times you don't know, you know, they do a burn card and then they burn so many cards that you can't see. Yeah, it's, I'm sure maybe, but it's not realistic, I think. So what's the most you've ever seen someone lose? I just watched this guy lose$700 ,000 the other day.

48:13What happened? Some multi-gajillionaire from Texas playing slots. Slots? Fast spins. $5 ,000 a spin like this. Wouldn't even, wouldn't hit it and then watch it. He would fast spin like this. It was crazy. How do you know that he was like this wealthy guy from Texas? Oh, because he has like an Instagram and he like talks about it and stuff. See, that is a person that has no dopamine. Yeah, yeah. Like, oh my gosh. He's screwed, yeah. If something happens, like let's just say his house floods, then he's just like, oh yeah, whatever. It's just four spins on, you know, this slot machine. It doesn't matter.

48:49if something incredible happens to him it's like well how can he compare that like he's like i got an a on my report and he's like yeah well i just made three million dollars to spend it's like it's just no coming back from that crazy yeah and like i've heard a story of like this guy lost three million in 30 minutes playing slots so how would you then recommend someone let's say gamble responsibly or is there no gambling no no no i think i mean you could definitely i think gambling is a good like hobby, not hobby, uh, is a good outing, right? Like if you want to go out and gamble with your friends or whatever, there's, there's definitely responsible ways to do it.

49:25The way I always say, and I say this in my videos, I say it on my stories everywhere because I want people to do it responsibly. Treat it as like entertainment. If you're going to go watch a movie and you know, the ticket cost is$25 and you know, you're going to buy popcorn and a drink that's$25. And you know, maybe you're going to buy a slushie that's 10 bucks. So you're going to to spend$60 at the movie theater, right? You're not going to go over budget. Go to the casino. All right. Like I'm going to take this$100 bill or I'm going to take this$50 bill and I'm going to do 20 cent spins, whatever.

49:55I'm not going to bring my credit card in. I'm not going to bring my debit card in. I'm not going to bring any extra cash in. I'm going to go in there and I'm going to play for 30 minutes. I'm going to have fun for 30 minutes. If I win anything, good. That's awesome. If I lose, I had fun. I got to play slots for 30 minutes or I got to play blackjack for 30 minutes. How many people could do that effectively though?

50:15Graham Stephan:Because I do see a lot of people who go in with the mindset of, hey, I brought$100 for entertainment. They lose it. And then they say, let me just bet another 100 to win it back. And they lose that and be like, oh, I really needed that extra 100. So now I'm going to do another 100 to try to win back that 100. And then maybe they win it and maybe they don't. And they're like, oh, now I'm down three. Let me do a little more. And then all of a sudden, you know, they're just like betting everything. Yeah, they're just in this hole. Honestly, I preach it because I know the vast majority of people can't do that.

50:46I know it. And like even for myself, there's times where I've caught myself where I lose control. But everyone is basically, you know, obviously in control of their own lives. like like personally for me i grew up at a skate park and you can only imagine the type of things that i've gone on at the skate park i've never once smoked weed i've never once smoked a cigarette i've never you know i didn't drink until i was 18 and i took a sip of beer and i hated it so you know growing up at a skate park never smoking weed like the self-control and the pure pressure that you have to battle basically is is pretty immense so it's it's all in the self-control area but obviously in a casino, the flashing lights and, you know, everyone winning money and you see dollar signs everywhere and these big grand jackpots that are saying 250 ,000.

51:38It's, it's really hard to go in there and say, all right, I'm only going to do$50. That's why I suggest like, you know, leave your wallet at home or in the car and give yourself maybe set a timer, you know, you're in there for 50, 30 minutes or an hour, depending on your budget, whatever it may be. obviously you could just lose everything in 10 minutes but it's it's definitely i don't even know what to compare it to it's like a kid at an arcade you know how do you make sure you don't get

52:07Graham Stephan:addicted or that other people don't get addicted to it you got to look at the losers more than the winners that's how you determine gambling right you know i've lost eight times out of the last 10 why the hell do i want to keep doing this every single day and like taking my paycheck and trying to win money. It's just not going to work in the long run. So you got to look, this is like the only time where I say you got to look at the negatives more than the positives. So you don't fall into that pit. But why do you think so many people fall into that gambling addiction? What do you think? It's that, uh, like I said, it's the flashing lights, the numbers, the bonuses, the sound effects, the graphics on these machines.

52:44You got to think all these companies that make the slots, right? And this is targeted at slots and not table games because they can only do so much on the table. All these companies that made these slots, they know how the human mind works, how the brain works, what triggers, what colors, just like McDonald's, right? Like they use red and yellow because it makes you feel a type of way. These slot manufacturers know exactly what colors to use, what graphics and what animations to do to attract you to come try this new machine or try this slot. And, you know, obviously right at the top of it, it says grand jackpot$250 ,000 like I could see why people get into it but it's also just a losing game are you ever worried about gambling too much when I first started bluff I definitely was gambling way too much off camera on camera on camera obviously it was good because I was making content but I was gambling a lot off camera like because I was new to it you know like I wasn't gambling so much and I was just learning all these new games.

53:51So I was gambling a lot off camera and I was losing a lot off camera. But now as I've progressed and it's been over a little over two years now since I've started, you know, I film the videos, I get my dopamine filming the videos. And then, you know, maybe sometimes, you know, once a month or two times a month, I'll go and have fun with friends at the casino and, you know, gamble a couple thousand dollars, nothing compared to like what I'm doing in my videos, just because I know like, all right, this is for fun like i'm not going to make any money off of this like i don't want to lose five thousand dollars and this could have been a video and i could have recouped some money from youtube revenue and stuff like that yeah so it's more so nowadays it's like all right i get my entertainment my fix while i'm filming at the same time if that makes sense are you that sounds

54:38Graham Stephan:that sounds like an addict though i get my fix yeah i know it's just a different word it's how Yeah, I mean, come on, man. That's why I do it. Are you ever worried about glamorizing gambling to this degree? There are a lot of people that do say like, oh, like you're promoting gambling and all this stuff. I mean, I guess there is like an issue of that 100 percent. But I'm not trying to glamorize like degenerate gambling. And like, I guess it kind of looks like I am because I'm like gambling my paycheck and stuff. but like i i try to be very very uh uh stern in my videos where i say like i can afford to do this like this is entertainment do not do what i do just sit there and watch me gamble you guys do not have to gamble all this other stuff um so i really do try to promote responsible gambling because you you got to treat it like a kid at an arcade right you know you give your kid 20 bucks like oh you use your 20 bucks like you're done sorry buddy you know um another thing is that like I'm from Vegas so it's so normal to me that and like everyone comes to Vegas to gamble so like gambling is not like a new thing gambling's been around for years years and years and years and it's gonna stay around for years and years and years so like I don't think I'm glamorizing it per se I am promoting it for sure I'm not gonna knock that because you know it's me making YouTube videos gambling, but I want to say I'm more so glamorizing like responsible gambling.

56:12How does that differ from sports betting? I mean, sports betting is definitely gambling. There's no difference. Yeah. No difference at all. I mean, you're betting on other people, which I don't sports bet because I don't want to put my money on other people, if that makes sense, you know? Like, you don't know. People could rig things. I'd rather dump my money and light it on fire. Sometimes it feels like it is rigged. Oh, yeah.

56:35Graham Stephan:It's always right on the line. They threw that. That was terrible. It kicked it off into nowhere. I mean, you would never know. But there are people that have gotten caught, you know, that are professional athletes and they got paid, you know, a chunk of change, which isn't even anything worth what they're getting paid to throw a game. Have you ever seen gambling truly ruin someone's life? Oh, yeah. My dad. Yeah. My dad's life was ruined. He all this came to light after he passed away. so back in like 88 or 87 i used to have the newspaper article but he had hit like 120 000 keno jackpot and um you know he would always tell me these stories tell me and my sister these stories about him gambling and he oh like i know how to beat this and all you know a real addiction you know a real thing that someone would say and uh he won 120 000 jackpot on keno he ended up buying our house with it and he bought like a car and whatnot um and you know as we're growing up for some reason the house isn't paid off and you know he's struggling to pay the mortgage and whatnot because he was on disability from the va so he's making like 30 000 a month or i'm sorry a year i'm not gonna go to the if he's making 30 000 a month i'm sleeping on the floor and we're So he's making$30 ,000 a year, which realistically isn't much money.

58:02So when he passes away, we start digging into his finances and digging into the house and the mortgage loan and everything. And the house was$80 ,000 when he bought it. And he somehow owes$70 ,000. So we're like, oh, what the hell is going on? He must have taken a HELOC out. So, you know, he's mentioned he's taken out like a second mortgage or whatever when he was with my mom, like traveling to the Philippines and stuff like that and giving money to like her family. So we knew he took a second mortgage out. But when we really dug into it, he had taken like, I don't know how many loans against his house.

58:39So he owed, I think it was like$67 ,000 on the mortgage. And then there was like another hidden HELOC for$53 ,000. and I think there was one more for like 30 something thousand. And I'm like, what the hell is going on? This$80 ,000 house, he had$200 ,000 against it. And we came to the conclusion, we found out when he took those loans and it was all during the time he was gambling. So I think he like, that dopamine got him when he got the 120K jackpot and then he just like continued on and just kept trying to chase it. How do you make sure that doesn't happen to you? um it's it goes back to the looking at the negatives right this is the only aspect or this is the only niche or hobby whatever that you really have to look at the negatives and that's what it deters you you know i i go into the casino and like let's say i film like an extravagant video where i gamble 20 000 and i lose a 20 000 and even though it's for a video and i'd like I know I'm probably going to lose and I end up losing I'm like disgusted with myself and I remember how I feel and I'm just like yeah like I don't ever want to feel this ever again like why the hell am I going to go do this but like obviously I have to do it for a video which I don't mind but you know on my own personal time like I'm just like yeah I do not want to feel like that I would feel even worse if I did that not filming it what do you think is your lifetime profit and loss oh my god

1:00:10Graham Stephan:if you were to guess I have to be down like God, I don't even know. I'd have to be down at least, and it's only been two years, I'd probably say somewhere over$750 ,000. That much? I think so. What do you think your total coin in is? Oh my. Do you remember that doctor's appointment you were supposed to make a while ago? The one that's been sitting on your to-do list for weeks, maybe months? Maybe it was that overdue annual checkup, the weird rash you keep googling, or it's your dentist reminding you it's been two years since your last dental cleaning. Trust me, we've all been there. Booking a doctor's appointment has always felt like such a hassle, until now.

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1:01:31Graham Stephan:What do you think your total coin in is? Oh my God, I have no idea. Millions? Has to be millions. Millions? has to be. But I take it, you're up obviously significantly from all the revenue and everything that you bring in. Yeah, yeah, of course. So$750 is just the cost of doing business. Of course. And that's what I look at it as, you know, cost of doing business. If I lose$20 ,000, it's like, all right, well, that sucks. And then the next day I win$20 ,000. It's like, oh, cool, broke even, made two videos for free. Yeah. And then you make that revenue and merch sales and whatnot. In fairness, I see a lot of YouTube channels where they would spend that in a year in production.

1:02:04Yeah.

1:02:05Graham Stephan:Warehouse expense, travel, set design but for you it's the casino. What sort of benefits do you get from gambling and losing $750 ,000? Free rooms free food. I don't know the last time I paid for a dinner at a hotel or a casino legitimately and they'll offer you free tickets to concerts and shows and if you gamble enough you'll fly private and I've never done that well I've flown private on someone else's tab. What's the craziest comp you've gotten? I've gotten, so I went to Atlantis back in January for a trip with my girlfriend and then one of my best friends and his girlfriend. They comped us a double suite and all the food and all the drinks and everything that we ever wanted.

1:02:59It was like$38 ,000 worth of comps. Crazy. And I lost$35 ,000 on that trip.

1:03:07Graham Stephan:There you go. They got their money's worth out of me. So when we were talking to Vegas, Matt, he was saying that certain slot machines, you can play profitably when you look at the comps they give back. So if you lose$1 ,000, it is possible to make back$1 ,001 in casino-free food, drinks, experiences. Yeah. How do you do that? I mean, I guess there is a way to do that. if you look at it as profit. But I mean, like for me, it's like, okay, you could spend$1 ,000 on the food or you could spend$1 ,000 and hope you get that food for free. It's, you know, it's like a weird gray area on that. But, you know, if you look at it as, okay, I'm going to spend$1 ,000 on this slot machine, you know, maybe you take advantage of the days where they offer like 10 times points and stuff like that.

1:03:56And maybe you get lucky with a couple bonuses. So you actually play for like two hours on$1 ,000. your Theo which is where they base your comps your theoretical loss is going to be higher if you get like on a lucky streak so that's where like those comps would come in but still like if you're going to do that just to get comps you might as well just buy it you know but if you're trying to get entertainment and then a comp after I guess it makes sense.

1:04:24Graham Stephan:Yeah so I'll tell you my casino hack is I go to this spot and they have incredible drinks. Incredible. I'm talking the drinks are like$30 each. But if you sit down at one of the tables, immediately someone walks over to you and says, hey, do you want a drink? And I know those are$30 drinks. And so I always play blackjack or baccarat, knowing that the house edge on that is like half a percent, give or take. And so I'm like, if I bet$50 a hand, I walk in with like $200 and I'm betting$50 a hand. I'm like, each one of those hands is only$0.25. So I'm paying over four hands, really when you average it out long term, I'm really only betting$2.

1:05:05Graham Stephan:I'm losing $2, let's just say, but I get a$30 drink. And so I'm like, I gladly spend$2 for the$30 drink. And then I get the$30 drink for$2. And overall, I have to say, because I've been keeping track, I am up. I've made money so far with those drinks. You're one of the lucky profitable gamblers. My entire gambling strategy is really simple. The most I will ever bet, ever, is$300. ever. Usually I stick with 200. If I lose the 200, I walk away no matter what. And I also always walk away if I double. So if the 200 turns to 400, I'm done. As soon as I hit that, I walk away and I stick with that. Have you ever tripled that?

1:05:46No, I'm just kidding. No, no, no, no.

1:05:47Graham Stephan:Every time I hit, every single time I double, I'm like, I'm done. Yeah, yeah. No, that's good. And then what I do sometimes if I bet 200, but I'm up a hundred, then I put the original 200 aside back in my pocket and then I play with the 100 and then if I lose the 100 then I'm like all right well now I'm either yeah that's always that's good I mean that's a good way to look at it there's another way that I look at things and this is in every aspect of my life especially when I used to work like a normal job right um and I tell this to people when there's like they'll come up to me and they say hey I'm up$200 like what should I do and I'll say how long does it take you to make that$200 you know what do you get paid an hour Do you make$20 an hour?

1:06:26That's going to take you 10 hours of work. Are you willing to lose that$200 that you just made in 30 seconds to possibly make another$200 or just lose that instantly? And then you have to go to work for 10 hours to make that back. So I look at like time, you know, the time it takes to make that money. Maybe that's another way that people can use to, you know, maybe deter gambling. Let's just say, hypothetically speaking, Graham is worth$1 ,000 an hour. Now, how do you feel when he says that he sits down at a blackjack table to try to finagle a drink and get the cost down on the drink maybe to like$10 per drink instead of$30 a drink?

1:07:13And he's doing all this mental gymnastics. What do you think of when you hear about that? If his time is worth$1 ,000. Yeah, I mean, I'm not the person to knock anyone for trying to save money. I think if, like, if, you know, there's times where I go to, you know, Whole Foods, and it's truly, it's not worth it for me to pull out my phone, pull out the Amazon app, and get the QR code, and scan it to get$2 off. But I do it because I saved$2. So I don't, just because you're worth this much an hour, I don't think, you know, trying to save money is a bad idea. I think you should save money no matter what.

1:07:50Why let this business make an extra$2 off of you? I would say you should save money matter some, you know, like I would say no matter what. Because if it takes you an hour.

1:07:59Graham Stephan:For me, dude, for me, it's I am addicted to the thrill of getting a deal. No, I actually agree with you. Yeah. Yeah, that feeling, man, that I found never goes away. When I buy something and I got a deal on it, every single time I see it, I think, oh, man, I got a deal on that. And I get the same feeling. But here's years later, like that Oyster Quartz, I keep looking at every day. I'm like, I got a great deal on that. But that makes me happy. So I agree with you. But just because it's a deal doesn't make it a good one is what I try to think of. Oh, yeah. So like if I go to the grocery store and the eggs that I would normally buy are$2 with a coupon, I'm stoked when I do that.

1:08:42And I will still do it to save a dollar or two. Right. But if there's something that like I wasn't going to buy anyways, or like a drink that says that it's a hundred, let's just call it a hundred dollar drink. And they give it to me for$30. It's like, would I have paid$30 for this drink, knowing this drink costs$30? Yeah. Or what if I knew it costs$10? Would I have paid$30 for this to have this drink? That's where I try to like, like, what is the value to me? not what do they claim the value is yeah i agree with that i i i don't i don't struggle but i argue with that with my lady all the time she's like oh i bought this they were on sale and i was like like on am uh amazon i don't know if you guys wanted a name drop stuff but um you know online they're just like competes with our our other okay okay i'll stop saying i'm kidding i'm kidding oh yeah um you know online oh this one is actually 30 off today and you know you look a week later or a month later and it's still 30 % off.

1:09:35That's all the Black Friday sales are. It's exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's actually a common thing that I've seen online. They actually increased and it was more than it was before Black Friday. Yep. Okay. So I have to ask you this question. Cause I asked Matt this and it was a very funny response. Are you addicted to gambling? Probably. Yeah. Probably. How do you know? like I can't it's and you know I tell my girl that I'm not addicted to gambling like I swear on my life that I'm not addicted to gambling but like I walk through a casino and I do it every day I gamble every single day I will walk through a casino to go get dinner with my lady I cannot walk past that table and not put$100 on it have you tried yeah what happens I just like want to go do it very bad and then I'll go do it after dinner if I don't do it before

1:10:31Graham Stephan:why can't you challenge yourself for one time go out to dinner at a casino and do not gamble just to see if you'd be able to do it because I don't want it no I think uh it's I don't know if it's one time I just lose nothing but it's one time it's not even like the money right like I'll bet$100 hand and like if I lose it's like oh like oh well but if I win it's like yeah like that was worth it you know that's why like yeah I'm definitely addicted I have to be there's no way I'm not addicted to gambling at least I can admit it but you don't have a desire to challenge yourself to see if you could walk through a casino without gambling I'll try it next time for you and I'll let you know what if we have a side bet going on whether or not you could do it and if you don't that's gambling but it's so you're making me gamble what is this yeah but we get bet on whether or not it's like a i bet you i bet you that i can stop gambling

1:11:35would you quit gambling for 10 million dollars yeah easily i would probably take 10 million pretty fast i mean you got to think 10 million you retire you don't have to do anything what about five million five million in your pocket right now no tax and i well i'd have to stop bluff obviously yes um i probably wouldn't because i like technically in the long term of things i would be able to make more but um 10 million is like a sweet number where it's like very safe yeah like long term i can make more than 10 million doing the social media stuff easily i know I can. I feel very confident myself.

1:12:17But like, I always I always knew, like, if you ever had 10 million dollars, like you don't have to do anything ever. You can live your life as frivolous as you want.

1:12:26Graham Stephan:So you feel like you are addicted to gambling, but that you have it under control and that you get the fix from the channel that makes money. So it kind of masks. Yeah. Yeah. I don't I don't think I have like a crazy like I don't have addictive personality at all. Like, I know I'm in control but like walking past the table like going to get dinner it's like oh like I just want to play one hand like I'll just play one hand you know I don't I'm not going to get out of control and lose five thousand dollars my my thing is like I I do it as like not as a joke definitely but like I'll go in and I'm like all right like I want to try to make dinner free isn't dinner already free if you're at the casino yes but I I'm a very generous tipper okay so like Like, if I get a$200 dinner, I'll tip$500 to$1 ,000 every single time.

1:13:13Wow. Every single time. So, like, if I can win$500 on a Baccarat table or blackjack table, craps table, then, like, I'm just like, all right, dinner's completely free.

1:13:24Graham Stephan:What does your accountant say? He's very, honestly, he's concerned in some times, in some points. But he knows that I don't get out of control, right? I mean, I do. I definitely get out of control sometimes. But it's manageable. So he definitely tells me, hey, just make sure you're doing this to keep yourself on track. Don't stray too far from the tree. What would you rate your finances? One out of 10. Probably a five. Why five? I don't have any investments. I don't own any real estate. I don't have anything. Everything I have is liquid. Okay, so you have$0 invested. Then why is it a - Why? Why do you have$0 invested?

1:14:18Why do you not change that tomorrow? I have to have some assets in cars.

1:14:23Graham Stephan:Yeah, I would say - Doesn't count. If I were to rate your finances based on that, I would say it's maybe a three. Three, but can easily jump to an eight or a nine. All right, if you guys are my accountant, what would I do? What should I do? Index fund. So we would break down, we say how much are you making net after expenses so much can you save away at the end of every month like yeah i would say like merch is probably 15 15 to 20 like merch merch does pretty good but i have a company that manages it so they take a big chunk of it like off the rip so i probably make like maybe 15 to 25 000 a month on merch and then youtube is a pretty good chunk that's probably like um probably like 35 i do like because i have three channels so i probably do like 230 to 250 000 on youtube wow and then um yeah the rest is with like my social casino deal okay so here's here's all you have to do this is it it's so simple you create i like vegas matt's whole strategy, you have a gambling fund and you have$500 ,000 in this fund and you pre-fund it for the year.

1:15:34Graham Stephan:It could be$750 ,000, a million dollars for the year. It's pre-funded. That is your amount to gamble with. That is it. You could use that. It'll be up and down, whatever. If you lose it all, that's your fund. Then everything else should be invested throughout probably index funds. And you could split it up throughout like United States companies, international companies, and then you're going to keep some off to the side for just safe investments like treasuries and bonds. Again, they're all index funds. He doesn't know what any of this is. I don't know what an index fund is. No, we'll talk about it more after the podcast because the viewers, they're not going to learn much by this.

1:16:09If you want to know what an index fund is, YouTube, what is an index fund? Graham Stephan, you'll watch the videos. It'll tell you all the information you need.

1:16:14Graham Stephan:We don't need to go into debt right now. Okay, you could stash away a significant amount of money just having that gambling fund on the side and then everything else goes towards a small amount lifestyle, the rest savings, taxable brokerage accounts. That's it. Don't do anything fancy. The more boring it is, the better it's going to be for you long term. And all you have to do if you want to retire, five years of that, five years, and you will be set for life. Not even five years, basically. Like, it's way less. Well, after taxes and stuff like that. I would say way less. Yeah. Yeah. Knowing you, I think it's going to be five years because you're going to be living life and having fun.

1:16:58Graham Stephan:Yeah. I mean, my life would probably be more tame if I stopped YouTube just because a lot of the things that I do is for content. Right. But why not have any other investments? Why just cars? I really do enjoy the cars. So, I mean, the way I buy cars is I try to buy like the rare ones, you know. Like I know you have the Ford GT. Or did you get rid of it? I still have it. So I try to buy cars that are either going to hold their value or appreciate. There are some cars that I do buy that aren't going to do that at all. But, you know, it's not, it's small compared to the ones that I do buy that I want to hold.

1:17:33What are you buying?

1:17:34Graham Stephan:We got to list off these cars. So I have a, like, I have a 964 Porsche, which is an RWB and it's like fully built. The motor itself was 110 ,000, a Ruby star color. So it's like a pink. How is that going to hold its value? aren't you in more in the car than what it could be I bought the car already done I paid 300 ,000 for and I've already gotten an offer for 400 ,000 holy crap yeah within a month I got a 400 ,000 offer and I told him now because I didn't get to enjoy it enough and I don't know if that's a car that I would sell because like you sell a car like that you'll never ever ever get it back and like the car is so fun it's such a nice car so I mean like obviously there's a number I would sell it for uh honestly if someone offered me 400 for it I'd probably sell it but again because I've enjoyed it for my time.

1:18:21So I have another Porsche that's similar to that. It's a whole wide-body kit. And I paid$140 ,000 for it, and it could easily sell for over$200 ,000. And I've only owned these since November. I bought a bunch of Japanese cars. Those are more so going to hold their value. I kind of got them at a good price, and I got them in bulk. I bought them all at once. How many cars do you have? I think I counted recently. It was like 22. Where do you keep them? I have a warehouse. I have a warehouse. Well, I have two warehouses that are together, like connected. And I got that because I started up a third channel for like car stuff.

1:18:57Well, it was vlogs, but I started up like car stuff. And that's like passion project. Like I don't do it to like try to make crazy mountain or anything. It's more so to like give my friends like a position in the team to, you know, get hired and do things and maybe grow something for themselves. what are your biggest financial regrets um there's a lot of videos where i've gambled way too much when i don't need to and that's pretty much almost every video that i do now a lot of people comment and let me know that like i don't have to gamble that much like you can gamble like a thousand dollars and we'll still watch um and obviously like that would keep my my costs way lower.

1:19:42But the things that I want to do, sometimes it just requires me to gamble a little bit higher. I like doing things where I buy someone a car if I win a bunch of money. Or I'll give someone$20 ,000 for being a nice waitress or something. So it's kind of hard to be able to do crazy extravagant things like that if I only gamble $1 ,000. And what are your biggest expenses? Definitely gambling. where are you spending all this money that you're making gambling is definitely like the most expensive it it could definitely fluctuate though because it is gambling like i could win one month and you know the next month i could lose like this past month i've actually been doing pretty good um i may have lost maybe like 30 000 in the last month which is like really really low for how high i gamble and uh you know the other thing is like the warehouse the warehouse cost me 15 16 000 a month.

1:20:39Car insurance costs me a lot of money. I think it's car insurance is like 4 ,500 a month. How much does a girlfriend cost? I do not have a girlfriend. I'm trying to wonder how much of a budget do I set aside for one? We've been together for a while, like almost four years. So I'm very

1:21:00open to kind of let her do whatever she wants. At first, when I first started bluffing, like money started coming in i was like all right thousand dollars a month like i don't want to get too out of hand but it's gotten to the point where um you know i want her to enjoy her life and you know i'm doing all this crazy stuff buying all these cars and you know gambling crazy amounts of money and like i don't want to be like oh like you're only allowed to have five hundred dollars a month to do whatever you want no it's it's she probably spends anywhere from like 10 to 20 000 a month is my assumption.

1:21:31On what? She'll travel to go see her family in Texas. Girls trip out to Florida. She goes to Miami. Well, when she does a girls trip, I pay for all of them. Like they did like a - Whoa, whoa, whoa. Dude, I want to - Wait, what do you mean? Girls trip, man. Let's define the terms here because there's a negative connotation that goes with girls trip. Yeah. Like is she going to Miami? No, no, no, no. They did like a winery in Napa and it was like four of them. And like, I've been in that position where like, okay,$300 on a flight and then$200 for this. And then the Airbnb is$300. Like spending$800 to go on like a wine trip is very expensive.

1:22:10And like, for me, I can afford it. And I don't mind like, you know, it's, I'm not doing it for her friends. I'm doing it for her because she wants to go. And like, she. Does she need more friends? She's always taking friend applications. Yeah. Graham's looking for it. Yeah. Yeah, I would love to go to Napa. Wine tasting. Girls trip, Jack. But yeah, I mean, she like, here's the main thing is that for the duration that we've been together, she hasn't really had friends. So like she's like basically become like part of this friend group as of recent. So like the entire past like years, she basically just like sits at home while I'm at work or, you know, especially like doing the bluff stuff.

1:22:55I'm gone like 10 hours a day. She's just at home. Um, so now she's like, has some friends and she can like, you know, do things, but obviously not everyone has enough money to just go travel all the time. So I, I kind of like justified as like, all right, like, you know, my, my lady wants to go on a trip, but she doesn't want to go by herself and I don't have the time to go. Um, you know, just take your friends, like, you know, don't do anything crazy, but like take your friends and just go have a good time. Do you ever talk numbers? Like she says, Hey, I want this purse. It's 10 grand. What are you going to like contribute towards it?

1:23:25Or is it never like, like numbers? she just kind of knows what you're comfortable spending and what you're not. Like, do you guys have conversations about budgets? Yeah, we've had conversations about budgets and like, I let her know because I'm, I'm against designer. I hate designer stuff. I, I've never once spent a penny on designer stuff for myself. Now for my girlfriend, I spent a lot of money. Um, you know, I don't, I don't think the, the name of something is going to give me like some sort of status. So I, and I also grew up once again, like very, you know, poor and like, I used to have to wear the same outfit for a week going to the skate park and I was very self-conscious so I think that kind of contributes to that um and I I talked to her we've had conversations multiple times where like you know I don't think like we should be spending all this money on designer stuff like it's not valuable it's not going to do anything it brings nothing to the relationship does nothing whatever she's like oh well it makes me happy and I'm like okay well like let's just set aside like all right this is how much you're able to just spend and you know um if you want something crazy it's probably not going to happen.

1:24:27Maybe for her birthday, I'll get it for you. I got her a couple cool purses. They're actually really nice. Cool purses for her birthday recently. Was it a Birkin bag? No, no, no, no. I wouldn't spend$30 ,000 on a bag. Okay, that's good. Yeah. $10 ,000 I've spent, yes. What kind of bag is worth$10 ,000, bro? Worth$10 ,000? You could have got a Miata. None is worth$10 ,000. Trust me. None of them are worth$10 ,000. The smile, though, is worth$10 ,000. Yeah. Why doesn't she just start her own channel? She has. She does. She has like a little vlog channel that we do. Like, it's like a couple's channel.

1:25:01Graham Stephan:Gambling channel. Yeah, she did. There are not that many female gambling channels. No, she did. And it was actually doing pretty good. But she just doesn't want to be like in the casino all the time. And then she's also like battling the fact of like once you start getting like a name and followers, like you start getting recognized in public. And then, you know, you start fearing for your safety at times. And especially being like a woman. And so that's like her concern, but she's having fun. One thing I've noticed is it seems like there's a constant theme of generosity and philanthropy. Like you'll go get a free meal and then tip$500 to$1 ,000 to the waiter.

1:25:38You'll let your girlfriend, like not let, but like, you know, she's, she'll spend$10 ,000 to$20 ,000 a month. You don't seem to bat an eye at it. You know, it seems like you like help out and you want your friends to succeed a lot, which is great. And then you have the bluff miss that you did where you spent half a million dollars on toys for kids where their families normally could not afford to buy their child a toy. Why is philanthropy such a crucial thing in your life? And how much do you know you're able to spend on it? What is your approach towards generosity and giving? I think the philanthropy stuff comes from, once again, my childhood.

1:26:13Growing up, I stopped getting Christmas presents when I was eight years old. And you'd go to the skate park and everyone has a brand new bike, a brand new scooter, and I'm just riding the same thing because we can't afford it. I wasn't in spite of anything like that. But seeing other people getting all these nice things, brand new things, and you don't know their situations either. Maybe their parents are struggling and they just barely scrape by to get them that thing. so I never like try to like despise anyone for it but obviously it makes you feel a type of way where you know you wish you could get something or you wish you were able to like get one thing on your wish list um and also like you know the it's just the complete struggles from my childhood I think kind of is is built into my brain where I don't want other people to go through that unfortunately they do and they will have to and I can't solve world hunger I can't solve everything but you know if i'm able to provide during bluffness i was able to provide i think uh i think it was 3 000 or 4 000 kids with at least one toy you know that changes something for like during the holiday spirit if i was able to like experience something like that like that would make me feel like amazing i was able to if i was able to go through this toy room and i get to pick out out of all these toys one thing that i wanted you know that's like i don't know i i just think like that's what the Christmas spirit is about.

1:27:38And I don't really have like a budget for like the philanthropy stuff. And like we tipped like a waitress one time, actually the whole video, I was like, I'm giving this waitress$5 ,000. She was very nice. We tipped her a thousand, like a couple of weeks prior. And, uh, this was going to be off camera too. I do, I do it all the time off camera. I tip 500 or a thousand dollars. I just play games with the waitresses and stuff. Um, so I tipped him a thousand dollars and then we came back a couple of weeks later cause she was super nice and very appreciative. And, uh, the whole video I was like, I'm going to tip her $5 ,000.

1:28:12I'm a tip or$5 ,000. I won 10 ,000. And I was like, I'm going to tip her$5 ,000. We show up to the restaurant. I'm outside and I'm introing back into the video. And I'm like, I'm tipping her 10 ,000. And then we're in there and I gave her the 10 ,000. She starts crying. She's freaking out. And then she's like, Oh, like, yeah, I work two jobs like to take care of my son. And I was like, Oh my God. I was like, just take this other 10 ,000 strap. Like it's just, it's, Like, uh, I, I look at it as like, if I were in their shoes and someone just handed me a bunch of money, like how drastically would my life change?

1:28:46Like that could be like the pivotal point in your life where, you know, maybe it gives you enough confidence or it gives you the money where you can quit that job and go pursue, you know, school to do this, or you need to finish whatever. And, you know, or maybe you need to buy a car so you can start doing this other position that you have availability for. and like for me like if I give out 20 ,000 like 20 ,000 is a lot of money but it's not going to like affect me enough where like I can't eat and I can't afford my life but it brings me enough joy where to see someone that excited and you know I just hope that it changes their life for the good.

1:29:27What I find incredible is that a lot of other people don't feel the same way like to grow up in the environment you grew up in where you're around stuff that's pretty hard quite often, a lot of the times that turns someone bitter and resentful and not wanting to give, but like wanting to take everything. And I'm curious, why are you able to take this rough childhood and turn it into like a very structured, positive, optimistic outlook on life? Like why have you been able to do this when a lot of other people that grow up in a similar environment not able to. It's all about perspective, right? It's either, you know, glasses half empty or glasses half full.

1:30:14You can look at things and this is away from like I say gambling, you look at it negatively so you don't have that addictive personality with it or whatever, but everything else you want to look at it in a positive way. Like in 2024 on July 4th, I had a firework hit my eye and like I had 20, 20 vision. I was perfectly fine. someone lit a firework and it tipped over and it shot me in the eye and I lost vision in my left eye. So I have like this huge lens. Right. And I can like barely see out of my left eye, even with the lens on, um, you know, not once was I like, oh my God, like this sucks. You know, my first legitimately, my first thought was, wow, the clickbait for my videos is going to be awesome.

1:30:55You know, it's, it's all about perspective and how you look at things. You can't, you can't always look at the negative where, you know, um, I can go like if I was on my scooter, I can try this trick, but I don't want to, cause I might break my leg. Or you can look at it as I'm going to try this trick because if I landed, it's going to be crazy. Not like, you know, the feeling of landing it is going to be awesome. Was that an intentional decision that you made at a point of time in your life where you're like, okay, I'm going to start looking at things positively or has it always been like a subconscious thing that you never really had to fully like think about?

1:31:31I think it's always been like subconscious. It's not like something I forced. I've always like looked at things like from different perspectives because like growing up, right? Sure. I grew up, I slept on the floor, but you know, thankfully I had a house to sleep in. Sure. I had to drink cereal with fake milk or whatever, but at least I was able to eat food. You know, it's, it's, there's many things that you have to look at and then you just have to be appreciative and thankful for, even if it's, you know, to the normal standards, if it's weird and, you know, poor, but, you know, there's people in the world that are even, you know, there's always worse.

1:32:06There's always worse. So you always have to be appreciative and thankful for what you have and what you can do. If you were to assign one aspect about your personality or character to the success and the incredible life that you've lived so far, what would it be? Would it be the positivity? Would it be hard work? Would it be perspective shifting? What would it be? I would say it's positivity. It's, you know, it's, I think if you're a positive person and you can't let things bring you down, you know, it gives you confidence in every aspect. You can't let things destroy you. It, you know, oh, you're short on rent one month, you know, but you're not letting it get you down.

1:32:42And, you know, maybe something happens and you get like this crazy good job offer because you're not letting it, you know, ruin your attitude. And you meet someone in a coffee shop that is going to offer you a crazy position because they like you. It's, it's, it's really positivity and perspective. At what point did the reality of your life not be surreal to you? Like you're making crazy, crazy, crazy money and you're living an absurd life all compared to how you grew up. At what point did it all finally settle in? Um, probably sometime last year, I'd say probably like late last year, maybe after my birthday, which is in August.

1:33:20So yeah, about late last year. Um, it's just like, it's those things where I say, when you take a step back and you just kind of look at life and reflect, and it's just like, I just can't believe like, this is my life. This is what's gone. You know, this is what I've gone through. And this is what I'm going through now. And like, you know, and I'm, I'm almost 30 years old. and, you know, all this has happened in 30 years. And I can only remember God knows how many. Like, what the hell is going to happen in the next 30 years? It's just so crazy. But you also have to be very careful because, you know, whatever you have now can be taken away instantly.

1:33:57What is your greatest insecurity? Oh, God. It used to be my teeth. My teeth used to be really bad. Really? They did not look bad. They used to be really, no, really bad. Like years ago, back when I used to ride scooters. Yeah, I watched the documentary on you. Yeah. I used to have like, they're all crooked and chipped. And I used to have like a snaggle tooth up here. It used to be really bad. So then I got like veneers in Tijuana and they were really bad veneers. And then I just got these redone as of recent, maybe a couple months ago.

1:34:28Graham Stephan:They look really good. Yeah. I'm very happy with these. And that's something that I'm proud of. Sure, I have fake teeth and I spent money on veneers. But like now, like I can smile and like talk to people and I have confidence. Like before as a kid with my teeth, as they were, I just like I would laugh like this and smile like this. And like I just didn't want to show like my teeth, you know. But now insecurity, I don't really have any insecurities. I'm pretty confident. Like it's funny, like I have like this lazy eye and like, you know, people make fun of me. And I think it's funny. I make fun of it, too.

1:35:01What does it look like to see out of that eye? Without my glasses, I can't even see it. Without my glasses, it's just blobs and color. It's kind of like if you take wax paper and you try to look through it, that's exactly what it is. And with the glasses? With the glasses, I can see your faces. Can you see fingers if I hold them up? Yeah, I think you're holding three fingers. Yeah. But my photoreceptors are damaged, so if you saw I had to turn to kind of catch it, I'd have to find a sweet spot. Do you still like fireworks? Oh, yeah, yeah. I lit fireworks on New Year's Eve later that year. But I have not lit fireworks since then.

1:35:42Graham Stephan:What is your advice for young people who want to be successful? Let's see. Obviously, there's hard work. There's planning, staying positive, not letting things get to you, even little things. You stub your toe, laugh at it. I think if you can laugh at yourself at minor things and then you start gradually getting into the bigger things, you can start laughing at yourself like, oh, I backed into a wall. It's like, oh, God, I'm like an idiot. It kind of gives you that different look on life where if someone, let's say you do get successful in the YouTube space, which you need really thick skin for, people start commenting like, oh, your eye is huge.

1:36:26You look like this. you look like whatever you look like steve-o or whatever you know people are trying to disrespect you and you know make fun of you i think if you just start training yourself that'll help um not just in youtube i guess that's with anything um yeah i think i think the work ethic is the main thing you know now now that i do the youtube stuff i work more than ever i've this is way harder than well i'm not saying it's way harder but i'm working more than i was working at a nine to five you know obviously the work is different you know more labor this way and you know more intellectual that way but um i think the one thing that a lot of people mess up on when they start getting successful in like social media space they start spending their money too fast they start buying things that they don't need because they want to show that status you know they start buying jewelry and they start buying designer stuff because they're making 10 000 20 000 a month oh I can afford a$2 ,000 bag I can afford a$2 ,000 pair of shoes I just think you know you gotta look at it as is this gonna benefit me to make more money or is this just gonna benefit my you know emotional status so I think just really planning and being smart about your money is the first stepping stone what's the one thing you hope the viewer can learn from you?

1:37:54don't gamble. Unless it's for recreational fun.

1:37:58Graham Stephan:I got an idea if you're down. I'm not down. I already know what you're going to say. You don't want to gamble? No. So we played this game with the money guys. And we had three coins. It was heads or tails. The odd one out gets all the money. And so I'm saying if it's like heads, heads, tails, you win. Yeah, I'm in. There's a similar game to that where, like let's say you and I each have a$100 bill and we fold it a specific way. You call odds or evens and then we both flip the bill. If both bills land facing the same way, evens would win. Odds is the other way. Do you have a$100 bill? No, I don't.

1:38:39Graham Stephan:Do you? Yeah. Yeah, I mean if it's a 50-50 if there's no skill involved. No, yeah, there's no skill to 50-50 house edge. I mean I would do it for$100. I would not do it for$1 ,000. Who said$1 ,000? I'm in for$1 ,000 you tell me I'm in for whatever I was going to say$500 each because then now every person wins$1 ,000 because then between you two it would be$1 ,000 payout I would not do$500 personally I mean this guy had a cockroach farm no don't get Gavin the guy had a cockroach farm to save money so he wouldn't have to feed his bearded list I would do a heads or tails with your$500 I have a coin There we go.

1:39:20Graham Stephan:Perfect. Cold. All righty. 500? Yeah. Oh, we're just going to flip a coin? Yeah. Do you want to do that? Yeah, I'm in. Yeah, you're down. I'm addicted to gambling, dude. All right. You think I'm going to say no? This is free money. All right. So I would Venmo you if you're cool with that. That's fine. That's totally fine. I think I'm going to lose. I've been on a little cold streak. Okay. I feel like... Do you have a preference as a tails? This is a euro. This is a two euro. Got it. So we'll do heads and tails. The two is heads. Okay. I feel like it's going to be tails you can flip the coin really?

1:39:52Graham Stephan:yeah I think tails your heads sure so tails I win tails you win okay anyways guys we just did the coin flip if you want to see it I will allow it to be on members only I'm sorry it's not that I hate the members I just like everyone to have access to everything anyways yeah thank you so much for coming on the podcast thank you thank you guys so much for watching the video thank you to everyone sitting behind the scenes thank you until next time until next time

1:40:21Thank you.