She tells the Daily Dot that she needs “down time away from gambling and the glitz of the Vegas fantasy.” She only records for YouTube when she’s on vacation, “since I only gamble at a casino where I’m comped.

Like many avid slot players, Diana doesn’t live in Las Vegas and prefers not to disclose her hometown. They also each preferred to remain anonymous save for first names and channel monikers. They note that they don’t want to end up looking like grumpy, miserable burnouts.

All of them are self-aware about perceptions of gamblers as addicted thrill junkies. To understand the appeal of watching and making these clips, I spoke with three of the most popular and prolific slot machine YouTubers, Dianaevoni, SDGuy1234 Slot Machine Videos, and Vegas Low Roller. It’s a time-tested entertainment medium in casinos, but there are 1,690,000-plus videos that pop up when searching “slot play” on YouTube. These loud and interactive contraptions sometimes place speakers right next to players’ ears in a rumble seat for a completely encompassing experience. Once a player triggers a flashy bonus game, the machine’s touch screen allows them to pick different elements to determine their winnings. Others slots like Kitty Glitter and Plenty of Penguins seem derivative of a fever dream with their avalanche of neon. They run anywhere from one minute to 30 in length, and I’m bleary-eyed in the morning.Ĭontemporary slot machines use themes from movies ( Willy Wonka, The Hangover), TV shows ( Orange Is the New Black, Wheel of Fortune) and musicians (Elvis, Britney Spears) to entice players. A man yells, “If it’s Charlotte I’m going to fucking take a shit in this seat!” I laugh and can’t help but almost hope it stops on Charlotte-the lowest-paying bonus at a measly $12.27-just to hear his reaction.Īfter this video, I fend off sleep to choose another of the thousands of slot machine play videos loaded on YouTube. The reels spin at a bet of $6 a pull, and after three minutes of watching high heels, glasses of champagne, and Carrie Bradshaw spinning across 20 reels, a bonus activates. I click on a video titled “Live Play on Sex and the City Platinum Slot Machine with Bonuses and Huge Win!!!” and watch a slightly shaky camera capture the bright lights and manic noise of a Sex and the City-themed slot machine. It’s 2:30am, and I’ve fallen into a YouTube deep dive that dumps me right in the middle of a Las Vegas casino floor.

Slot machine video