If you’ve read any of my previous blog posts, then you know I’ve been into playing slots for the last few decades. But the story of my slot channel goes back to just 2015… As usual, I was playing slots on a regular basis – I just wasn’t recording any of it. At the time, I was dating someone who was just bored to death watching me play. The only thing that was mildly interesting to her were the bonus rounds. That’s the only time she’d perk up, and she decided to start recording them, really just for her own amusement. (If you’ve ever seen my other, original Raja Slots channel, this is why the original videos there only feature short clips of the bonus rounds.)
Now, this was five years ago, when filming in casinos was frowned upon just about everywhere, so my girlfriend had to be sneaky about it, for the most part. But for me, it was just fun, as usual – I played slots just like I always did, and she filmed, and I barely noticed. It was only when we did the first live stream from the channel (which is now a cornerstone of my current channel) that I got a little bit excited. The ability to chat live with viewers was particularly interesting to me, but I still didn’t pay it much mind. Truth be told, at that time, the channel was only generating about $50 to $100 per month for my then-girlfriend, but it occupied her time, and seemed to make her happy. So, being the wonderful boyfriend that I am, I just recorded more bonus rounds to give her when she couldn’t be around.
About two years later, YouTube sent her a notice to tell her that they weren’t going to allow the monetization of slot videos any longer, so she got upset and gave up on it. But by then, I had caught the bug anyway, and I enjoyed making these videos, even if there wasn’t any money to be made on them. So, after we separated, that’s when I started my current channel, The Big Jackpot, just for fun. If you watch my early videos, you’ll see it was just that – no production value, no fancy thumbnails; just a guy playing slots to have a good time. I didn’t really have many plans for the channel, even after YouTube reversed their decision, and slot videos could be monetized again.
But then, one day, while we were recording at The Cosmo, some guy noticed and approached me. Frankly, he started talking to me like I was a little kid, but he decided that he wanted to film some of my bonus rounds. I was taken aback a little by how rude he was, so I turned to Tee and BoD and decided then and there that we should take my channel more seriously, and work on it more – sometimes, getting mistreated by someone is the best motivator to change things up. It was this guy, in particular, that gave us the drive to move forward and make The Big Jackpot what it is today. Inadvertently, I guess I owe him a debt of gratitude, because if not for him, I probably wouldn’t have cared much, and my channel would still be short little clips without much production value.
But this was a turning point for me. After that, we started to optimize the videos, and I had my in-house designers (from my other businesses) start making nicer thumbnails, and eventually, I hired a full-time editor, as well. It was also around this time that we started asking casinos for permission to record, and lucky for me, Colorado’s Lodge Casino, not too far from me at all, gave me the green light to do so. Fast-forward to today, and we run the channel like a well-oiled machine: consistent thumbnails, great editing, fun commentary, and LOTS of slot action! But that’s the great thing about doing this as a hobby… Whether the cameras are on me or not, I love playing slots, just like I did five years ago, 15 years ago, and 25 years ago. So, even if monetization goes away again, or even if YouTube vanishes tomorrow, you’ll still be able to catch me at the casino, playing slots, and having fun.