The expansion of legal gambling in the United States has started the growth of gambling influencers who play and promote sports betting, slots, and other casino games online.
Josh Duffy, known for his gaming channel Slotaholic, plays slot machines on YouTube for his 27,000 subscribers. Kelly Koffler, who has nearly 60,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel “Casino Kelly and Beyond Blackjack,” plays his casino games such as slots and blackjack. And Jon Della Terza, also known as “NJ Slots Guy,” creates content at his High Limit slots.
At the SBC North America Summit in New Jersey on Wednesday, three gambling influencers spoke about how they monetize their content and the challenges of promoting online gambling.
The creators said they primarily made money from affiliate marketing deals with gambling brands and advertising on their YouTube channels.
Unlike some other niche content, restrictions on gambling content can limit how and what influencers earn. Platforms such as YouTube and Twitch restrict gambling on certain sites, while others such as Instagram and TikTok restrict how gambling content is distributed.
In affiliate deals, where influencers get paid for referring customers to gambling operators, creators said they want to pay a flat fee in exchange for a revenue-sharing agreement. They said they don't want to profit directly from someone else's loss.
“It’s a flat fee for me,” Koffler said. “Personally, I didn't want to take revenue share or pay per click because I thought that was disgusting. I felt like it would be cannibalizing my audience.”
Affiliate deals typically bring in more revenue than YouTube, even for a flat fee, influencers say. On YouTube, creators must have at least 1,000 subscribers and a certain amount of watch time in order to earn a portion of the ad revenue from their videos.
“Depending on the content and the commercial ads being placed, you can typically earn between $8 and $12 per 1,000 views,” Duffy says.
While YouTube can be a steady source of revenue, the revenue these influencers generate from the platform doesn't necessarily cover their content creation costs. After all, they are gambles.
For example, Duffy said he has two affiliate deals to supplement his YouTube income. He creates instant win his games for lottery and gambling operators and creates his reviews of his games for his SidePlay of Light & Wonder videos. He also does weekly live streams of casinos playing his games on sites like McLuck.com and Wow Vegas, for which he pays a flat monthly fee.
Pros and cons of affiliate trading for gambling influencers
Duffy said she likes doing affiliate deals because it allows her to have a positive impact on the industry.
“This shows that we are well-respected in this area and that they trust us to have a positive impact and promote their products,” Duffy said. “I feel like I’m contributing to a respected industry, and the audience knows it’s coming from a good place.”
But while affiliate work is rewarding, influencers said some contracts can promote ethically ambiguous activities.
For example, companies often include time limits in contracts that dictate how much time influencers must spend gambling, which can encourage harmful gambling behavior.
“It certainly takes away the responsible gaming aspect, because let's say you lose your entire initial bankroll within 30 minutes, you have to keep buying and repurchasing. And as gamblers, we all , we know we can't do that, “the outcome is unpredictable,'' Koffler said. “So it's not the best idea to put time limits on who you work with.”
Koffler said gambling companies should instead trust their influencer partners more to create content that benefits them, their brands and their audiences.
