Influencers have been around longer than most people realize. If one were to ask the person on the street when this novel celebrity type was born, they would likely say in the early 2010s, when social media took the world by storm. Nonetheless, the truth is that individuals have operated in the arena we now call influencer marketing since the end of the 1990s. At this time, blogger platforms appeared, allowing users to share their expertise and monetize such articles via sponsored posts and affiliate marketing.
Yes, gambling also has its fair share of these individuals, with many raking in sizeable amounts of cash through referral fees and sponsorship deals with major gaming brands. Below, we detail the five gamblers who have been the most successful in turning their passion for betting on games of chance into making millions by presenting their activities to others or trying to educate them on how to enjoy casino wagering from home best.
Trainwreckstv
Born Tyler Faraz Niknam, Trainwreckstv is an American streamer who made headlines in 2020 for having the second-most-watched Twitch broadcast for that year’s US presidential election. He holds a degree in analytic philosophy and co-founded Kick, Stake’s streaming service.
Originally, Niknam streamed primarily gaming-related content, where he would play first-person shooters and go on passionate rants on hot-button topics, some of which have led to his being temporarily banned from the world’s number one streaming hub. In 2019, he started to focus more on airing his crypto gambling activity, with many of these feeds showing him going on excessive sessions.
In one stream, Niknam admitted to losing over $90 million gambling online. In June 2021, he moved to Canada to continue streaming his crypto gaming entertainment since top coin-based platforms no longer could legally accept US gamblers. In October 2022, Trianwreckstv claimed he had made more than $360 million from sponsorships in the past sixteen months, making him the richest online casino influencer if this claim is accurate.
Niknam has “only” 230,000 subscribers on YouTube and 123,000 on Instagram. However, most of his followers are Twitch users, and he has 2.1 million hard-core fans. This platform has been the chief source of his affiliate-related income.
D Lucky
Who is D Lucky? He is a California native often seen in Vegas’ slot high-roller rooms. Not much info is available on him, as he likes to stay behind the camera. Yet, those who have seen him describe him as someone in his mid-thirties who likes to boast and show off.
D Lucky runs a popular YouTube show where he picks random casino floor gamblers, giving them a balance of $500, making them play $50 per spin in a selected slot while narrating their gambling fun. His net worth gets guessed at somewhere close to $4 million, with much of this sum coming from his D Lucky Las Vegas Experience, which in 2024 cost $1,795 per customer.
Brian Christoper
Nicknamed the King of Slots, Brian Christopher is a reel-spinning fanatic who films himself playing physical one-armed bandits in some of America’s most renowned gaming establishments. He prefers progressive machines and got into streaming as a hobby in 2016. His main YouTube channel (he has three) had 677,000 subscribers at writing, and his Facebook follower count stood at 743,000 last time we checked.
SocialBlade estimates that Brian makes anywhere from $1,800 to $28,800 monthly on YouTube, with potential yearly earnings of up to $345,000. He also organizes cruises, rakes in referral fees, sells merchandise on his official site, runs a tips platform, and looks to monetize his content in every way possible. Doing all this has led to Brian Christopher Slot’s net worth rising to a projected figure of somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 million.
Francine Maric
Better known as Lady Luck, Francine Maric is an Atlanta content creator who has been in the game since the MySpace Days. She now has over half a million YouTube subscribers, and that is her platform of choice, where she focuses most of her energy. However, she also has a 300,000-follower Insta page.
Francine is open about how she makes her money, noting that most of her income comes from working with operators, game providers, and restaurants. She features these on her social media profiles for a fee. In a recent interview for Casino Marketing University, Francine noted that she got hired by Light and Wonder to debut their Huff’ Even More Puff game at a collaborated event hosted by the Hard Rock in Florida. Going by the available data, Maric has a net worth of around $2.9 million, just a shade under Brian Christopher’s wealth.
Ishmael Swartz
You probably recognize Swartz under his online moniker of Roshtein, the man under the black fedora. This thirty-six-year-old Swede living in Malta is responsible for some of the most impressive streamed online casino wins, including a $18,750,000 reward in the slot Wanted – Dead or A Wild.
Roshtein’s career began in 2016 when he played on Twitch, which he retired from in 2022. He then moved to Kick due to the changes in policy at the former site. Swartz has decent follower numbers on all profiles and even runs a Discord server. His net worth is between $30 and $40 million, and his top business revenue flow is partnership agreements.
Given the diverse regulations governing casinos globally, adhering to local laws is imperative when indulging in the thrill of gambling.
