If you follow the first link of today’s Friday Headlines (Mike Myers!), after some doomscrolling through The Bulwark article, you will find a recap of a Slate piece about this guy: Vegas Matt. A popular social media influencer who posts his gambling exploits (win or lose; most only post their wins) with family and friends in Vegas. But he’s willing to leave Vegas to visit other places, who will allow him to film content in exchange for meet-and-greets that bring in fans. Like my casino, Potawatomi in Milwaukee. And yes, I dealt to Vegas Matt.
Wednesday evening I was stationed in the 1833 Club for exclusive players, who have earned enough points on their cards. You do not want to think about how much gambling they have to do to qualify. Every year. It’s nice and quiet, for a casino. Not that I even notice how loud it usually is until someone brings it up. Comfy seats, bar and restaurant, definitely-not-penny slot machines, and four $50+ blackjack tables. I had just learned of the existence of Vegas Matt the day before from our company newsletter. While our two open BJ tables were slow, I was told it was a madhouse outside the doors thanks to the celebrity visit.Then someone pointed out Matt’s wife at the cashier window, a petite woman who was gracefully aging like fine wine. No trading in his wife for a younger model after the sudden rush of fame, good to see. Then Matt, his grown son, and two friends were granted entry and watched over by a security escort. They casually approached my table.
Now, Matt’s fame apparently started several years ago, when he filmed his reaction to hitting a big royal flush on video poker. His son posted it to social media, where the number of viewers and then subscribers started steadily climbing. Matt and crew pump a lot of money into slots and make big bets on table games. Their financial success comes from winning more than losing hahaha jk the house still has the edge. The money comes from running ads and selling merch to over a million subscribers. But when they came to play at my $50 table, no big bets, no filming. A couple hundred per hand max, clearly gambling just to unwind. The gentlemen kept exclaiming “idiot” when I didn’t give them a good card or drew to a winning hand, which I’ve done quite often in my long career. Hence nicknames like “Killer”, “The Machine”, “Assassin”, and “The Terminator”. Matt’s friend apologetically explained that “idiot” is just something they say, not something they call the dealer. And even though I didn’t know that they sell shirts saying “idiot” like the one up top, I had already gathered as much. But thank you for considering my feelings sir, I do appreciate it. Play was stopped once when a fan asked to shake Matt’s hand and get a selfie, and he graciously agreed and they chatted a bit. Told you dude was famous.
This particular day, I had a sweet schedule of forty minutes on the floor, then twenty minutes on break. Did an hour once when I helped out for twenty with the madhouse outside. So I had about a 30% chance of missing, um … “the incident”, and I hit that bet. Matt and crew asked for booze, and I saw they got it. What I missed is that they were charged for it. And from what I heard, Matt threw a hissy fit. He whined that he and the crew shouldn’t have to pay for them, since his appearance brought in so many people. And he’s right. As entitled as it sounds, it is standard procedure. To quote my pit boss discussing it behind me, “(Local NBA player) Bobby Portis doesn’t have to pay for drinks.” (If he theoretically gambled here, I can neither confirm nor deny that he does.) Vegas Matt and well-paid athletes can easily afford their own drinks, but we often comp them because they bring in business. My problem with Matt is not him pointing out that the rich and famous get perks. It’s how he treated my supervisor.
I don’t fully understand who is responsible for taking care of the guests’ needs or how they do it. But it appears that a casino host should have been there to make sure the Vegas Matt crew were taken care of. Or someone from Food & Beverage. Ironically, those departments were likely stretched thin by all the customers Vegas Matt brought in. No one from those departments were there, and Matt wasn’t going to complain to security, so he focused on my floor supervisor, telling her she should have done something. She truthfully told him it wasn’t her responsibility, and Matt said something like maybe she wasn’t ambitious enough to reach that level of responsibility. All kinds of ridiculous, she is one of the trainees for the pit boss position (her boss) who just happened to be flooring that day. And she worked super hard at the post office when we were shut down during Covid. All while continuing her education so that she may one day open her own daycare. I’m the one who lacks ambition, not her.
So, it seems things calmed down eventually. Vegas Matt went back to playing and schmoozing. My supervisor let it roll off her back, as we all learn to do. Something interesting I think I heard, that may or may not be true. The next day, Vegas Matt might have been doing a livestream, and he was ready to quit gambling when done. But he had west coast fans who wanted him to keep going, so they could see some live gambling. I had all kinds of questions to mull over. What if Matt stopped feeling the drive to gamble as much? Would he stop making videos, or try to go through the motions to keep the train rolling? Or, what if he still wanted to keep going, but his fans lost interest? Success like his breeds competition and copycats. I shudder to think what happens if he loses his revenue streams but not his love of gambling. Did he throw that temper tantrum because the pressures of fame are getting to him, or is that who he really is under any circumstance? Does his being a loving family man excuse the occasional tantrum? Will he ever get back into the movie financing he used to dabble in, including the cult classic “Night of the Demons”? (Fun fact from the article.) Anyway, fun couple of days.
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