Ask the Slot Expert: Some YouTube slot channels are as real as the WWE

Question: So glad you called Vegas Matt and his team out. They disgust me. I feel they are not really playing in a casino a lot of the time. Reminds me of Mucho Deniro slots that got called out a few years ago.

Answer: Mucho Deniro? Wasn't that Robert De Niro's Lucha Libre name? (Sorry. Couldn't resist.)

You pointed out something that I had never noticed or even considered. Does a slot video on YouTube show live play in a casino or does it show fake-money play on a slot machine in someone's game room?

I searched on "mucho dinero". I watched some of Mucho Dinero Slots' videos returned by the search. One, BEST VIDEO ON YOUTUBE - MASSIVE JACKPOT CAUGHT LIVE was particularly intriguing. The thumbnail for the video shows a $134,575 handpay message.

The video shows over 24 captivating minutes of plays on an Enchanted Unicorn slot machine. Some at $25 per spin, some at $100. The super-duper handpay occurs about 20 minutes in. I thought that this guy must really be racking up the slot points.

I did another search. This time "mucho dinero slots fake". I found videos by EZ Life Slot Jackpots, who is doing to slot channels what Houdini did to spiritualists. Houdini exposed spiritualists faking supernatural interactions and EZ Life is exposing slot channels showing slot play using fake money.

EZ addresses Mucho Dinero in his video FAKE SLOT CHANNELS AND THEIR LIES. He addresses other channels in EXPOSING FAKE SLOT CHANNELS FAKE SLOT VIDEOS AND JACKPOTS. These channels are the WWE of the slot-channel world.

EZ says these fake-play channels are a problem for two reasons. One, they're taking away views and revenue from channels that do the hard work of recording in casinos and risking real money. Two, their titles claim things like "Largest Win on Lucky Slot on YouTube" but the titles are false advertising because they're not real wins.

I'm ashamed to say that I wasn't suspicious of the Mucho Dinero video. Slot videos frequently start with some sort of establishing shot to show where they're being recorded and the machine(s) played. They also frequently have play-by-play commentary. The Mucho Dinero video has neither. The legit videos, moreover, frequently say where and when they were recorded in the description box. The Mucho video does not.

Another thing to consider is that if Mucho were playing in Las Vegas, his (her?) wins would have made the news. The Las Vegas Review-Journal frequently reports six-figure slot jackpots. If someone hit a huge jackpot every day, that would have been in the news even if the player remained anonymous. If this winning streak is newsworthy in Las Vegas, it certainly would have been newsworthy somewhere else and we probably would have heard about it.

Let's turn to my column about Vegas Matt (Always win at slots). In it I discussed Matt's video My Son Cracked The Code To Always Win At Slots. Spoiler alert: He didn't and you have to watch 50 spell-binding minutes of slot play to get to the final minutes in which Matt admits it.

I never said that this video was not shot in a real casino. There's an establishing shot at the beginning that shows a real slot floor. The machine they're playing appears to be the same one as in the establishing shot. I'm convinced that this video shows real-money play.

Maybe others show fake-money play. Getting A High Limit Wheel Of Fortune Spin No Matter What! looks interesting.

The video starts off with Matt standing in front of the $100 Wheel of Fortune Double Diamond machine he is going to play. We get glimpses of the Top Dollar and video poker machine next to the WOF machine during the video. We don't see much of the area he is in, but Matt says it is the super-duper high limit area. We can't see the denominations on the other machines, but if they are similarly high, this could be a special section of the high limit room.

Matt shows an $8800 ticket from Resorts World in the beginning, so this must be Resorts World.

The wall behind the machines looks more rec room than super-duper high limit room. I haven't been to Resorts World, let alone its high limit room or super-duper high limit room. I watched other videos that were definitely shot in the high-limit room and other areas of Resorts World and I saw similar decor. This video could show real play.

The goal is to play the machine until he gets to spin the wheel. About eight minutes in, they've lost the $8000 ticket plus some more and still hadn't won a wheel spin. After a break for dinner, Matt shows a $20,000 Resorts World ticket and puts that in the machine.

He finally hits a wheel spin at 16 minutes. He won $4000 on the spin.

The machine displays the Handpay Required message. Without any obvious edit, he's playing again in less than 30 seconds.

That could seem suspicious that there is no edit for the handpay. Maybe he's in his basement and he merely turned the jackpot reset key.

During this time, his left arm is visible in the shot. Although we can't see what he is doing, he appears to be interacting with a panel on the machine.

Although it may not have happened earlier in the video (Most of these videos are not interesting enough to watch the whole thing.), anyone playing $200 per spin is likely to hit many handpays. It takes a payoff of only six times the bet to win $1200. Given how technologically advanced Resorts World claims to be, it probably has Instant Jackpots so players can enter their slot club PIN to acknowledge the win and get the credits added to their meter and get mailed a summary W-2G at the end of the year.

Matt is probably entering his PIN. After his arm leaves the shot, the handpay message disappears.

I can't take Matt to task for showing fake-money play. It looks like he's playing with real money in the videos I've seen.

I will take him to task for some other things, though. First, learn how the games work. In the "crack the code" video, many times they were unsure about why a combination did or didn't cause something to happen during the bonus round. They didn't bother to look at the help screens. Worse, it took many bonus rounds before they actually read the info screen that is displayed before the bonus round instead of just hitting the Play button as quickly as possible to start the bonus round.

Second, editing can be your friend. It's not until the 50-minute mark that he admits that his son didn't crack anything and that their theory is BS. But I guess if we had to read six books or watch seven movies to finally learn that Snape was not really a bad guy, I guess this isn't so bad.

Third, the takeaway comments at the end are not really accurate. Describing how they hit many bonus rounds in the first part of the video and then none for a long time afterwards, he said, "I think this is how they get you." That statement implies some deliberate logic in the program. The correct thing to say is the the bonus is awarded at random. Sometimes you may hit many of them in just a few spins. Sometimes you won't hit any for a long time.

Finally, there's no solution for this gripe. I'll agree that it is somewhat disgusting how cavalier they are with losing thousands or tens of thousands of dollars. Even if you can afford it, most people can't. I guess creating YouTube videos can be very lucrative.

If you would like to see more non-smoking areas on slot floors in Las Vegas, please sign my petition on change.org.