Video summary
Richie's story illustrates the pervasive danger of unregulated offshore gambling markets, particularly crypto casinos that operate outside the legal frameworks of states like New Jersey and New York. Although Richie initially maintained a six-year period of sobriety after giving up on traditional bookmakers, he eventually relapsed by turning to these illegal platforms. The primary allure for compulsive gamblers is not just the ability to gamble without uploading identification documents or paying state taxes, but the aggressive bonus structures designed to keep players engaged. Unlike regulated sites where bonuses are capped by tax laws, offshore operators offer massive "rake back" and loss rebate schemes that promise immediate financial recovery after a losing streak, effectively trapping addicts in a cycle of chasing losses with artificially inflated credits.
The psychological manipulation employed by these unregulated sites is sophisticated and relentless, utilizing algorithms and marketing strategies that exploit the vulnerabilities of addiction. Richie describes how these platforms use "seed-based wagering" systems where computer algorithms manipulate win probabilities based on a player's recent history; if a user loses a series of hands, the system artificially increases their chances of winning the next few bets to encourage them to continue playing. Furthermore, the marketing is omnipresent, with streamers promoting casinos around the clock on platforms like Kick and Twitch, while VIP hosts provide endless reloads and even physical gifts like large TV screens to entice players back when they are broke. This creates an environment where the only way for a gambler to stay in action is to become a "street agent" for the casino, promoting referral codes to bring in other high-rollers to earn credits or wipe out their own debts.
Perhaps the most alarming aspect of Richie's experience is the complete lack of consumer protection and self-exclusion mechanisms on these offshore platforms. Even after attempting to self-exclude from all legal gambling sites across the United States, Richie found that crypto casinos ignored his status entirely. He discovered that he could easily bypass geolocation restrictions by using a VPN to appear as if he were in a different country, such as Norway or Costa Rica, and that the sites would automatically generate fake addresses and license images to facilitate KYC verification. This lack of oversight means that once an addict is hooked, there is no regulatory body to intervene, no limit on betting hours, and no guarantee that the games are fair, leaving individuals completely exposed to financial ruin with no legal recourse.
Ultimately, Richie's narrative serves as a stark warning about how the combination of advanced technology, predatory bonus structures, and zero regulation creates a perfect storm for gambling addiction. The transition from a regulated market where rules protect the player to an unregulated environment where the house has absolute control fundamentally changes the nature of the game, turning it into a trap rather than a form of entertainment. While Richie acknowledges that he may have been predisposed to gambling issues regardless of the platform, the specific tactics used by offshore crypto casinos significantly accelerated his downfall and made recovery far more difficult. His story highlights the urgent need for awareness regarding these hidden dangers, as the ease of access and the deceptive promises of quick wins can quickly lead to a spiral of debt and addiction that is nearly impossible to escape without external intervention.
Read the full video transcript
[music]
>> Welcome back to another edition of the
comeback. Craig Carton with you and
happy to have a fellow gambler in
recovery.
Richie joins us this morning. Richie,
good morning. How you doing, pal?
>> Good morning, Craig. Doing well.
Yourself?
>> Good. I appreciate you spending a few
minutes to sharing your story with us.
When was the date of your last wager?
>> July 13th of 2026.
>> All right. So,
fresh out of it again, yeah?
>> Fresh out of it again. I I did have some
clean time from when I was 17 to 23.
>> Okay.
>> But that's all part of the part of the
story or whatever.
>> Yeah, brother, that's the norm. Like
recovery doesn't just happen overnight
with the blink of an eye. The majority
of people, that's the norm, is that you
try to get into recovery. You you may
even have a successful period of time,
like you said, you went about 6 years
without gambling, but a lot of gamblers
find their way back out of gambling. You
One of the concerns we have are the
unregulated markets.
You're finding the quote-unquote illegal
or offshore sites uh to gamble with. And
I know you've got some experience with
that, yeah?
>> I do. Uh so, I gave up bookies when it
became legal in New Jersey, New York.
But I shortly then turned to crypto
casinos.
>> Okay.
>> You know, just no uploading documents,
uh sending crypto back and forth, not
having to pay
taxes in the state of New York because,
you know, it's not fully regulated yet
with you know, with crypto coins and how
that process is.
>> So, let me let me back it the truck up
on that.
As a guy that was gambling legally,
above board, um
in New Jersey, how did you discover the,
you know, illegal, unregulated
uh markets and platforms?
>> Just content creators. A lot of it
becoming a lot of mainstream
uh Instagram, you know,
back in the time like a few years ago
Twitch when Twitch was a big market now
it's now now it's on Kick.
It's just the content creators. All
these casinos are just hiring
any single person that has a platform to
just put their name brand on it and then
start wagering on their website and then
you just you just notice the bonuses,
the loss back, the rebate is
10 times more juiced up than you can do
in New Jersey and New York because
the bonus structure in New York and New
Jersey are all based on the tax law.
So, you know, you might be wagering in
the state of New York $20,000 on a bet
and then you text your host and he's
only giving you 100 bucks.
It's like, hey, what's going on?
But those crypto casinos don't have to
abide by that. They just do whatever
they want to stick you and then
suck you into unlimited money they give
you rake back, loss back.
>> God, and so they they appeal to you with
uh the bonus offers, you know, the
things that any gambler, especially a
compulsive gambler, is looking for. How
do I get more action? How do I get more
money in the account? And as long as
they're willing to give you what you
wanted, which it seems like they were,
you then
you would choose them over the regulated
site because they were offering you
things the regulated sites couldn't and
wouldn't, right?
>> Exactly. Also, like, you know, to to a
gambler withdrawal speed is everything.
And with our crypto casino you put that
withdrawal in at 12:01 p.m.
That's in your, you know, your crypto
exchange at 12:02.
So, it's just, you know, the speed of
everything. And also the the system that
they have a vaulting system where, you
know, you unlock $10,000,
but it's spread out over the next 10
days. So, you always know in the back of
your head as a gambling addict that I
have money coming in tomorrow, the next
day, etc. So, they just keep you glued.
>> Yeah, and I would assume that they also
don't give a rat's ass if you're losing.
Um like they never cut you off. There's
never a point where, like in the
regulated market, you can run out of
money. And they're not going to give you
uh comp bets or more money into your
account cuz A, they can't and B, they
know you don't have it cuz you just lost
all your money. I assume the unregulated
platforms and the crypto casinos,
there's no stopping even if you're flat
out broke.
>> Yeah, yeah, they're extremely smart. I
mean, it appealed to me like
just going over like their quick bonus
structure,
you know, they give a bonus at
at the beginning of the month. It's
based off your previous month of
wagering. So, if you lost $50,000 but
you wagered $600,000,
you're going to be getting somewhere
between 1,000 and 2,000. And then they
give you another bonus on the 15th and
then the 28th.
And then if you're a certain type of
level of player, they'll give you a
daily reload, which is a percentage of
whatever you wagered and gambled in the
last 7 days. So, when I wake up in the
morning and as an addict, when I don't
have a dollar or whatever, I go to that
website, I claim my reload for 1,000
bucks. Hey, [ __ ] that $1,000 that
$1,000 is mine for the day. Right? Like
you know, I can withdraw it or I can
gamble it, but
>> No, I've experienced that. I used to
wager on a on a site called Black
Diamond Casino, which was based out of
Malta. And I was their biggest gambler,
for sure. So, anytime I asked for a
reload or you know, more bucks in my
account, they were happy to give it to
me cuz they knew at some point I was
going to need to put more of my own
money in, you know, to double a hand, to
split a hand, to whatever the case may
be. And then they enticed me to stay on.
And again, this is a Malta-based
company.
I got sent a 70-in TV screen to my house
just as an incentive to COME ON BACK
AGAIN. GUYS, I'M OUT OF MONEY THIS WEEK.
DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT. WE'LL GIVE YOU
10,000 bucks in your account you have to
play blackjack with. So, I have I have
experience that on a different level
than you, for sure.
>> Yeah, 100% and just with the sites that
I used,
you know, the owners of the sites were
my VIP hosts. So, I would be getting a
credit line you know, if I reached a
certain threshold a month.
>> Right.
>> Or if I had no pot to piss in, I'll Let
me text daddy real quick. He'll drop X
amount of dollars in the account.
>> Did you ever get to an issue where
you're broke, you don't have no money,
they've extended you more credits or
reloads, and you lost it, and then
you owe them the money, and things got
ugly or no?
>> So, no. So, I adapted So, I adapted. I
then took it a different way. I then
downloaded Discord and Telegram, and
started to promote my own code to bring
players to the site, big players. Cuz
you know, when you're gambling with that
type of money that you know, myself or
you are gambling with, you also have a
friend you know, you have a circle of
friends that kind of do the same thing.
>> Right.
>> So, then I started to get my name out
there with sending my link to driving
traffic to the site. So, if I had one of
my guys that lost 300k in a weekend,
you know, I turn to the owner, I'm like,
"Hey, I can also bring you more players.
Why don't you extend me a line, or why
don't you wipe off the credit?" It just
It just keeps the madness going. And
like you said, like you touched on it,
there's no regulation. So, they can do
whatever they want, however they want to
do it.
>> Right. So, you became a street agent for
them either to pay down your own debt,
cuz you would get a a piece of the
losses of the guys you brought to them,
um or they would just be a way to get
more credit for yourself, one of the
other. But you became a street agent not
because it was a good business, but
because it it let you stay in action,
yeah?
>> Exactly.
>> And what about advertising? I know the
regulated markets, there are there are
rules and regulations they have to
follow about how they advertise, where
they advertise and market. I assume with
you
and guys like you and me, it's 24/7
non-stop uh barrage of of marketing,
yeah?
>> Yes, so exactly. So, for me, I'm not a
content creator. I'm just
a degenerate gambler that just like to
have fun and make money and do with
that.
But if you go on Kick, they you know,
these crypto casinos such as like you
know, Stake, Roulette, or Shuffle, they
they pay streamers to be live for 24
hours. So, their advertisement is live
every single second of every single day.
I mean, now, you know, you look at the
UFC octagon, you see stake.us on there.
So, it's just like, you know, now
they're starting to understand that, you
know, the .com casino might not be able
to promote it because it's crypto
casinos that
>> And I was wondering like, I've I've seen
some of those streamers, and I've seen
the ads you're talking about, and I
always wondered
you know, I I always wondered where
where the casinos are, and then I've
wondered, I know I've seen some stories
out, you know, they were going to go
after Drake like cuz he made a gazillion
dollars, and I I always wondered to
myself, who's making sure that the
computer program behind those gambling
sites actually is honest, right? And,
you know, you can win money. Because
I've not I've still yet to see the story
celebrating, you know, Billy in Idaho
who won a million bucks on Stake. I
haven't seen that story yet.
>> So, it's just but so, it's incredible
that you say that because
the just my my my big my go-to was
stake.com. That's where I did most of my
gambling, my wagering. And they use a
system called probably fair. Just
substitute the B for with a V.
And it's all seed-based wagering,
seed-based. So, it's a computer system
that will unlock a win at a certain
number of bets, or that particular seed
will never give you that crazy win.
>> Right.
>> And
their sister site, they have a site
called
sealstats.com,
where you can then change your seed and
input your old one to see where you
would have won.
So, now that they're not
Yes. So, now
>> winning the winning is not based on you
know, we're going to pay out 40% of all
the wages that come in, something like
that, or something like that, or it's
going to be legitimately randomized
cards. They're They're are telling you,
based on how you bet, that'll dictate
whether or not you can win.
>> Yes. So, for you, like you mentioned
Blackjack, right?
>> Yeah.
>> You can play electronic You can play AI
Blackjack on stake.com.
And you lose, let's say, 16 hands in a
row. Like you said, you lose seed, you
lost 16 hands in a row.
The chances of you winning the next 12
hands jumps from, let's say, 10% to
about 75.
>> Wow.
>> Because it's all computer-based. It
tracks that, okay, this guy lost 26
hands in a row and pushed five of them
during that that, you know, during that
26. Okay, now the next 15. So, what
people are picking up is you're betting,
you know, let's say $1,000 a hand.
I just lost seven hands in a row. Okay,
is this part of the seed, which is bad?
So, they drop down to a penny.
And they try to then
>> in their head You try to outsmart the
algorithm.
>> Exactly. And then that algorithm somehow
just it's It's a sick thing. It just
keeps it going, which is why
>> Yeah, I think I think that algorithm
The reason you win a couple of those
hands is because now you think you're
going to win seven or eight in a row, so
you want to refund the account, cuz now
you're in the part of the seed, as you
call it, where now I'm going to win.
Yeah. That's devious. That's crazy. I
never heard that before. That's a new
one on me.
>> I've been doing it like I said, I've
been doing it since 2019. So, I just
I've seen Stake and all these other
sites from when they were
in the terms of infancy infancy stage.
>> Right.
>> they're just
>> You know, the other weird thing about
these companies, I'm I'm just thinking
about it in real time with you, is that
I can go right now and I can
self-exclude from wagering. I can do it
in any any specific state. I can do it
on, you know, all the different, you
know, legal sites out there as well.
They all allow me to tell those
companies, don't take my money, I've got
a problem, right?
>> Yeah.
>> But, even if I self-excluded
from every state in America,
I could still wager on these offshore,
you know, crypto and other type of
sites. They They don't honor these
self-exclusions, correct?
>> No, they make it extremely easy for you
to gamble. So,
when you know, when you decide to go on
these sites and make an account and it
says, you know, to upload an ID now,
simply you just put your VPN to Norway.
I'm just using it for my example.
>> Go ahead.
>> VPN to Norway and then when you select
Norway on their website,
it drops a million different addresses.
You select one random Norwegian address.
>> So, let me let let's slow this down for
a second. You're saying that All right,
so you've self-excluded, so they they
have to find a way to get around that so
they can still take your money. So, when
you log into those sites, you get to
tell them
where in the world you reside or you're
physically at so that you can then
gamble. Is that correct?
>> Yes, so when you're basically when you
self-exclude from their site and you
want to go back on their site and play,
you click sign up, you click you select
the country that's legal to gamble in on
a crypto casino.
>> Okay.
>> So, Mexico, Norway, etc. Any country you
select, they will automatically input an
address into the address bar and they'll
automatically input a random name.
>> Wow.
>> the next level is that from when they
says, you know, take a picture of the
front and back of the license, there's a
button that literally just says generate
image. So, it will generate an image and
it will make it you'll be level one,
level two, level three KYC. And
understand something, all these sites
are using what they call a car
a carousel license, gaming license. So,
just like you're very familiar with the
the Malta base.
>> Right.
>> It's every every crypto casino, I'll say
95% of them use a carousel license,
which allows them to do this.
>> Yeah, I used to own a casino in Costa
Rica. I know exactly what you're talking
about.
>> You know, I this was the expression I
would use when I was gambling. I'm
gambling 27 hours a day in a 24-hour
day.
Because I'm waking up at 5:00 a.m. I'm
betting tennis. Tennis was my vice. Uh I
bet 20 tennis 24/7. Rugby
You bet your ass.
>> were betting on stuff you couldn't even
watch.
>> Oh, no no, I can watch everything. Also,
another thing that just to touch on
these crypto casinos,
they stream everything. Any single game
>> So you can watch. Got it.
>> Any single game you bet on, whether it's
ping pong,
cricket, snooker, rugby,
table tennis, whatever it might be, they
have a stream up on their website for
you to watch it. So during COVID, I
picked up rugby. Like I just I started
to bet it just cuz it was you know, a
Friday night in the US.
>> Yeah.
>> For me to have money for Saturday UFC,
let me bet rugby at 2:00 a.m., 5:00
a.m., 6:00 a.m. So I have a bankroll.
But just in terms of like the activities
like to do more outdoor stuff, to you
know, to get my ass off the
>> So when you when you were in deep at
your lowest point of gambling, it was
you weren't sleeping, right? This is
24/7 scenario for you. Like Can you walk
us through an average day? Like what was
an average Saturday for you?
>> Average Saturday, uh I'll give it I'll
give twice during college football
was rug Saturday morning, rugby at 3:00
a.m., 5:00 a.m., and 6:00 a.m.
However I bet it, I then bet a
challenger in tennis that was going on
in, you know, Australia or Europe. And
then as college football is about to,
you know, start back up, I'm betting
those 12:00 games.
Those 12:00 games, as long as I have
communion one of those games that would
lead me to UFC 5:00
>> Right.
>> was gold for me cuz now I'm going to be
parlaying something in the UFC with a
Pac-12 game going on at 9:00 at night.
And then depending on how that went
leading into Sunday morning, I'm betting
rugby at 1:00 a.m. or Australian
football at 3:00 a.m.
I really didn't sleep. It was the And
also, I realized this towards the end of
my gambling, just like recently,
I can put $10,000 in the account,
$20,000, run that up to 200k,
and that money's mine within 10 seconds
if I withdraw it.
Right. I started not being able to press
the withdraw button.
Which was something huge for me because
for years
I would always be proactive. I would
withdraw any amount of money that I
wanted, a significant amount, and I
would give 60% of that to my dad and my
mom to hold on for me.
Till like if I ever needed it a few
thousand or whatever, like they'd give
it to make sure I had money for gambling
more.
But the last like 4 years, it it didn't
matter the number of my I had won 600k
in the account. I couldn't withdraw it
anymore. It just Why can't I I just
continued to gamble and
the sick part was when you're gambling
on these crypto casinos,
the more you're gambling during that
session, your bigger rate back that
you're getting.
And you're also solidifying your next
your next five bonuses for the next
month. Cuz in my head, I'm an addict.
This money when I lose it, I still want
to make sure somehow I'm going to have
money in 3 weeks.
>> So it it Look, it's fair to say
you were predisposed to having a
gambling problem. I I I hear that loud
and clear. But had you limited your
gambling solely to regulated legal uh
United States markets and sites, you may
have had a problem anyway. It sounds
like you probably would have, but it
would have been mitigated because of all
the rules that they have that the crypto
casinos don't have to follow.
>> Exactly. And I think another thing that
kind of led to my downfall is like a lot
of my family, my father,
they all said like, "You're This was is
sick part. You're actually good at
gambling. You're actually good at
picking winners. The problem is you're
not good at holding on to the money.
>> Well, you also didn't share the losses
with them either.
>> Yeah, exactly. No, I know.
>> HEY, DAD, I WON AGAIN. I KEEP WINNING.
IT'S ALL I DO IS WIN.
>> EXACTLY. BUT, it's just like No, but
like it's sick cuz like you just hear
it's I mean as a gambler, you just know.
You just hear one keyword that might
keep you going. I appreciate you.
>> I look forward to hearing your story of
success along the way and please use me
as a second sponsor, somebody that you
can always talk to. And thank you so
much for sharing the story today, buddy.
>> [music]