Locked In with Ian Bick - I Ran an Illegal Gambling Ring on TikTok & Made $100K — Then Got Caught | Blake Fitzgerald

Episode Date: August 10, 2025

Blake Fitzgerald was just a regular guy from Minnesota—until a side hustle on TikTok turned into a six-figure illegal gambling operation. After dropping out of college and bouncing between jobs, Blake discovered the world of gambling livestreams. Within months, he was pulling in over $100,000 running an underground gambling ring through social media. But the fast money came with heavy consequences. What started as a business turned into an addiction, and eventually, the law caught up with him. In this interview, Blake shares how he built the operation, how it spiraled out of control, and how he managed to escape prison time through a plea deal. #IllegalGambling #TikTokScam #TrueCrime #GamblingAddiction #LockedInWithIanBick #SocialMediaCrime #NoPrisonTime #UndergroundGambling Connect with Blake Fitzgerald: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@klozer10x_2.0 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/klozer10x/ Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Get 50% off the Magic Mind offer here: https://www.magicmind.com/IANB50. #magicmind #mentalwealth #mentalperformance Presented by Tyson 2.0 & Wooooo Energy: https://tyson20.com/ https://woooooenergy.com/ Use code LOCKEDIN for 20% OFF Wooooo Energy Buy Merch: http://www.ianbick.com/shop Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction & The Shocking Call 00:34 Blake's Background and Upbringing 02:56 Childhood, Parents, and Lessons Learned 05:54 Family Dynamics & Early Life Challenges 13:04 College, Early Work, and First Adult Steps 17:15 Launching a Career: Sales, Oil Fields & Construction 20:51 Discovering Gambling Streams & TikTok Live 24:55 Explosive Growth on TikTok 31:36 Gambling Becomes a Business 38:28 The Illegal Gambling Model Starts 41:08 Managing Money, Moderators, and Viewers 43:43 High Stakes, Big Nights, and Addictive Success 47:35 TikTok Fame, Haters & Legal Gray Areas 55:10 The Investigation and Downfall 01:01:38 Facing Charges & Navigating the Legal System 01:09:03 Plea Deals, Consequences, and Community Service 01:13:15 Addiction Continues: Gambling Beyond TikTok 01:17:17 Embracing Recovery: Gamblers Anonymous 01:21:14 Life After Gambling: Fast Cars and Family 01:28:25 Social Media Reflections & Giving Back 01:32:33 Media Coverage, Public Perception, and Reputation 01:35:01 Lessons Learned: The Dangers of Gambling Culture 01:41:12 Moving Forward, Staying Sober, Final Thoughts Powered by: Just Media House : https://www.justmediahouse.com/ Creative direction, design, assets, support by FWRD: https://www.fwrd.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Padity! Bring it on! My brother just keeps calling me and texting and calling it. And I was like, what the hell does he want? Like, dude, just leave me alone, bro. I get back to you. And I opened my Snapchat from him, like, fine. And it said, bro, they're looking for us. And I called him and he's like, bro, they're looking for us.

And I was like, what are you talking about? He's like, they got warrants. And I'm like, for what? And he's like, the casino, the TikTok, the gambling. And I was like, no way, bro. Blake Fitzgerald had a normal life raised in Minnesota, went to college for auto body, worked a few jobs, nothing out of the ordinary. But everything changed when he discovered gambling live streams.

What started as a hobby quickly turned into a booming business. Within months, Blake was running an illegal gambling ring on TikTok and making over $100,000 in profit. But the money came with a price. He developed a dangerous addiction and eventually found himself facing criminal charges. In this episode, Blake opens up about how fast it all spiraled the moment it caught up with him and how he managed to avoid prison time with a plea deal. Welcome to Lockton, man. Thanks so much for coming out today. Thank you, man.

Appreciate you having me. Yeah. Where do you come from today? So I'm from Fargo, North Dakota right now, originally from Minnesota, and I also was just in New York. So I came, stayed in New York for a few days, come see you. Awesome. I think you might be our first North Dakota guest. Not too many people there, man.

That's like the middle of nowhere. Fields, just straight up fields. Way different than your scenic route that I got from New York coming here today. Yeah. Yeah, it's beautiful. And this was probably more comparable to, uh, not. North Dakota, right? Like the drive?

Like here? Yeah. This is like more like Wisconsin, which I've lived there too in Minnesota. I lived there when I was in prison for a year. Oh, did you? I was in Oxford, Wisconsin. Oh, wow. You were federal.

Yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah. I did a little time in Wisconsin myself. That was a state charge? State charge, yep, but I was in there with federal guys because the federal system there puts all the guys in the county. I don't know if you were in the county unit, but some of them were. Yeah, most states, the feds will put you in the county.

In Connecticut, there's not like a county jail. So we had like a private detention center for the tri-state like Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. And it was in Rhode Island, this private detention facility and an immigration facility. So we all went out there. But a lot of states do have the county jails that they hold federal inmates. Wisconsin was Wisconsin pretty decent? Yeah, I mean, I didn't experience. I was literally in the middle of nowhere.

The camp was cool. But I didn't get to really explore Wisconsin. I just went to the airport. Yeah, what town was it? Oxford, but I flew out of the Madison. I think it's only like two hours. hours from Madison or an hour and a half or something like that. Yeah.

Middle of nowhere, man. Literally middle of the way. Your first and only tour of Wisconsin then? Yeah, yeah. I have not been back since. I got PTSD go to Wisconsin. I got PTSD for Wisconsin too. So what was your childhood like?

Man, I had a pretty laid back childhood. I grew up on the border of Minnesota and was in Canada. Literally I was a mile from the river that connects or that's in between Canada and Minnesota. So, yeah, small town, small country living, man, everybody up there's hunting or fishing, you know. They're either doing that or they're just chilling, drinking beer. What do you grow up with? I grew up with my parents. My dad actually lived in Minneapolis, so I would go down to visit him all the time in the Twin Cities.

So I always say I'm like a hybrid. I had that city life in the summer, the country life in the winter, so I never really felt like I fit in either place. Were they divorced? Yeah, my parents were divorced, yep. How young were you when they got divorced? So my biological father, my dad, he, I think maybe two, something like that. And then my mom got remarried when I was like four or five. And so I always kind of looked at them both as my dad's.

So, yeah. And then my mom got remarried again when I was like 16. So you've had a few dads, Crowdo. You have a few men. Yeah, a few dads. Which one were you the closest to? Oh, my biological dad, yeah. Yeah, he's an amazing man. So, you know, it's good that I've had these different people in my life because they all have taught me different things, you know. So he's in the music industry. He has a recording studio. So totally different. He's also a country guy, though. Like, he's more of a Ted Nugent type rocker, you know. So he's from northern Minnesota too, but he lives that city life. So what do you think was the biggest lesson your parents taught you? Oh man

You know I think One of the biggest things that me now as a dad myself that I try to tell my 20 year old is that Um Parents really know what they're talking about like we really have been through this shit before you know like it's it's happened to us and so If you're just open just be open to the possibility of listening to what I say and it may be being right like that's all ask. So I think just looking back on that, all those things that I look back at now. I mean, so it's a collection of a lot of things, you know, but mostly that they're right. Yeah, as kids, we think that they don't know. I know, like, I look back at like when I'm 16 and you think you're so smart

and you're so dumb. You know, you really are. You're so naive to a lot of things. Just a lot of things that you get with, you know, wisdom with age. Yeah, and I think it's not, it doesn't even just apply to parents. It's anyone with lived experience. Yeah. That's trying to teach you something that's lived in your shoes before. Exactly. Whether it's someone from a different culture or someone, you know, just live somewhere different, like, listen to them because they know what they're talking about. They've experienced something you haven't yet.

What do your parents do for work? My mom's kind of did a variety thing. She's done a lot of nursing type things. She's been a housekeeper. She's done all sorts of things. My dad has worked in the music industry his whole life. So he was in a band for a lot of years, and then he got into working in a studio,

and then he ended up owning his own studio. So he's worked with a lot of big artists out there. Was he successful? Yeah, I always say he's very successful. Yeah, my dad's not so much the businessman as he is a music guy. So, like, his thing is you want to, you know, when you rents out of the studio, I would always tell him to raise the prices. And you don't understand.

These are music guys. They don't got much money. Like, you know, so his heart was in it, you know? he was like yeah he's just worked with it and a lot of different people from like you've heard of Minneapolis being the home of Prince um so my dad knows like every single person that's that's played in Prince's bands and and gotten really close to him so yeah I would say he's been pretty dang successful in that yeah did you have any traumatic moments in your childhood a lot of traumatic moments man a lot of traumatic moments I would say uh you know looking back when I was

A teenager, of course, my mom and my stepdad now getting divorced. That was a very traumatic moment. You know, I've been through some deeper things, you know, different abusive situations that I've been in, family, non-family. And so I've experienced some things there, too. Yeah. What do you think was the one that left the most impact on you as you got older? Man, I will probably have to say physical abuse. and verbal abuse.

Yeah. Yeah. Because now I'm like PTSD. Like if I'm in a relationship with a girl and she yells, I can't do it. Like I'm just, I just feel like I just, you know, I'm a big man, but I feel like I'm going to just crawl into a little cocoon, you know, when I'm experiencing that. So, yeah, that's a big one. But I would say, you know, it was very traumatic all the time when my dad would, he'd visit and then he'd visit. and then he'd have to leave, you know?

It was like, dang, a piece of me was gone, leaving. And that was tough because he lived five hours away, six hours away from me. So that was tough. Do you feel like because of those moments you didn't have a normal child, or would you still say that, for the most part, it was average normal? I would stay for the most part, from what I see in the world today, is probably more than normal. You know, yeah, I would say more of my children.

traumatic things happen in my later years of my life. But yeah, definitely I lived a pretty normal childhood, right? Like riding bike to town, meeting my cousin. I'd tell him, hey, I'll meet you. He lived in town and I was out of town. I said, I'll meet you halfway. And I would never, he'd just always show up in my house. Be like, dude, where the heck?

And then we'd go to town together, which was like another two, three miles. You know, we, yeah, we had a good time. We go fishing, you know, kids lighten off fireworks. getting to the age of driving, just cruising around town, burning some tires off. And yeah, I had a pretty good childhood. Just to, you know, with the, I had a lot of, I guess you could say parents thrown in the mix. But at the end of the day, they were all pretty dang good. I never got stuck with like a, you know, crazy abusive stepdad or nothing like that.

If we had your childhood best friend here today, what would he say about your personality growing up? What were you like? I don't know. probably that I kind of never, I think as a child, like as a child, like in my earlier years, maybe even before junior high and stuff like that. I always was, I felt like maybe the short, maybe short guy syndrome, they call it, right? I always felt like if anybody stood up to me, like, I need to step up back, but like bigger. And because you have to when you're a little guy, like you have to like figure out a way

because you're not going to do it through your size to intimidate someone. So I would say that I was, all my friends that I've had would say that I'm a very giving guy. I'm always looking out. Probably one of my biggest faults at the end of the day is even as a child, I always looked out for other people and put them before myself for sure. Happened a lot. What career did you want to get into? You know, I actually wanted to work on the stock exchange in New York City. Now after being in New York City

Quite a few times I love it but I'm I'm ready to go home after a few days It's busy So where did that come from I think being in a small town Northern Minnesota and the Canadian border Really far from anything

I mean two hours to the closest movie theater You know you just see what's on TV And you're like dang that would be so cool To like look how busy it is And look at how Look at the nice cars and the fast cars these guys have and I just always thought of like everybody in New York City's rich. So if I can make it to New York City, I'm good. I'm going to be rich. So. Do you think you

are always like an out-of-the-box thinker? Always. Yeah. Especially because, you know, I think because of the part that I was from the city, but I also was from the country, that when I was in the country, you know, I brought that city life to my friends in a way. Like I always was doing things a little bit different. And then the other way around, like people in the city, like, they'd never did some of the things that I did in the in the country so yeah I was at least to them I was thinking outside their box do you think you're like the black sheep in your friend group oh for sure yeah definitely in the family middle child too so how old was the oldest and the youngest my sister she is um well right now she's three years older than me she's she will she will be 45

in September she's currently in federal prison as well oh your sister's in federal prison yeah yeah Wow. Unrelated thing? Unrelated to anything to do with me, yeah. She took another rotten life and yeah. So she's there right now for drugs, eight years. She got locked up during the pandemic in 2020, mother of five kids. So just doing something stupid and just caught up with the wrong crew and the wrong people and drinking. And then my brother's like the total opposite.

He works on a, he's a farmer. So he's like total. chill. He doesn't need a lot of money to survive. Like, yeah, so we're all very different. Do you have a relationship with your sister and her kids? Oh, yeah. Yeah, actually her, her 19 year old right now, almost 20, he's, I just got him working for the company I work for and just taking him under my wing to try to help out as much as I can. His dad's currently in prison as well. So yeah, he's, that boy's lived a very traumatic life. I couldn't imagine growing up with parents locked up. Yeah, I could always be worse in someone else's issues. Yeah. So what happens after high school? Do you go to college?

So after high school, I decide to take a year off, move to where my stepdad had now lived. And took a year enjoying being the new guy in the neighborhood, the new 18-year-old guy with the nice sports car. And so I hung out with a lot of new people in this little, another little town, kind of. That was during like the first fast and the furious days. So we were all getting into cars and just making them, you know, decals on them, exhaust, doing all that. And then someone one day when we were cruising said that we were like, what are you guys going to do for college? And they're like, oh, we're going to go to school for auto body. And I was like, damn, auto body is like, yeah, the first year or something like that, you get to paint your own car. And I was like,

bro, I'm in. And so, like, the next day, I signed up for college for auto body. So that's originally what I was going to do. So my initial plans at that point then was I'm going to work for some sort of manufacturing company like, you know, a painting, paint material, auto body equipment company and then then sell to auto body shops. How did you guys afford a sports car? I was working.

Yeah, I was always working all the way from I was like 13 years old. So, yeah. It was like not, you know, a sports car for a 19-year-old kid was like a Ford Probe G.T. You know, or Mitsubishi Clips or Grand Prix or something. So, yeah. Where'd you end up going to college for the auto body? Thief River Falls, Minnesota. Is that a community college?

Community college, yep. Okay. Yep. And then I met my oldest son's mother. It was actually my boss. It was my boss's daughter. let's just say I didn't stay working at that job for long. I was fired by him.

But yeah, we ended up getting into a relationship. And then we decided once she graduated the next year. And then we moved to St. Cloud, Minnesota and went to college there for sales and marketing. And then she went for cooking or something. And then about a year in, we were going to have a baby. So that was when it was. So I had three years into college. And then I was like, all right, now we got to go home and we move back to where she's from and to raise my little guy.

So did you finish and get the degree? Didn't finish my second time. No. No. How old are you when you had the kid? He was born on my 22nd birthday. How do you feel now looking back on it that you had a kid that young? Oh, I tell you, like when it comes to talking to my son now about it, like just wait until you're like 30, you know?

Just wait until at least you have everything. Like you have that foundation. You have your house. You know, married would be preferable. That would only make sense. But have that house, have that place that you're going to stay for a while, you know, and have a good bank roll because I always tell them it's like having a ball and chain on your ankle. Like it literally is.

You know, you want to run a marathon with a ball and chain and, you know, chain on your ankle? No. So I'm very happy with the way. things turned out on his end. Very good kid. He actually works with me as well. And he's crushing it. He's doing super good.

So I'm super proud of him. He is 19, has an actual sports car. Well, he just turned 20 the other day. So, yeah. So we got a good relationship. But looking back, I mean, if I could have changed things and had the same son eight years later, I would have. Because that's a lot at a young age.

And I see 18-year-old, 17-year-olds having kids. And I'm just like, you are. crazy. You don't have a clue. You don't have a clue at all. And it's not that like I'm talking down to you. It's that you should have a clue. You want to have a clue before you do something like that. And trust me, you own it all. Pay off your home, travel for life, drive a Ferrari. In celebration of the world premiere of the Monopoly Big Board Buckslot machine by Aristocrat Gaming, Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is giving one person a $1.6 million dream package. The biggest prize in Yamava's history.

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Bartending at night, bouncing. I was welding during the day, bouncing at the bar. bartending at night. And then my dad was actually on the phone with me one day and he said, hey, a guy from one of his bands that he worked in was on the phone. I hadn't talked to him since I was a young kid. And he's like, hey, Todd wants to talk to you. And I was like, oh, no, no, I'm always nervous, right? Like social anxiety. Like, no, no, no. He's like, hey, what's up. And I was like, hey, Todd. And asked him what he was doing. He was in the car business. And I was like, man, I would love to be in the car business. Like, I'm a salesman.

Man, that's what I want to do in my life. And he's like, oh, anytime you want a job, just let me no, I got you. And so I took a drive. I took an 11-hour drive to an interview. And I remember sitting down with his boss, the guy, and the first thing he said to me is he's like, first things first, take those earrings out of your ear. And I was like, oh man, like, you know, like, this is real job stuff, like, you know, and this is a few years back. Sorry, this is a little more old school and after a few minutes he hired me and and I was working for a sales crew in the car business. I don't know if you ever seen the movie. I think it's called the goods or something like that. There's like there used to be TV shows and stuff about these guys that would travel around

and sell cars to people for car dealerships and they'd come in for like a week and put on like this big super sale and at the end of the day you're just coming in and marking up all the prices beforehand and then showing huge dis. It's basically just like one huge marketing gimmick. But all these people come in and my uncle had told me he's like, don't do it because it's one of the hardest ways to sell cars and I don't want you to lose interest in it. And I was like, no. Someone tells me not to do something.

I'm all in now and I will be successful. So yeah, like 20, I want to say I was like 20, maybe four and jumped into that and I started making real money and and that's my first professional career was in the car business got into management in the car business and kind of went from there how long were you doing that for um i did that for probably six years or so yeah and then i got into i actually worked out in the oil fields out in north dakota uh for a big heavy equipment rental company and i was running that company. It was actually a Canadian company. And I'll tell you, Williston, North Dakota is the Wild West. Things are happening out there that you wouldn't think could happen anywhere, but they don't

publicize any of it. They don't want nobody to know about it. It's like truly the Wild West. Like, you better be strapped for real. But it's like old country Western more. But the thing is, with the oil field in the oil business out there, you got a lot of people from all over the country that like people that are desperate for work looking for work, at least when I went out there was kind of the oil boom time. I didn't want to work out there, but I got an offer that I couldn't refuse, so I decided to take it.

But I was probably only out there for maybe eight months. That's how you ended up in North Dakota? I was actually in Fargo, North Dakota, working in a car dealership first. Yep. And then I ended up going and doing that. And then went back to Fargo. Actually, never left Fargo.

I would just go there for the weeks. and work and then come home on the weekends. So, and then back in Fargo, I started working for a construction company, sales. And so I've been doing that now for 13 plus years. How do you stumble across gambling and social media? You know, I was laying in bed, man, just scrolling TikTok. And I was like, of course my 4U page has gambling because I love games. I've always loved gambling.

Gambling's always been a part of all those years we talked about. Gambling has been in there somewhere or another. In fact, all the way started from my 18th birthday when I bought like a $100 roll of lottery tickets. But yeah, I was just watching it. And all of a sudden I just saw someone on TikTok live like streaming gambling. So then I decided, in fact, I didn't do anything on TikTok other than scroll. So I didn't have a way to get a thousand followers in my phone. opinion. I was so new to TikTok. Heck, my dad or my son told me about TikTok. Um, actually right after I got

out of jail for unrelated offense. Um, and he said to me, uh, yo, you got to get a TikTok. So I got a TikTok. In fact, I remember the name. It was like Savage Dad X, X or something like that is the name that he set up for me. And, uh, so I'm pretty new. I'm laying in bed. I'm scrolling it. I see this gambling. And I was like, dang, I should do that. I go to the casino. the time. I should just stream it. Maybe I could get viewers and maybe I could earn something from it. So I ended up going on, I ended up watching some crazy guy on TikTok live selling followers, right? Like if you send me a whatever gift, I'll get you this many followers. And I'm like, this has got to be a scam. But I ended up sending the guy something and all of a sudden I have a thousand followers in my TikTok account.

So I was like, all right, let's go live. So then I went live at the casino the next time. And I went live like mid, day and I think I maybe had like a couple people within my family that I was like hey watch I'm on ticot live they had like eight followers or eight viewers for like maybe a half hour and then like a couple nights later I went there late at night and I was gambling and I went live and I'm live for like maybe 10 minutes in not even paying attention to my screen right because I'm a I'm a gambler so I'm watching this slot machine and I look down and I have what was it three four thousand 5,000 people in the live stream. And I was like, no way.

I had watched enough live streams on TikTok to know that that was a crazy amount of people watching one live stream at one time. And that's when I was like, this shit's going to get huge. Like, I just knew it right then and there. I was like, this is going to be crazy. And after my first live stream, I ended it,

I had over 5,000 followers. So I gained over 4,000 in one night. And so I just was consistent after that. And so I just, I was every night, it was like the perfect excuse to gamble. Like, no, I'm working. I would just tell my girl like, no, I'm working on my social media. Good reason to gamble, right? And so, but all of a sudden, like, I was like, okay, I got to learn to capitalize on this.

And so I didn't really know how to capitalize necessarily. I was just about growing the followers right away. but then there was a point where people were in the chat asking, can you, will you, or do you play for others? Like, do you play for others? And I was like, what? Well, I had gotten, even at that point,

only like maybe a week or a couple weeks into this going live, and I had already had moderators because I learned really quickly that I needed moderators to keep the chat under control and to do certain things. And so I had some moderators. And what was crazy is I had some moderators that used to moderate for some other big time people in kind of the gambling more community on social media. And I was like, this is crazy. Like some of these people were like, you're the hottest thing on TikTok right now.

Like TikTok slots, like gambling community. And so they wanted to come moderate for me and help me grow this. So I had other people kind of giving me some ideas, a lot of bad ideas. and one of them was, hey, did you know that, like, when all these people comment that, like, there's a lot of people making money on TikTok because they're gambling for other people.

And so I was like, no. But that sounds something like, right away, I was like, that sounds like something I don't want to do. Like, I'm just doing this for fun, showing myself gamble. But then I realized that you can only do so much content with the bankroll that you have, you know?

What was the content? Like, what was that first reason why you gained so many followers. Were you doing something interesting that night? I get excited. Yeah, I get super excited. Like, a lot of emotions into my slot play, like, whether it's bad or good.

You know what I found is a lot of people love the bad stuff. Like, when you were losing a lot, like, it was one night that we were, like, down like 10K, the most followers or viewers I'd ever had. They loved it. I don't know why. They just fed into the, you know,

but the big jackpots too were big. And so, yeah, it was just my screen. like it was literally just on the slot machine so like the people couldn't even see me like a lot of people didn't even know what I looked like initially um and did the casinos give you a hard time so yeah because there was that was the other thing very new to TikTok lives there's haters out there and these people right off the bat like heck the first time I ever went live or maybe the second time I literally was showing my company logo on my hat to my live and the next day my company had complaints about me. We're talking bad reviews. Thankfully there were ones that were sent to the company so the company was able to filter them

but like oh yeah. And then that night there was a night that I had someone security come up to me and they're like, sir, you can't be recording in here. And I was like, really? I'm like, why? And they were like getting complaints.

They're like, we keep getting phone calls. Sir, you just got to stop recording. I was like, what are you getting complaints about? Like, why would someone complain? And then once I learned more about it as I started doing it more, like, I got away with it for a few times. But then one night they straight up were like, you're out of here. Like, you got to go.

It's just too many phone calls. People were telling them that I was like recording inappropriate stuff. Like kind of long story short, I ended up finding out that there were people that were like really pissed off that I had grown that quickly. and when they would go live, when they were live and I go live, they'd lose a bunch of their viewers. So then it was like,

it was like some gang stuff on social media. Like, TikTok's crazy. Like the amount of hate and the people that will go out of their way to try to negatively impact your life is wild. So, yeah, I did have many times, casinos telling me like, hey, you, but then I would explain to them like, hey, they're haters.

They're just, and you know, imagine being just a security guard at a casino and you're like, you have this issue going on. And the guy that's streaming says, they're just haters. Like, you don't even realize what a hater is if you're not sitting there in this world, you know, or what these trolls, right? People call them trolls. Like, they just don't get it. And so it made things a little bit interesting. But my live streams got interesting from it, too. Do you think you had a gambling problem?

I think I've always had maybe a little bit of a gambling problem. What happened with this is it turned me into a crazy. crazy gambling addict because as soon as I started taking money from people, right? People started sending me money through all forms of avenues to play for them. Those little $2 bets and $5 bets weren't exciting anymore, right? It was when someone would send you $5 grand to place $100 bets on a slot that I, you know, I had never done before in my personal life, right? And then what I'd find myself doing is in between streams,

I'd be going to the casino, not even streaming it, placing $100 bets on my own money. And it was like, dang, what am I doing? Like, business, business, like, keep this. And so, yeah, it definitely turned me into quite the addict. Where do you think your addiction to gambling stem from? Did it run in the family? Is this something you developed on your own?

Why did you first get into it? I think the gambling, I think that, I don't know, maybe all the way from like just being a kid lottery tickets, right? Or growing up in northern Minnesota too, there's a lot of like tribe casinos up there. So there's not a lot for people to do. So you hear about people going to the casino all the time. So that was probably it. And just, I mean, heck in my college days, I would work. Actually, I worked at the casino.

I forgot to even tell that. I work security at the casino when I was going to school for auto body. So that's probably where it stemmed because when I wasn't working, I was dropping nickels in the machine. So that's probably where it really stemmed from, I suppose. What was your average bet before you started doing it on social media and started taking money and it went to a different level? $2 on a you know if I was feeling like I had a good amount of money in my bank account five bucks yeah were you gambling to the point where you were having to alter your lifestyle because of the losses before it got to a deeper level or was it just normal for fun win some lose some oh yeah I didn't

really have to alter my my life prior I mean there were a couple times definitely in my life where you know, I had to move some money around or something. And so it happened, but probably only like maybe two, three times in my life. But, you know, that's an addict. How many followers did you have when you got to the point where you're getting kind of burnt out, just making your content and wanted to shift it and turn it into a business and monetize the following? I would say probably around 50,000 followers. which probably happened within a week.

It took you a week just to get the 50,000. Yeah. So this is going very quickly. Very quickly. And how old were you at the time? 38. Okay. Yeah.

So you get 50,000 followers. How do you come up with this plan to turn it into a business? Well, I had watched a lot of streamers on TikTok battle. And so my mindset was I just need to get people to like me to enjoy my content. and then I'm going to battle. Like, that's where I'm going to make my money. I was seeing some of these people on TikTok making upwards of a million dollars a month battling on TikTok.

And so this had nothing to do with necessarily content. Like, I hardly ever went and edited my content and posted it. I would only go edit content and post it. Usually if I was announcing, I was going live that night. And so it was just to let people know I'm going live. Everything was strictly live streamed. That was where my, And so I had to learn how can I monetize the live streams, right?

Well, TikTok had started the followers or the subscribers. They had just started the subscribers. And I was like, if I do giveaways, which I was doing giveaways, if I require people to be a subscriber, it's going to make, first of all, it's going to be easier to do the giveaways because everybody's going to be in a list in, you know, in the actual live stream that I could go into and I could go scroll through. second part is why wouldn't I capitalize on it so the first night I said hey followers like whoever subscribes like you're in this giveaway holy smokes it was crazy we would do like okay we're

going to do a $50 free slot giveaway when we hit 50 subscribers 15 minutes 10 minutes boom I was there I was like this is crazy and the amount of money and revenue I'm bringing in off of that right I'm like, okay, this is a no-brainer. I can give 100% of this back right now just to continue to grow it. And so next thing you know, I'm probably just a few, maybe a week into it. And I have, you know, a thousand paid subscribers on TikTok. And then TikTok sending me things about the leaderboards. There's the subscription stars leaderboards.

And I'm climbing up that ladder. And the next thing you know, I was like number five. but then get this they banned my account one night i was live and i like lost my mind what am i what am i going to do right but i believe at that point i'd already had some backups i'd already been setting up backups i'd watched people lose their accounts and so i went on my backup i panicked um but then i knew at that point i need a backup account and when people would when i go live on that account people would have to subscribe on there too. So I was actually at one point,

number three for subscription stars on TikTok in the world and also number six with my backup account. So at that point, I was bringing in probably just off of revenue on TikTok subscribers probably seven grand. A month. A month.

What did it mean to battle? You mentioned the word battling. Yeah. So people on TikTok, like people that literally just battle there's one person on this side one person if you see like you know some of the people that do that now even geoffrey star does a lot of battling on ticot and uh the island boys so they they battle so basically one person's on this side this person and anybody watching the live can buy gifts and send those gifts to their to who they support and then in that three or five minute

battle or whatever it is one of them gets more and they win it's actually, when you talk about it, when you talk about it with people that don't know about it, it sounds so stupid. And it really is. Like the amount of people that send money, I've sent gifts to some of my favorite creators or guys that I, like, got to be friends with on social media,

trying to also, like, network, right? But I've sent gifts that were upwards of $3,400 for one gift to come across a screen. And then they get half the money and TikTok gets the other half. Yeah, I have creator friends, especially on YouTube that make thousands of dollars on like the supers and the gifts and everything.

And I'm just like, I'm never one of those people that does that. Like that sends money, you know, just to random people or even anything in general. I don't know.

I just, I never understood that concept that social media has created. Yeah. I didn't either. But that was really what got me initially interested in TikTok.

I was like, probably the first creator that I ever really watched on there it doesn't create a whole lot to be honest with you he just does live streams and people love his stuff and he's got this they all create a character in a way right and people love it and that was a lot of people hate this guy too but his big keen his name was big keen he's from miami and people see this guy and they're like you know he's he's always showing designer clothes and this and that and people they want that and so they feel like they can get it through being a part of

this live with this creator. Like the people that would contact me even or message me, it was crazy to, and I don't want to say any, like I was famous, but I was very, very quickly in a way, TikTok famous. I mean, it was crazy. Sometimes having upwards of 20,000 people in a live stream and getting, you know, a nonstop amount of messages to you and even casinos contacting you to want you to do promotional content. It was crazy to go from just normal. normal life to boom this in a matter of like two, three weeks. So at this point, your content is just streaming at people watching you gambling, you're talking to people, whatever, interacting with them.

Yep. When does it shift to something more than that? I would say probably three, four weeks in is when I was like, well, how do people send me money and how does this work? And if I'm going to do this, I'm going to make sure I do it right. and I got to make sure that if I win a jackpot, I don't have to pay the taxes out of my own pocket and things like that. So I did a lot of research I thought online. I thought I did a good amount of research, but clearly not enough.

But I did enough to make sure that I was going to be profitable, right? I was going to make some money off this. And it was going to be worth my time. That was really all I wanted to do is like, well, whatever I make off of it, I'm just going to give back to people until I grow the money. this really big and then I'm going to battle and I'm going to make money off a TikTok. What was a business idea? I think that's basically what it became was I'm just going to continue to live stream, continue to grow.

I don't really have a plan, man. I was doing it every night. Like I was working during the day, my normal job. You know, they say don't quit your 9 to 5, you know, your day job. I didn't quit it. I did step down in my position just to get more time doing this because the amount of money I was bringing in was crazy, at least for. me.

But, you had mentioned the paying taxes for people. So that was the part where you're taking money from people to gamble for them. Right. So if someone sends you $100, right? So tell us how this all stemmed, yeah, and what that model was. Say, hey, send me $125 and I'll gamble 100 for you. And then if I win, I keep a certain percentage of that winnings over. over like if they give me a hundred

send me 125 and they end up winning 200 I'm going to keep a certain percentage of the extra hundred that they sent me not the original 100 that they wanted to play with how did you come up with that idea uh I think it was really just some of my moderators telling me that like hey this is kind of what they're doing and then I put my own thought into it and I was like hold on

that's not enough money to cover like taxes and things like these guys aren't thinking this through um and so I think I brought more of that business aspect to this. These guys were just doing it for fun just to make some tips. Maybe they were making a decent amount. But for me, my day job was a really good business already that I was making a very good income. So I had to make sense out of this.

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Conditions apply. So I had to make sure it made sense financially. How would people send you the money? Is it like Venmo? Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, Apple Pay. So did you put out like a clip saying, hey guys, I'll gamble for you if you send me money? Yeah, basically I would.

I would post it on TikTok and it would say on it, lines open. We always said the lines open because there'd be a line sometimes 20 people deep that have already sent me money and I just have to get to them. So, and yeah, I'll post on there like lines open and right away I posted like the stuff. And then I was like, I don't know, maybe there's some legality things here. So I would keep it pretty simple so people would know what I was talking about without talking about it. Yeah, but there was just I wouldn't even have to promote it I would just go live and there'd be so many people that would be like how do I get in the line So say they said say I send you five thousand dollars

Yep You're charging 25% on top of that 5,000 Right up front Right up front So if you're gonna send me four to gamble for you're gonna send me five Okay, I'm gonna keep that thousand just in my pocket Where is that is there a guarantee of what you're gambling on like do you they get to pick oh they're picking So they're going to say go play blackjack or go play slots.

Yep. But they're, so what are they essentially trusting you with your luck? Are they just hoping that you're luckier than them? What is the lore behind this? It was crazy, but people would actually believe, and I wouldn't put that, like, I wasn't telling people like, hey, there's a guarantee win. Like, hey, guarantee to lose. Like, this is the casino, right?

You're going to lose more than you're ever going to win. And so it was, I don't know. It was just the excitement of, I think, laying in their bed at home being able to gamble. You know, rather than gambling on one of these offshore casino, like, online casinos, right? Where you're playing some sketchy thing. Like, you're playing with now a creator, a content creator or a social media influence or whatever you want to call it. I think it was just exciting to people, you know, to be a part of that live, to also have to be a part of potentially. winning money.

And then I think, you know, people probably were at home with addictions as well. They were like, oh, damn, I can gamble on TikTok now. So, yeah. Now, do they, how do they know you didn't just, like, spend all the money on something silly? Are they actually, like, if I send you the money? I'm always done live. So, and do you say, hey, this is so-and-so's money?

This is user 229. I'm betting with his money right now. Exactly. And how many people are you betting for in a night? Do you limit just one per night? Oh, no. So, like, we would do a line and then they'd tell us how much they wanted to send us. And then we just have that all lined up in advance or during it. I'd have usually my brother with me or I'd do it myself. And I'd just be putting it into my phone in the notes like this person, this is the amount of money. And I'd always confirm. I had people trying to scam me, people trying to do payment requests from me. I'd have people try to send me money, friends and family on PayPal to where they could get a refund after. I mean, it was. But yeah, they would just send me the bunny. I'd make the list and then we'd just go.

And sometimes I'd put a limit on it. Like, unless it was someone that was like a heavy spender, like 500 or more, it was like a 30-minute max limit. How often were you winning and actually sending these people winnings plus their money back? I would say probably half the time. And they're already in the hole from the get because they have to give you the 25% fee.

Right. So it's kind of a losing situation. I mean, your odds aren't good. right, but maybe better than an online offshore gambling site. Now, would anyone lose and then complain, or did they know what they're getting into that this is at risk? People would, people would be like, oh my God, like that went so quick, dude. Like, yeah, bro, like, it's the casino, man, it's not my money, I'm sorry. And so sometimes, like, if people were going to send me a bunch, like, I'd cut them deals.

Like, I wouldn't charge them any fee. But, yeah, it was, you know, and in between that, I think it was the giveaways that really did well because if I did like people stayed in there for giveaways and so that helped my algorithm all the comments like one time we did a giveaway um where everybody had to change their name on TikTok to their name and then at the end team closer which is what I've always went by ever since I started doing social media as closer and at one point we had like 3,000 people on TikTok with the name Team Closers. So if you searched it up at the top, it was actually pretty cool thing. And so it just continued to grow everything so much at such a fast pace.

This is wild that random people would send a random person money to go and gamble. Sometimes thousands, man. What was the highest someone sent you, the most amount of money? Oh, probably like 10 grand one night. And so the fee on that is $2,500. Yeah. So they're already in a $2,500 deficit right off the bat. Yeah. What did they want you to play?

He wanted me to play $100 spins like they were like the three bars, not even the fun and exciting ones. Did he win? No, lost it all. You know, there's got to be something too psychologically where they probably enjoy you talking about them in front of all of these people, you know, because you're plugging them in in a way, right? Right. And they're getting that entertainment factor. There's that television entertainment aspect to this too. The big spenders would get a lot of followers by doing it.

So they loved it. And then those big spenders would also sometimes be the ones that were gifting me a lot in gifts on TikTok. So you're getting a double whammy. You're getting the fee. And then you're doing these lives where people are sending you gifts watching other people lose money. Exactly. I would end my live and I'd have anywhere from 1,500 to 2,500 and just gifts on TikTok. Fuck.

How much you bring in on typical night? Like your best night, how much do you make between gifts and your fees? My best night, probably around 10 grand. Yeah. How many of those 10 grand nights did you have? Probably just one. They were always over five. It was never a night under 5 grand.

How much would you say you made overall? Allegedly. Yeah. Allegedly. Allegedly. I probably, I mean, you're talking like TikTok money, everything, subscribers, the whole works. I mean, in a matter of like maybe five months, probably like,

no, it wasn't even that long. It was like three months. They shut it down pretty quick in that, like, but I like held on to my followers for a while doing live streams and stuff, but TikTok banned my account. So it was hard to get people back. But I would say in three solid months, 100 grand. That's with the management fees and everything.

Yeah. It's pretty good. Yeah. Now, was online gambling banned in your state at the time? Yeah. And it still is. It still is. Okay.

So do you think most of these individuals were people from Minnesota that were doing this? No, they weren't. I had people from Australia. Like trying to feel. figure out the currency exchange. That's crazy. But were like draft kings and all these different sites as big as they are now when this was happening?

Yeah. Yeah. This is when I would say this is when they really started to take off. I think that a lot of the casino sites really started to take off during the pandemic. And for that reason, it was at the same time that I was kind of doing this. And then it, well, this was like the end of 20 years. 21, I want to say, when I started. So it was all kind of around the same time.

It was all kind of the same. So do you think this same concept would work today? Oh, yeah, absolutely. There's people that still do it. Even with all of these sites now, I mean, you could pull up, it's pretty much anywhere. I can pull it up right now. If someone live right now taking money to play. Wow.

Yep, not on TikTok. Now, when you started this, did you do any research on the legality behind any of us? So, like, before I started taking any money, yes. in fact I even contacted an attorney I even contacted people in Vegas I was trying to check the legality between different states I couldn't find anything that said it was illegal there was nothing

now we were getting messages sent to like our snap oh because we also gave out a Snapchat so they could communicate directly with my brother to send the money and in that Snapchat we were getting hate messages like we've reported you to the FBI. We've reported you to the IRS. Like, you're going down. And it got pretty crazy.

Like, to the point where they were setting screenshots of the actual reports that they were filing. And so we definitely got nervous. We changed the way that we would say things sometimes because of that. I mean, heck, one time I was on live and I, like, put my phone down, but I had another phone and I was showing them something on my phone and I opened up my browser and it was still on

is gambling for others illegal in Minnesota like it was still there and one of my haters caught a screenshot of it and posted it in fact I believe that ended up getting to the investigator at some point that screenshot so when do you first find out

that the authorities are on to so I'm just going about my regular day and my brother just keeps calling me and texting and calling and I was like and I'm trying to leave my house actually and I was like what the hell does he want like dude just leave me alone bro I get back to you and I opened my Snapchat from like fine no yeah I open my snapshot I think it was and it said bro they're looking for us and I called him and he's like bro they're looking for us and I was like what are you talking about he's like they got warrants and I'm like for what

and he's like the casino the TikTok the gambling and I was like no way bro he's like open on your phone right now and he's like look at those links I sent you and then it was um yeah people I think messaged him and it was literally just on the news it was like there was a bunch of articles about it that there was search warrants filed for um but it and it said my

name. It didn't say like what I was being charged with. In fact, I think right away it didn't say my name. And all of a sudden my brother and I both got messages from the guy writing the article in Minneapolis Star Tribune. And he said, you know, okay, can I talk to you guys? In fact, he tipped me off every single time something will come up. That news guy, as much as he was annoying, he gave me, he was like, hey, this was just filed. Do you want to talk about it? And I was like, what? And I'd go to the courthouse and I'd get a copy of it. So I always knew what was happening. So that's what happened. It was just a news article. My brother freaked out. He's like, there's a warrant. Come to Vina, it wasn't like a warrant for arrest. It was a warrant, a search warrant.

And the investigators at that point had not even talked to you guys yet. Nobody contacted us. When did they first contact you? Probably within about a week after that. My brother, I know, what was it? The gal texted me. She left me a voicemail. I never contacted. Then she texted me and said, I want to give you an opportunity to talk to me about this or whatever. And I just never responded. And then my brother's like, bro, there's cops coming to my, the farm, the farm in northern Minnesota. He's like, there's like an agent, like a, thought it was like a federal agent coming.

And I was like, what do you mean like a federal agent? He's like, bro, the sheriff of our town, because it's small town, right? So he's like, the sheriff called me and said, hey, there's an agent coming from Minneapolis. We need you to come down to the police department. And my brother's like, no, thank you. I would rather not. And so they're like, all right, we'll come to the farm. I don't know if they told them, but they showed up to the farm.

And this gal tried to start talking to my brother. Well, you know, I've prepped my brother enough about just the law in general. And I was like, and he's like, I'm not talking. And so he kept telling her. And she drove five hours. to the farm to go try to talk to my brother. And he's like, no, I'm not talking. And then she's like,

basically she was like, hey, you know, like, you're screwed. If you don't talk to me, like, you're going down with your brother. And so she left there. And I want to say it was the next day I was in a casino, in a different state for work. I was in Detroit. And I was at the casino just playing streaming. And all of a sudden, yeah,

that's what it was. It was the next morning that she showed up at my brother's farm. And then she also contacted that casino and let them know that I was breaking the law in their casino gambling for people, which I wasn't gambling from people at that point. You shut the operation down. At that point, I had shut it down. Once we found out about it, done. Because there's other, I mean, obviously I got too much going up for me. This wasn't like something that I wanted to like start some big huge gambling ring and, you know, some big, you know, criminal enterprise.

or anything. This was just all started with just going to the casino and seeing how many people I could get on my live stream. But during all of this, I'm getting calls from different people that want to, whether they want me to promote their casino, they want me to come out to their casino. I had ones that wanted me to promote their like offshore websites, pay me in Bitcoin. Like, it was wild the offers that were out there. And there was a, um, there was a, um, um, there was a, uh, there was another guy. You might have heard of them. I don't know if there's anybody out there that's heard of this guy in the gambling community. He's known. His name was D. Lucky. And so D. Lucky used to come into my lives all the time. And he'd give me like a thousand dollars in gifts a night on my

lives. Well, it started to get more where when I went live, he was there. And I was like, he's getting like really close to the point where I think this guy is trying to like have a conversation with me. And in fact, I had messaged him on TikTok and he had never responded. and it's like I always, I had this feeling at that moment that something was going to happen and then all of a sudden I'm in a work meeting

and I look at my phone and it's a message from D. Lucky on TikTok and he's like, hey, can I call you? And I was like, yeah, and he's like, all right, add me on telegram. And I'm like, what the hell is telegram? Like, so I download telegram, give him the number or whatever.

He calls me. I look at my phone and it's his big logo on the phone, you know, and I was like, oh my god like i gotta take this call this is like the big leagues you know this was about a week before the news article the warrant all of that and so i i take that phone call and he's telling me all the things that we're going to do like he wants me to work with him we're going to monetize my shit like crazy we're gonna he's like stops selling merch like because i sell merch and stuff too on my lives people were buying merch from me especially if i was tying a giveaway into it and he's like

just stop doing all that. And, you know, even tell me at one point, like, he brings in about a million dollars a month and just merch sales. No, maybe it was 100 grand. I don't know. It's like, 100 grand, I think, in merch sales. And he's like, that's just, that's pennies. He's like, that's pennies. Don't worry about any of that.

We got this. He's like, I got a whole plan. And so he did. He had a whole plan. He's like, I'm going to make you a multi-millionaire. And he had a plan to start a sports pick. like app or website or social media and this guy nobody's technically released i mean you can find it out there but he doesn't show his face like he hides his face his whole logo is just a bitmoji

type thing and um he's like as you can see i don't like like the spotlight i love doing this but i don't like when people know it's me and i want you to be the face of this and i was like let's go and so i had a trip book to vegas he had a sweet set up for me we were supposed to meet up. And about two, three days before that meetup is when that news article came out. And the first thing after like, oh my gosh, am I going to go to jail or prison, my family, like everything you worry about in that initial moment because I've been in trouble with the law before and like super scared, you know. And then the next part is, oh my gosh, like what about this deal with D. Lucky?

This is going to screw it all up. And sure enough, like the day before I was to be flying there. I just touch base with them just to make sure we're still on. I also was like testing the waters to see if he knew. I figured if I could meet him there. We get the plan in place before he finds out. I'm probably good. And then I get a message from him and say, hey, bro, I saw what happened.

You know, good luck with everything. But with what I do, like the law can't be even closely involved with what I've got going on. So good luck. And I was like, hey, bro, like, if I'm like not guilty, if I go to trial and I'm like all this goes away are we still on and he goes no unfortunately I'm not I'm sorry like it's just not going to work and then blocked me and I was like oh my gosh like you know that's such a traumatic thing too like you think this is it I hit it like I hit the all time like this is the big leagues and then all of a sudden just gone so that's up that was a bad day

What are the cops accusing you of doing? Like, what's the crime that was committed? So in Minnesota, in fact, I don't know if there's even another state, maybe a few out there, but in Minnesota, it is illegal to actually place a bet for another person. So illegally placing a, it's basically the actual criminal offense is placing a bet for another. So are they calling it like a legal gambling? Yeah. A legal betting.

They also charged me with running an actual bucket shop, like a gambling, bucket shop. Do you think you did that? No. Because I believe legality-wise, I believe that a bucket shop, you actually have to have a physical building that is in your control. And the casinos that I was in were clearly not in my control, right? So I felt like I had a really good case, you know, and I also thought, this is just silly. Like, are they really, like, making this a big deal? But then, you know all of a sudden that news guy hit me up again one day and he's like hey just wanted to see if you had anything to say about the the search warrant they just filed again in a different county and i was like what and he's like yeah or how about the tracking device and i'm like tracking device i'm like

what are you and i'm thinking like this is like off the movies right like i was like this can't be real i'm just a little guy man that like how i manage a construction company and and like go to the casino on the side for fun, which now I'm dabbling in social media content, but now all of a sudden, like, I got the potential feds looking down on me and trackers on my vehicles. Like, what is going on?

And so I don't know if they ever put a tracker on my vehicle. I don't even know if the warrant was issued. I never actually got to the point where I looked at that. But I went to the courthouse and I tried to look for that file. And they make everything so difficult. I'm sitting on their little kiosk. And they even told me, well, you can't just look up a case.

You have to go through all the files of that day. And I'm like, they're like, what day was it filed? And I'm like, I don't know. I didn't file it. So I'm looking through like thousands of records. And you don't even know until you click it, download it, and then view that document. So I never actually saw. But it got pretty wild for a moment there.

I was like, what is going to go on? Like, am I really going to get locked up for this? Like, this is wild. Why didn't you think to get an attorney at that point? So at that point, I did. I actually met with some attorneys and every one of them scared the shit out of me. But I talked to, especially if you talk to a federal attorney,

they're like, oh, yeah, they're going to, they can nail you with this and this and this and like, you're talking. And I'm like, really? Like, wow. I thought this guy was going to make me feel better about this. But they're like, no, like, you're going to need the best attorney here. So I'm straight up looking at like the best attorney in Minneapolis, like federal. And, you know, they're wanting, right?

20 grand to just even talk and to move forward with this case because they're like, this is going to take some work. And in fact, my brother was involved as well. So then he was also getting criminal charges right along with mine. And so I'm telling him like, bro, you don't got to worry about it. Like you were not involved to the point where like you can get in trouble. Like if I get in trouble, then maybe you got to worry about it. But I was trying to like calm him down, trying to figure out how to just deal with all of this. So I'm just meeting with attorneys, and I decided at a point where I don't know if I want to mess with any of these attorneys. Like, I feel like they just want to, like, get me for a bunch of money because in my eyes, I didn't see this as a big deal. I just didn't. So I ended up meeting an attorney that was a potential client of mine in the construction industry.

And I was telling him about my case, and he thought it was the most exciting thing he had ever heard of. He's like, I want to take your case. Like, I'll do it cheap, cheap. And I'm like, you know, shit. like a cheap tattoo you don't want it probably cheap cheap attorney um and i saw this guy's house and he was like uh he was what you would think of a like a public pretender public defender's house like what they would you know with they got the the suit jacket from from the you know second hand store right like that's what this guy was like but he was passionate about it so i was like i'm gonna take a

chance with this guy. And I took a chance with an attorney that, and he did a pretty dang good job. He did a good job. We ended up, you know, figuring things out. But it was a scary process throughout all of it for sure. Did they ever end up arresting you officially? Never arrested me. Never arrested me every single time. And I even talked to like, so I talked to the prosecutor. And in fact, the first county that we were charged in, we went and met with the prosecutor in person, me and my brother. This guy was so cool.

He straight up said to me, he's like, this is, he goes, this is interesting, to say the least. He's like, this agent really wants you guys in trouble. And I'm like, I know. And he goes,

do you know why? And I was like, well, you ever heard of poking the bear? And he's like, yeah, I'm like, I poked the bear. I'm like, and I, as soon as I found out like this, this warrant, search warrant was out, in my lives, I would basically talk about like how pathetic it was and like, good luck.

Like, what are you going to get me on? And like, I literally would, I don't know. I don't know why I said it, what I did, but I know that she was watching the live streams or clips, you know, people were clipping them and sending them to her because I actually ended up finding out from this one. ex-wife of another social media guy that was doing gambling sent me like all these recordings of he's the one that initially contacted her so and he just kept pushing it pushing it to sending her things like he's violating federal laws and i saw the emails and um yeah so this guy didn't understand why this prosecutor young guy you know he not too much into social media but he was he was interested in it in fact while we were getting

Like, you know, before your court hearing, either your attorney talks to that prosecutor or you do if you're pro se. So in that moment in that case, I was pro se. And met with this guy and he was just super cool. I'm pretty good at reading people. Prosecutors are going to try to be cool with you kind of like a cop. But this guy really was. And he was truly interested. Now, everything that I said, I was very careful on what I said.

But like, hey, if this happened or if this did. But it was really just like, what can we do to get this to go? go away. This is silly. And he felt the same way as us. He really did. So he just like, he's like, hey, this is what I'll do for you. And then I came back and said, I think at the next hearing and I said, hey, we really want to work this out. We don't want to go to court. Like, can you do any better? And then he's like, at that point, I got to talk to my boss. And we ended up coming to an agreement, just us and that guy. In fact, he would talk about like, he was, he was total off the subject about even this actual crime when we were chatting with him.

Like he was just, he wanted, like, asking about bathroom remodels, which we do for a living and like, you know, or what I do, like, it was, this guy was really did not feel this was serious. So we end up putting together a deal, a plea deal. We go in there, we take it. It's like, for my brother, it's like pay a fine one year on supervised probation, something like that.

for me and it's like a misdemeanor for me in fact his was it's a misdemeanor but it like goes off his record after a year for me it was a little bit more since i was the the kind of the the one doing it i guess you could say and and uh it was like the misdemeanor is going to stay on your record but no felonies and like a year of probation as well two days though before this and this is also why it officially took that deal i was like all right let's just take this damn deal before anything changes because two days before this another county comes at us with more charges duplicate charges but some heavier charges on me felony level so i was like okay we got to get this one cleared out so we can focus on this one and that was the one that i was worried that you know felony level i don't

want a felony um i've been charged with probably at least 30 of them in my life and i've never played guilty to one so i definitely don't want to start now off of this gambling thing so that's when I ended up getting that attorney. And what happened to that one? Did that one go away too? So a little bit different of a deal. I kept saying no, no, no. The prosecutor, I actually started to represent myself pro se on that and talked with the prosecutor.

And that prosecutor as well was like, this lady does not want to let you off. Like she told me she is not going to agree to anything but a felony. And I'm like, but isn't she, she's not you. She's not the state. she is the state but she's law enforcement right and but this lady puts so much resources into this if you saw the search warrant like the actual warrant documents tictoc discord snapchat gmail i mean it was everything things that i never knew that they could even get search warrants for i'm like tictock is not going to care about a search warrant right no they do

they will return that search warrants so but so she had all this stuff all my bank statements you know like every at the casino she had every single transaction of every a dollar amount that I put in a slot machine at the minute that I put it in there and she was trying to correlate those with my um like Venmo and cash app and those transactions she was trying to correlate them with each other to put together this you know obviously case against me but once I started to see more things that she She had realized, hey, I think she realized, hey, maybe I didn't get enough the first time. I should have got more.

And then so she put some more time into that other county and then nailed me two days before the other one. And I was like, oh, my gosh. So here we go. So what ends up happening? So I end up getting a plea deal out of that as well for a, it's a misdemeanor as well. Essentially, in Minnesota, they have gross misdemeanors. like a couple years of probation unsupervised

as long as I finished a certain amount of community service hours now get this community service hours they're allowing me to live stream for community service hours if I'm doing essentially like a podcast or a live stream on gambling addiction

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America's number one margarita Cayman Jack is a premium mall beverage with flavors Please drink responsibly Camin Jack beverage company Chicago Illinois So they never had you ended up in you with the felony No felony No Now were they claiming there was any victims or anything like that or

So that's what the The prosecutor would say to me like there's no victims. In fact, the judge even said when we actually went up there for the final thing, he goes, who's the, at this point I decided I probably shouldn't have took the deal. The judge straight up said at sentencing. Who's the victim on this? And he goes, and my attorney's like, well, there is no victim? And then he goes, I'm having a hard time finding a victim in this. And he looks to the prosecutor and is there a victim? And she says no. And he's like, and he literally like gave me a look like, damn bro you might be innocent you know but it was too late i had already made that plea deal right and he

accepted it so so no one was claiming that they got scammed or their money duped or anything like that yeah always followed through with what i did every time even when i did giveaways so every giveaway that i did i paid up i did a giveaway one time where it was like all right guys we're gonna do one more giveaway because everybody was like super pumped in the live and they were just the whole chat was just one more giveaway one more giveaway i was like all right there was a while walking out of the casino, the guy tells me, hey, they even knew, these people that would watch me live knew where slots were in my casino just by watching me. Like, hey, go backwards, turn a left, like it's right over there. They would be that hardcore into it. And so this guy tells me to go play

the slot, Bengal Treasures, the $53 that I gave them. And I'm like $20 into it. And I hit a $15,000 jackpot. And in that moment, I was like, in fact, I have it, I had it on live, right? I was live and I've also clipped it a little bit, but 15 grand. And I was like, holy shit. Like one of my subscribers for five bucks just made 15 grand. Like most, and even in that moment, I'm like, most people right now would end their live. Like, a lot of these streamers would probably just end their live and be like, whoa, to block that guy, right?

like never see him again but i'm like no i'm like truly at this point i'm wanting this to i wanted this to be legit i wasn't looking for any underground try to break the law thing i wanted this all to be legit so i was never going to like not follow through with one of my promises and in fact the guy lucky enough he lived like one or two states away he drove to me like two days later to pick up the cash ended up blowing half of it in one night at the casino that we met at that I got him a free room at as well. Were you sending people like 1099s for their winnings or anything like that? So on the tax aspect, did you file taxes for the money you were making?

I'm still dealing with tax issues. I'm actually so also through my business, I met a guy that used to work for the IRS. He just kind of, him and his wife still does. And he worked for him for 20-some years remote. But when the federal government said, Trump said, you all got to go back to the office. They live way out in the country, and so they really couldn't both do it. So he stepped down. I met this guy through work.

And I was like, hey, off the record of my business, hey, I want to hire you for like to help me. So we're actually in the process right now. He's helping me through this process to just make sure that everything is done correct. So I don't have to deal with anything more in the future because, you know, this is one of those PTSD moments. I don't want to relive no more, at least on the negative side of things. Have you stopped gambling since this happened? So I stopped gambling. I did.

My addiction carried out past that, right? So after that I went to Vegas a few times. But at this point, it's all on my own dime, right? So, and I'm still doing $100 spins. Still trying to create that level of excitement that got me, that serotonin, those serotonin levels and dopamine levels to where they were. And I couldn't hit it. You know, there was never 10,000 people in my live anymore, right?

I'm on a different social media platform because TikTok will ban me in a second. Like, I actually tried it. Like, I went live. You'd show that slot machine for maybe five seconds. Within 30, your live was discontinued and you were, you're banned for like a week. So I went on the app Clapper. And so I was live streaming on there. And I still had a good amount of people.

I think within like a few days of starting Clapper, I had like 8,000. people on there, something like that, that were really all people that watched me on TikTok. One thing that I learned was I should have monetized, I should have spread my people out throughout my platforms. It was such a short period of time that I didn't really have time to think about a lot of things. I wasn't a social media guy, but I should have blew up my Instagram, my YouTube, everything at the same time. I should have, along with my giveaways, I should have said, hey, you have to follow me on

YouTube, Instagram, and, you know, everything. and then when TikTok shut me down I would have still had something to really work off of but I didn't Why did you decide that? What was the moment to decide to stop gambling yourself? Yeah actually So I went to

Where did I go? Went out to Detroit for work And I was at Motor City Casino Or whatever it's called there in Detroit And I was I brought a certain amount of money. I also

in the addict community of gambling, we all know how to figure out ways to get money out of every account, right? Use your ATM. It's a thousand dollar limit, right? There's ways to get it up to 2,000. Sometimes spending on the bank, you can get it higher. There's all these ways to get money

if you have it. Well, here I am in Detroit, lost thousands, right? And I didn't have it. And I was like, damn, I could win this back. Like, I always win it back.

Like, you know, the gambling mindset, right? Like, I can at least get half of it back or some of it back. So I go on my phone and I apply for a loan. I mean, just crazy. Like, 300% interest rate. Okay? And I get approved, whatever. I take, it's like six grand.

It's in my bank account within 30 minutes. I'm like, this can't, this is crazy. but I'm totally in this zone right now, this attic zone, like where nobody can talk to you, like nobody can talk any sense into you either. But of course, nobody's there to talk sense to me either. So I go take the six grand out and I go throw this six grand into high stakes like it's just fun money. I used to call them fun tokens, hundreds. And I think I put that six grand in there in less than an hour, maybe 30 minutes.

And at that point, that's it. it. There's no more. Like, there's nothing I can do until the next day. So I just got to go to my hotel, go work, which is what I'm there for. And then after that, I can go gamble again. And so, anyways, I do. I go back to the room, go to work the next day. And that whole time, I'm just like, all I'm thinking about is that casino. But I'm also thinking about how the hell am I going to get money? So I never go back. I never go back to that. you know but I get back to Minnesota fly back to Minnesota the end of the week and it doesn't take long but the next paycheck to start going on my online gambling accounts.

And I mean I'm playing in the, I'm playing blackjack in the shower. Man, no joke. Like blackjack in the shower. I'd go in the shower. I'd come out of the shower and I'd tell my girl, I was like, I just made 400 bucks in the shower. But the ones I didn't tell her is when I lost four. $400 in a five-minute shower, you know?

It was the addiction was real. Like I was laying in bed all night long until five in the morning gambling, six in the morning gambling. And all these gambling websites have so many crazy, convenient ways to send money to them. Like, there's always a way. And they got it all figured out. And one night, I just had lost a good amount of money. And this was after the Detroit thing when I had said,

okay, I'm done. and I literally just said I'm done in mentally and I went on my phone and I searched Gamblers Anonymous and I'm like, I'm going to a meeting tomorrow. Like, this is crazy, but I'm an addict. And I was so sick and I was so depressed. Like there's not, I've been depressed in a lot of times of my life, but this gambling depression is something else.

Like people don't realize. But if you gamble consistently, if you are compulsory, if you are a compulsive gambler in any way, you will go through depression spells. Like it's going to happen. And, you know, why put yourself in that position? And here we're doing it voluntarily,

knowing it's going to come. But the highs outweigh the negative. Yet the negative was 98% of the time. So, but yeah, I went to a meeting the next day, Gambler's Anonymous, and I was hearing all these people's stories. And of course, I show up the one night

that's like everybody's there, like they're doing ceremonies like these people that are 20 years you know gamble free here i am the new guy right here i you know and i'm thinking do these people know me from tic talk like am i going to be embarrassed they're going to be like oh my god it's closer in gamblers anonymous right and um what i saw was other people that would say the same things that i did like mentally like talking about the stories where they would run home really quick to figure out a way to get more money or calling the bank or calling their credit cards or, you know, even do some people talking about different things like disputing credit card transactions, right?

Like addiction has no limits. It's just that I knew I got to a point where I passed, where I ever wanted myself to go, and I knew the next thing would probably be something illegal. You know, some people look at this and I think even like the investigator, she thought this was all planned out deal, right? No, this turned me into an extreme gambling addict. And then that's when I knew, okay, I can't sacrifice anything on a legal side of things. And I'm getting desperate on how to figure out ways to gamble more.

I'm done. And seeing other people with that same experience, I'm thinking I'm the only guy, because I'm the only guy that did this on TikTok, you know, but all these people were going through the same thing I was mentally. and, you know, I don't, all on different levels, seeing people there that were still going through it, like looking to me and going, how did you not go tonight?

Because I, like, want to go. And so just experienced Gamblers Anonymous, like that really, seeing other people going, holy shit, like, that's me. I don't want to live that life no more. And I didn't want it to ever affect my family. And none of my family really saw the effects of it because I've always been pretty successful, business-wise, financially for myself, that I could hide it.

And it's an easy addiction to hide, especially if you glamorize it like I did. What's your life like today? My life today is actually involves a lot of fast cars. I have kind of a new addiction. So I moved to Fargo, North Dakota, which is where my son was living. He's 20 now. And so I moved there. He wanted to start working for my company.

So before I moved there, I let him, I helped him get a job. He started doing pretty well right away. So I was like, all right, let's, you know, I want to live in my son, right? I've never had my son full time since he was five years old because him and his mother and I divorced when he was five. and so this was an opportunity for us to be able to live together. He followed my whole social media thing, right? He would be in my lives and he was just so excited about it. He'd be telling his friends, like, you see my dad, like, he's TikTok famous.

Like, yeah, he had a blast. It was fun. Like, all of his friends, I'd see his friends in my live streams and it was pretty, it was just pretty exciting. But now we have new excitement in my life. So my son's into cars, fast cars. We're into sales. you know, the sales career that I've been in.

My son's in. Now my nephew's in it. And my son wanted to buy a Mustang. His goal was to get a Mustang GT after one year being in the business. And he bought it in his second month. So he's been pretty successful. And so then, of course, you know, he finds this car in Chicago that he sends it to me. And I was like, he's like, I need it.

And I was like, oh, shit. I'm an addict, son. Like, of course, I'm going to, you know, I like spending money, too. So I'm an addict when it comes to spending money. So now I just spend my money on other things. But, you know, now it's just more like, really like investments, you know. I know that like Gambler's Anonymous talks a lot about they're not on board with the stocks and crypto and things like that. But the end of the day, I don't play around with them.

I just been putting my money, you know, 401K, Roth IRA, things like that, trying to make sure that, you know, You know, and I have my son living with me now. So I have to be a good example for him. So that's what I'm doing. So anyways, back to the Chicago. He finds this car in Chicago and I was like, yeah, you do need it. And I knew that he was making the money where he could do it. So he finds this car and then he sends me some cars and he's like, you need one too.

And I was like, damn, I do. So two days before we go to Chicago, I'm like, yeah, I need to buy this car that I found. So we fly to Chicago, both pick up two black cars. He buys a Mustang 5-0. I buy a Dodge Challenger scat pack, both blacked out. Come to find out in Chicago in Illinois, the plates don't stay in the cars. We're buying them private party. It's already sketchy.

The whole situation feels sketchy to us. And we drive them back to North Dakota from Chicago, no plates. So here we are two blacked out sports cars, loud as shit, rolling through the whole state of Wisconsin. and we end up stopping in a town in Wisconsin, O'Clair, to stay overnight. As soon as we exit it off, boom, cops on us. So here we are, right? I'm driving his car because it's a manual.

Mine's an automatic, so he has to drive mine because he doesn't know a manual yet. Cops comes up to me, like, full bore, like, ready to just come at me, and I was like, whoa. And he realizes it's an older guy in the car, and he's like, you guys with those car guys that are in town? I guess it was a bunch of people causing a ruckus, and we're like, no.

Anyways, they check our paperwork. We're good. And we end up getting back to Fargo, North Dakota with our cars. And now we started a car club recently. We ended up renting a really super cool, like condo garage. If you ever seen those like Man Cave garages. So we're hosting some car meets and things there. But now that I have my son and I have my nephew that they're practically the same age,

I have to truly lead by a big example. I have a five-year-old as well. and I also actually have two children that I haven't seen in quite some time due to parental alienation that I went through as well. So yeah, I've got people looking up to me. I can't risk it. Like that was fun and exciting. It didn't need to have the legal bullshit though with it. That's not what I was planning for.

So yeah, so now we just have fun the legal way. We try to, you know, sometimes we'll have a little too much fun with the car. but we make social media content with it. So my son has an Instagram. I got Instagram, YouTube, everything still. You know, I can't get away from the social media side of things. I love it. It was so fun while I did it.

And I just really enjoyed being able to create content, like going on there and seeing like, oh yeah, shit, I got 20,000 views on this video overnight. Like that stuff is truly exciting to me. I still have people out there that, of course, know who I am, know what I did. even when I went live or have recently like talking about gambling addiction people will be like holy shit it's closer like I haven't seen you bro since you were in the casino

like what happened to you and I'm like how does the algorithm bring these people back to me but TikTok's crazy and it does it so yeah so I might you know that's that's a direction that I've thought about going why not there's been some people that have done it when it comes to like helping others with the addiction of gambling turn this whole thing around into something good it was good we were a great community i gave back i met this little kid in los vegas one time

his grandma was in my live stream and i used to always show my my shoes i've always been a shoe guy well for the most part and i was showing my shoes always on my live people would be like what kind of fit you wearing today fit check closer and this lady said i wish my son my grandson i wish i could get him a pair of shoes like that one day and it caught me right i saw that and this was when I had like 10,000 in my live and I caught that and I told my moderator to pin it really quick or save it. And then I messaged that person after. I told them to message me and I sent her grandson an outfit, a pair of shoes, a pair of Jordans he had never had. And this kid is, you know, had some issues. His parent, not him. He's had issues with his parents and traumatic events in

his life. And I was like, man, I need to, when she posted a video of that, and I saw these kids like eyes and just couldn't believe. He was so excited about the damn sticker in that Jordan box more than even the shoes. He hadn't even seen the shoes yet. So I saw that. And those are things that we did when we were live. I gave back to, you know, we did a fundraising thing one night while I was live to get back to a girl that had cancer in Minneapolis. We really did try to make it a fun and exciting thing giving back to people.

I ended up going to Vegas and meeting this little guy. Of course, spoiled the hell out of them. I've sent them Christmas gifts. I've raised money maybe this last Christmas or the Christmas before. Sent them like a PlayStation or Xbox. And, you know, so I met cool people throughout this. I've been able to, I guess you could change some other people's lives in very positive ways. I used to have people messaging me all the time.

Like, hey, if it wasn't for your giveaway, like, I wouldn't have been able to give my grandkids' presents. But they changed my life too. And that's why I continued to just get so soaked into it or like involved because there was so many exciting parts to it. You're literally having fun changing people's lives. Like people would straight up tell me like when you go in live like we had people come in that said that they were at the end of their life. You know? And maybe it had to do with addiction of gambling. I don't know at this point because at that point I wasn't that aware of the gambling addiction side of things.

But we literally had people coming to my live threatening to take their. life that night or saying that they were close to it and that they just needed someone to talk to. And we would have people in our live that were, we were a very tight-knit community and they would message him privately or I would say, hey, add me. And these guys would be like, bro, you changed my life. Like just watching your live streams and the excitement in the community of people that it was, you know, I'm sure there's a lot of Ian Bick community members that are close to each other, right? moderators and different things that you don't mess with Ian

like I'll fuck you up if you mess with Ian right and that's how it was with the closer community like people were like that people would back me up like there'd be people posting negative videos about me or you know there was this big YouTube video about TikTok gambling and the scams behind it

and of course I feel like I was always mentioned but the one thing that I always would get pissed off anyone if they ever said was scam because everything I did was legit. I always made sure that I paid people when they won. I took their money when they didn't.

You know, the casinos took it, you know, but of course I had to make sense out of this. So we all had a good time, man. I missed the days. People asked me all the time. Do you miss it? Hell yeah, I miss it. It was a lot of fun,

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For the moments that matter, get the score that matters, your FICO score. Visit myfico.com and get started for free today. Life, you know, and I got really lucky that I didn't get locked up. How do you feel about the negative articles about you? And have they hindered your life at all? Because they really kind of blew it out of proportion. When you search your name and just everything that happened, there's a lot. You would think that, you know, you ended up in prison.

For real. I mean, it was like every, I couldn't believe it. I don't know if the Star Tribune has that much impact on other news agencies around the world. But I think it's because it went so viral so fast. When the guy was Paul Walsh, when he made his story in the Star Tribune, it literally went crazy. And yeah, you could just Google it. And there was so many news articles. Every gambling news agency there was out there was talking about it.

Like, and the fact that it was TikTok. And the headline was, you know, two brothers gambling on TikTok or whatever. If you Google that, it would just show up crazy. And it just blew up. So that Paul Walsh, I think he was really looking for more stories because he was like, holy crap, that first one went crazy. Everybody copied his stories. All these other stories were his story just,

I don't even know some of them didn't even have the words changed. And I don't know how that works for them, but he clearly liked it and decided to capitalize on it by making more, but we just would never talk about it because we were too scared. But it is crazy, like how they blew it up so much.

And, you know, in news stories, they never tell the whole story. I mean, these guys, the news stories, I look back still today and I'm like, that, that's not even true. Like what you guys said in that, that's not even true. And that's why I gave that guy such an attitude to. I'm like, bro, if you weren't, if you guys didn't fucking deceive people so much.

Like, all you do is deceive people. Like, just say the story for what it is, bro. You don't, I know you need these hooks and these things. But at the end of the day, don't make it what it's not. And that's why I think that we never decided to ever communicate with them. because we knew that if we did, they were only going to clip the parts that are going to make me look bad

and it's going to get more viewers, right? It's almost like when I was gambling and I was losing, my view count would go up. Like, people just love that negative shit. That's what keeps the news in business. That's what keeps them in business, man. All the drama, the negativity, the comments, you know, what is that other one?

Reddit, you know, people were starting to post me on Reddit. TikTok, actually, there was people live streaming my live streams. People would message me and they're like, hey bro, you know the live stream you were doing with your mom the other night? Because my mom was in a live stream with me one time.

And I'm like, yeah, and they're like, someone's live streaming it right now and getting gifts off your video. And I go into it. And these people are sending gifts like crazy because they hear me saying like, hey, if we hit this many subscribers or whatever,

and people are subscribing to these fake accounts. And I'm in the comments like, this is not me. Blocked, So I go into like a backup account. Hey guys, don't do this. I'm seeing my actual viewers. People that actually like I remember seeing in my lives, I see some of them getting scammed.

And I'm trying to stop them and I can't. And I'm like, I just feel helpless right now. I can't stop these guys. They're just sending some scammer who knows where it is that's restreaming my stream. So yeah, it was wild. Do you think that those articles cause people to judge you now and your current? profession or? No, I don't think so. No, I've got other articles out there that were worse. I'm just, you know what, I'm actually like the article standpoint of it because it is covering up other

articles that I'd rather not be out there. And it does. It's something weird. But yeah, once it kind of just like pushes that stuff away further and further away. So I don't mind the gambling part of it. Like there's nobody. At the end of the day, that's why even like the plea deals, I'm like, if I ever like really get to a point where like I'm begging for a job, which I don't think that's ever going to happen, like I'm pretty sure I can explain the whole like, bro, check this out.

I was a TikTok influencer. I gambled. I didn't, you know, it's a pretty easy one. It's not like I was out robbing people, you know. So. What's the lesson you want people to take away from your story? I would say that one of the things. that this world today, right now,

I think that we are truly in a gambling epidemic. And I think that it's taking over a lot of young people's lives. It's taking over people sitting at home, living on Social Security's lives. It's truly an epidemic. I don't like online slots. I don't like, you know, at this point in my life, I don't like any of it, right?

We could live without it. It's too, I think it's just too dangerous. at least keep these casinos in Vegas and, you know, a few here and there within the state. The online stuff, it gets to be too out of control. And the marketing and advertising, right? That was the other thing. They tried to charge me with instructing others to violate Minnesota gambling laws. That was the felony they tried to hit me with.

Well, when I turn on the TV or I'm in any social media and I'm in Minnesota, it's all gambling advertisements. So what's the difference between me being in a live stream mentioning that someone should gamble? How is that any different than these online advertisements or advertisements on literal cable? You know, the Super Bowl. We were watching the Super Bowl and there was gambling ads. And I even made the comment like, this is bullshit. Like I'm being charged with this crime. They're telling people to gamble in Minnesota, which it's illegal.

And I'm being charged with that crime. And so that's one of my arguments with the prosecutor, too, was that. But I think that people just need to be really aware these days. Like, just be smart with your money. These casinos, they win every time. You know, I was just putting a lot of money through the slot machines. And when you guys saw that $10,000 jackpot, you don't realize in the last three days it took 20 to get there. You know, all of these social media influencers that are on YouTube.

TikTok that are promoting gambling that are on Instagram gambling like that all truly is a dangerous thing for the people out there because the algorithm's catching them and so that would be like if TikTok and so I get the part two where TikTok banned this stuff you know they banned it when my news article went live when that whole news thing came out they banned me and everybody else immediately after that. But I do agree with them really keeping the gambling stuff limited because it's no different than if we were watching videos all day and it was just people getting hammered, right? And it was alcoholics.

And every time they go on their TikTok, it's people just getting hammered and how to make drinks and although some of that stuff is on there. This was happening in the gambling world. It's an addiction that's overlooked easily, right? If you're slashed drunk, you're showing up to work hungover, you're wasted, you're showing signs of you have a drug addiction, like you don't eat, you're a meth addict, like those are pretty easy addictions to go, holy shit, bro, you need help. Gambling?

No. Everybody's like, fuck yeah, let's go. Like, let's go. When you go in the casino? I mean, people still today message me randomly. Like, when are you going to the casino? I'm done, bro. I've been done for almost 300.

days now. So I got to make that one year and then I got to make the two years. But I would say for people out there that are addicts and they have an addiction to gambling or anything, but gambling specifically because that's my experience, it truly is. And this sounds so silly because you've heard it a million times. Take it one day at a time. You know, I have a life coach too that I meet with occasionally. I used to a lot. And, you know, he's like, can you make it today? Like, can you make it till tomorrow. Can you go the rest of the night without gambling? And I'm like, yeah, no problem. Because I was so worried about gambling. And he goes, that's all you got to do, man. Tomorrow, just tell yourself the same thing. But don't fucking worry about tomorrow. Don't worry about

next week and don't worry about next year. Just worry about today. And that was the big one, because I literally would do that and I still do it today. Like, no, just today I can't. It's just a mindset. Like, hey, a lot of addicts have a really hard. time looking into the future going and I can't I can't give this up forever I was how stupid is this man I was crying to my life coach like I'm on the phone with him I'm like I got a trip of flight and everything booked for my mom to go to Vegas and he's like what do you want me to tell you like you like you want me to go like don't go and I'm like but I can't cancel it he goes well why'd you call me like I can't change your mind so what are you looking to get out of me and I was like I don't

I just thought, man, I don't know, man. I thought you had some magic thing where I could go there and not gamble somehow. Or I thought maybe you would make me feel better about continuing my addiction. You know, like, I don't know what I was looking for. But I went, you know, and it was still took a while after that to make that decision to stop. But it really went back to that. And then being at Gamblers Anonymous when they said that one day at a time too, I was like, yeah, just don't gamble today. just don't go on the online account.

Like self-exclusion, you can exclude yourself from casinos. At least it makes you think about it twice. But I just want bigger and better things, man. I already have a good life. Like, you know, I've been through a lot of shit, but financially in my career and things, I have a good life.

I have my son. I have a girl that's amazing. I have three more boys. I mean, I just have a lot of good things going for me. I don't need gambling in my life because I truly know I can't control it. Like, I'm a compulsive gambler. And so I just tell everybody out there just, it's all bullshit. It's all smoke and mirrors when you watch social media and you see these people gambling up there.

I promise you, a lot of your favorite gambling influencers are not even playing real money at these casinos. You know, you don't think these casinos love this whole thing. The casinos are in on at all. I was right to that point in that level where I probably could have continued content without actually spending real money but I didn't get there. So, you know, I almost lost everything.

Almost everything. And now, 300 days in, things are better. So I don't even, I think about it all the time. I see casinos. I'll bring it up to my girl. I'm like, hey, if we, this time I was like, you know, New York has a hard rock hotel that we could probably get free rooms.

And in her eyes, she's thinking Miami, casino, and she's like, hell no, no. And I'm like, I'm just kidding. They don't have a casino at the Hard Rock there anyways. But like I make light of it. We have fun with it. We talk about the past. But one thing that I've really tried to do in my immediate family

in my circle is to let them all know, like, don't do it. And even when I was doing it, I would tell them, like, this guy's, no. Like I had family wanting to send me money. And I'm like, no. Because you won't win. Like you're not going to win ever. You're, it's not worth it.

You're just not. Like, just take that money that you would have put into the casino and put it into an account. Or put it into a shoe addiction or a vacation addiction. But something other than these casinos, because those machines are, they're like the devil. They just suck you in. And they know. and when you use your players card, it's all, you know, imagine with AI and everything they have now, imagine how these casinos are even going to get more dangerous, you know?

Absolutely. Well, like, thanks so much for coming on the show today, man. Yeah, bro, I appreciate you. Yeah, I appreciate you coming out here and sharing your story with us today. That's great. I appreciate you, man, you got a great studio. I love it. I really appreciate you.

I've been watching you for a long time, and I love all the people you watch. One thing I was like, maybe I'm not hard enough for these guys. I'm the locked in with Ian, but it is a fun story. It's exciting. And you know what? At the end of the day, because of all the bullshit and all the money I spent and lost, if someone watches this and they're like, I'm not fucking gambling tonight. Like, this was all worth it.

But just even come and meeting you, man, being a part of this is great. Appreciate you. Yeah, everyone has a story to tell man. And every story has a power to impact at least one person. Absolutely. It does.