The Culture War - Tim Pool - March 30, 2026


Gen Z GAMBLING ADDICTION Is Taking Over, NY SUES Over Loot Boxes As Casinos POP UP EVERYWHERE


Episode Stats


Length

35 minutes

Words per minute

179.11156

Word count

6,423

Sentence count

467

Harmful content

Misogyny

6

sentences flagged

Toxicity

6

sentences flagged

Hate speech

5

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

New York State files a lawsuit against video game companies and accuses them of "gambling" in a case that could have a big impact on the future of video games and gambling in general. But what does this mean for Pokemon, Magic the Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh cards?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 There is no question that gambling in the United States is on the rise massively,
00:00:06.560 with the most notable problem being sports betting and the addiction young men have to it.
00:00:13.220 But casinos are also popping up all over the place. New York is set to have, what,
00:00:18.460 four casinos? Chicago will be opening ballys on the river. No longer will it be reservations,
00:00:24.920 Vegas or Atlantic City, they are everywhere. And I point this out quite a bit where we are
00:00:31.720 within two hours driving. There are nine casinos, not to mention all of the various casino apps that
00:00:39.400 are getting legalized in each individual state. But wait, my friends, there's more.
00:00:45.740 You see, the big story here, it's not just about this lawsuit from New York's Democrats against a
00:00:51.840 video game company. It's about why they are doing it. It's not just about video games. It's also
00:00:57.740 about the Lodge Card Club in Austin, arguably the largest private poker club in the world being shut
00:01:05.580 down by the Texas authorities. It is why it is all happening. And of course, there is one very
00:01:12.800 obvious and easy reason to understand. And then maybe some conspiracies. But the obvious reason
00:01:18.500 is that powerful moneyed interests want the sole licenses to run gambling in the states where they
00:01:26.160 operate. This includes Texas as well as New York. And that means any, any function that is close
00:01:33.380 enough to gambling will get shut down by the cronies in politics who are going to receive
00:01:37.900 lots of lobbying dollars from the casinos that want to run it all. But here's the big story that
00:01:43.860 started last month, which may kick off a nuclear bomb in trading card games, in casinos, in sports
00:01:51.760 betting, and that is New York State's lawsuit against Valve for loot boxes. Now, I know most
00:01:59.020 of you know what loot boxes are, but for those that don't, let me explain. You will either buy
00:02:04.780 in-game currency or use real dollars to purchase a quote-unquote loot box. It is a mystery product
00:02:10.520 that you don't know what you're going to get, but you have a general idea of things that may
00:02:13.580 appear inside yours. You will spend money, it will burst open, and you will receive digital
00:02:19.200 items in the game. Some of these items are particularly rare and can be traded amongst
00:02:23.940 players for cold, hard cash. That is, I'll spend, let's say, $10, open up a loot box,
00:02:30.860 and I get a bunch of junk that's worth nothing. And I can't really trade it, so I kind of just
00:02:34.940 lost the $10. But then I buy another one, and I crack open the ultra-rare Super Rifle skin for
00:02:41.860 my video game character that someone desperately wants. Well, I say to them, I'll give it to you
00:02:46.700 for $1,000. In fact, Leticia James of New York points out one of the secondary items sold for
00:02:52.560 over $1 million. The argument then is you are wagering money for a chance to win something of
00:02:58.960 great value. And that is gambling. But what does this mean for Pokemon cards and Magic the Gathering
00:03:06.780 and Yu-Gi-Oh, and what will this mean for any card game? Well, I've been talking quite a bit
00:03:12.340 about this for some time, and I think the important context here to understand is, one,
00:03:16.860 Democrats have launched a war against a video game company, one of the most prominent,
00:03:21.780 accusing them of gambling. Washington state has filed a class action suit for the same reason,
00:03:29.040 and the precedent set in court, now that there is legal standing, could have repercussions for
00:03:34.620 everything. Most notably, of course, Pokemon trading cards, which I have been harping on for
00:03:40.880 some time. And the kids who play these games say it's not gambling, to which I agree. But now things
00:03:46.680 are getting interesting. Why? Because the powerful moneyed interests behind casinos want the 0.95
00:03:52.980 exclusive right to host gaming for everything. And of course, while these things have largely
00:04:00.400 been illegal for most of American history. The states want to make money somehow. And so they're
00:04:06.160 cutting a deal. We will give you sole rights over gambling. You're going to kick us back a lot of
00:04:12.800 money. What happens then when video game companies, card games or otherwise have some element of
00:04:20.060 gambling that takes away from the casinos? Why would the casino lobby groups give up that access?
00:04:28.600 They won't.
00:04:29.940 And that means they're going to lobby Democrats and Republicans to say,
00:04:33.540 only I may have the right to host these games.
00:04:37.520 Which means, ladies and gentlemen, you want to get a loot box?
00:04:40.380 It's going to have to be through a licensed and regulated casino
00:04:43.560 where they will take a portion of the money and the government will take a cut.
00:04:47.900 Ultimately, the big picture is not so much about whether or not you agree or disagree with gambling.
00:04:51.520 It is the fact that gambling is here to stay and it's going to get a lot worse.
00:04:56.700 Now, I know many of you actually think negatively of gambling.
00:05:00.280 I do as well.
00:05:01.900 There's a question we can ask about what does it mean to gamble?
00:05:05.060 And everybody has a little bit of a different definition.
00:05:07.620 In West Virginia, the governor, while he was AG, argued fantasy sports was not gambling
00:05:12.180 because it was skill-based.
00:05:13.800 You needed to use your knowledge of the sports to make appropriate plays for which you could
00:05:17.960 then make money.
00:05:18.820 That's not chance.
00:05:19.860 That's pure knowledge.
00:05:21.060 But many people have made the argument then that there are a lot of things that are considered
00:05:25.240 gambling, but wouldn't be because they're skill based. I suppose the argument that is how much
00:05:30.980 skill and when the big picture, my friends, Gen Z is list list. They are demoralized and they are 1.00
00:05:38.080 turning to gambling for their reprieve. I've got a bunch of examples, my friends, of instances in
00:05:45.020 which young people who should not be gambling are gambling and trying to claim it's not gambling
00:05:50.500 and risking their lives. The question then becomes beyond all of this, where have young
00:05:55.060 men gone? They're checking out of politics. They're not having families. They're not working.
00:05:59.860 What are they doing? And what we are seeing, gambling influencers popping up like crazy.
00:06:07.740 Guys, this is going to get wild. The bigger picture on all of this is what is happening to
00:06:14.060 our society and the conspiracy that I mentioned. Well, the conspiracy theory would be that this is
00:06:20.300 all on purpose. Making gambling and casinos ubiquitous like bread and circuses. Everybody
00:06:27.440 will be distracted by their vices. They will not focus on the political and they will sit down,
00:06:32.740 shut up and have fun. But let's start here and talk about what's going on, my friends. What is
00:06:37.280 happening with the lawsuit over loot boxes and how this is going to basically make the rich richer
00:06:43.720 and the casinos bigger and take away what you know and love or like. Before we get started,
00:06:49.700 my friends, head over to timcast.com and join our Discord community. We got tens of thousands
00:06:55.120 of people hanging out every day. This is not gambling, my friends. When you become a member,
00:06:57.920 you're supporting the work we do right here. That money is used so that we can do all of this and
00:07:02.540 operate as we do and make these videos. And you'll be hanging out with like-minded individuals.
00:07:07.960 So if you want to build something, make something, or teach, join the community to build this network
00:07:13.900 because, my friends, it's not what you know, it's who you know. Here's a story from PCMag,
00:07:19.500 from last month. New York sues Valve over loot boxes calling them illegal gambling. We have this
00:07:26.740 from Letitia James, the New York State Attorney General. This is what she wrote. She basically
00:07:32.280 says, Valve has games including Counter-Strike 2, Team Fortress 2, and Dota 2. Enable gambling
00:07:40.780 by enticing users to pay for the chance to win a rare virtual item with significant monetary value.
00:07:46.040 In Valve's most popular game, the process resembles a slot machine with an animated spinning wheel that eventually rests on a selected item.
00:07:52.540 The randomly selected virtual items have no in-game functionality but can be sold online for money, with one item reportedly being sold for more than $1 million.
00:08:02.680 Now, let me just pause real quick and ask you a question.
00:08:04.920 If there was a vending machine and it said, for $20, you will get a mystery box.
00:08:12.580 inside that box, you may find something worth $10 or $200. Prices may vary, but you don't know what
00:08:21.060 you're getting. Is that gambling? Honest question. I think most of you would say yes, and I would
00:08:26.620 completely agree. Exchanging money for a chance to win something of value is gambling. I have here
00:08:35.960 this Breaker Brothers Pokemon mystery box
00:08:39.880 that I bought at a vending machine
00:08:42.200 at Apple Valley Mall.
00:08:43.800 On the back, it reads,
00:08:45.100 get ready for a surprise
00:08:46.040 with our Pokemon mystery slab.
00:08:48.400 Inside, you'll find one graded Pokemon card
00:08:50.800 valued between $10 and $200.
00:08:53.140 Who will you discover?
00:08:54.360 A beloved classic or a new champion?
00:08:56.720 Well, indeed, the card in here
00:08:57.940 is actually only worth $7.
00:09:00.360 Only seven.
00:09:02.020 Now, is that gambling?
00:09:03.660 Back in the day,
00:09:04.880 Original slot machines didn't give out money.
00:09:06.880 They gave out packs of gum.
00:09:08.360 So you'd get three cherries.
00:09:09.900 You'd get a piece of cherry gum.
00:09:11.520 Yeah, bubble gum.
00:09:12.340 You would then go next door and sell the gum to a shop for money.
00:09:17.660 We get it.
00:09:18.940 It was gambling.
00:09:19.960 And that was the workaround.
00:09:21.500 Right now, we're seeing much the same thing.
00:09:23.580 There are people who buy these loot boxes just to try and get rare items they could sell later on.
00:09:31.000 Now, here's where it's interesting.
00:09:32.160 where everything starts breaking down and getting crazy.
00:09:36.240 New York and Washington are going after loot boxes.
00:09:40.160 They say this.
00:09:42.140 The current status quo understanding within the video game industry
00:09:44.320 with respect to whether loot boxes constitute gambling
00:09:46.760 rests on whether the loot box mechanisms fulfill three core common elements of gambling laws.
00:09:52.180 Consideration, chance and a prize.
00:09:54.460 So long as one of these three elements is not met, a loot box is not gambling.
00:09:58.680 The chance element is inevitably met in any form of loot boxes,
00:10:01.960 but the consideration element can arguably be avoided by making loot boxes acquirable only
00:10:06.560 by exchanging virtual currency that itself arguably has no value. And the prize element
00:10:10.940 can arguably be avoided by making the loot box drop account locked where no loot box can be
00:10:16.600 transferred, sold or cashed out. So one thing you could do is let's say you have a vending machine
00:10:23.120 that accepts either U.S. dollars, which can be converted into, let's call them mystery coins.
00:10:30.280 but mystery coins can be acquired for free on your account. Now it's very difficult to acquire
00:10:36.640 through our vending machine company. Let's say we have a little game you can play.
00:10:40.820 And for every hour you play, you get one coin. Well, the point is after you accumulate 100 coins,
00:10:47.720 you can purchase one mystery box. So it's free, right? Or for $10, you will just get those
00:10:56.300 virtual coins and you'll get a hundred of them. And then you can buy it right away. Now, of course,
00:11:02.960 the in-game currency has no monetary value because it can be earned for free. That's not gambling.
00:11:07.900 It's a sweepstakes. And that's effectively what a lot of companies are doing. Not this one
00:11:11.980 particularly, but that's one element there, one path they're going to try and eliminate this
00:11:15.920 as gambling. They say it's important to note the status quo understanding is based on collective
00:11:20.640 statutory interpretation among video game attorneys and is not settled law. Indeed,
00:11:25.000 not even the question of whether trading card packs constitute gambling is actually settled.
00:11:29.200 In the 90s and 2000s, many plaintiffs sued trading card manufacturers under RICO laws.
00:11:33.460 All of these cases were eventually dismissed for lack of standing because the plaintiffs could not
00:11:37.800 prove an injury. They had received the benefit of the bargain. By receiving physical cards in
00:11:42.100 exchange for money, they did not suffer a gambling loss. These cases did not rule on the merits
00:11:47.860 of whether trading card packs fall into the definition of gambling, as such term is used
00:11:52.920 in various gambling laws.
00:11:54.880 Cue New York v. Valve.
00:11:56.740 New York's Attorney General Leticia James
00:11:57.900 accused Valve of violating
00:11:59.140 both Article 1, Section 9
00:12:00.620 of the Constitution,
00:12:01.720 which prohibits gambling,
00:12:02.860 and Penal Law 225.05
00:12:05.040 and 225.10,
00:12:06.900 which criminalize unlawful
00:12:07.880 gambling activity
00:12:08.540 and promotion of such
00:12:09.420 unlawful gambling activity.
00:12:10.980 Now hold down here, 0.98
00:12:11.680 gosh darn minute. 0.90
00:12:13.200 She may only be suing Valve, 0.96
00:12:14.860 but the precedent here
00:12:15.780 will affect every trading card game
00:12:17.660 with booster packs.
00:12:19.800 Valve has issued a public statement
00:12:20.880 in response to the complaint
00:12:22.400 essentially analogizing their loot boxes
00:12:24.660 and the physical trading cards.
00:12:26.000 Yeah, that's not going to help.
00:12:28.460 There's also potential meaningful distinction
00:12:30.060 between how physical trading cards are wholly owned
00:12:31.740 by the purchaser and digital skins are technically licensed.
00:12:34.760 Valve is also subject to a consumer class action complaint
00:12:37.600 in Washington.
00:12:39.820 Well, there have been many arguments
00:12:41.440 that these cards, loot boxes, Pokemon boosters
00:12:45.060 are literally gambling.
00:12:46.580 There are people who don't play the game
00:12:47.900 and they buy boosters hoping to get those ultra rare cards
00:12:50.960 or to see their value go up.
00:12:52.700 There's no guarantee that you're buying it,
00:12:54.660 and thus, it's gambling.
00:12:57.080 Let me be honest, guys.
00:12:57.880 As someone who plays Magic the Gathering,
00:12:59.580 for the most part,
00:13:01.500 professional players or high-skilled players
00:13:03.860 who play in tournaments
00:13:04.640 do not buy booster packs
00:13:06.780 in a hope to receive the cards they need.
00:13:09.620 In fact, they just buy the cards direct from shops.
00:13:13.340 Where do the shops get them?
00:13:15.340 Someone is gambling on the booster packs
00:13:17.220 hoping to get rare cards
00:13:18.140 they can then sell for greater cash.
00:13:20.540 Indeed.
00:13:21.540 So if I need a card for a deck, I don't open a booster.
00:13:25.160 I buy it directly.
00:13:26.360 I don't gamble.
00:13:27.380 It's a risk.
00:13:28.380 No, I just need the card.
00:13:29.940 Now, ultimately, as I've talked about this quite a bit, the question and what I'm bringing
00:13:34.460 up is not to harp on gambling again, like I've been doing for some time, but to bring
00:13:39.760 up how this is the future of American culture.
00:13:43.100 This is going to take over, my friends.
00:13:46.380 Mark my words.
00:13:47.260 The reason we are seeing, in my opinion, Letitia James go after Valve is not because she's offended they would break the law. 0.99
00:13:53.260 It's because if it is involving the law, Resorts World, Caesars, Penn Entertainment, all of these casinos have the exclusive rights to control games of chance for money.
00:14:04.700 And if they open the doors to allow you to do it, it runs the risk of them losing control.
00:14:10.120 So they're going to spend every dollar they have ending anything that could be construed as gambling.
00:14:16.920 Unless the law has changed.
00:14:18.300 Take a look at this from Time Out New York.
00:14:20.020 It's official three new casinos are coming to NYC.
00:14:23.400 Here are the details about three casinos that were granted official licenses to operate in New York City earlier this week.
00:14:29.380 The story, of course, is from last December, so it's happening now.
00:14:31.880 The state's gaming commission has approved Hard Rock, a Hard Rock complex next to Citi Field.
00:14:39.120 We are going to get, what do we got, Resorts World near JFK, as well as Bally's in the Bronx.
00:14:45.940 Noticeably absent, notably absent, is Jay-Z's Times Square Casino, which did not receive a license.
00:14:52.160 The three approved casinos will generate billions of dollars for the MTA, education, create tens of thousands of jobs, and deliver real benefits to the surrounding communities.
00:14:59.520 It's coming, people. It is going to happen.
00:15:03.100 We are moving into a world of artificial general intelligence.
00:15:06.080 They are saying that we're going to lose all of our jobs, so how will people live?
00:15:11.040 I imagine they're going to try and implement some kind of universal basic income for some
00:15:15.400 jobs or for people, but I don't know how that plays out because people will just decide not
00:15:19.680 to work, as we've long argued. But what will people do with their days? Games of chance for
00:15:26.840 entertainment. I don't think this ends well, my friends. I don't think it ends well, but I guarantee
00:15:32.880 you this is where we will be. From March 9th, the Wall Street Journal. I'm a college student,
00:15:39.200 Gen Z sports betting is wrecking my friends' lives. 1.00
00:15:42.920 Among my college peers, using apps to bet on sporting events has become a dangerous rite of passage.
00:15:48.400 March Madness will only add fuel to the fire.
00:15:51.060 Apps after app after app, popping up everywhere, allowing you to make bets on sports.
00:15:56.300 There was a funny story where apparently some athlete was upset, apologizing for the bad spread because it negatively impacted sports betting.
00:16:04.100 You know what the big picture is, my friends?
00:16:06.060 Let me show you this from Texas Monthly.
00:16:09.560 How a Vegas billionaire's plan to bring casinos to Texas went bust.
00:16:14.140 The behind-the-scenes story of Miriam Adelson's failed bet to legalize gambling
00:16:18.640 and the right-wing activists and megadonors who stood in their way.
00:16:23.540 Interesting.
00:16:24.880 I'm going to give you my thoughts and opinion.
00:16:27.160 I believe that Leticia James is suing likely because there are casinos coming to New York 1.00
00:16:31.420 And they probably said, listen, if it involves gambling, we own it.
00:16:36.560 I don't care what it is.
00:16:38.280 If loot boxes are allowed, it will create precedent that individuals can gamble outside of casinos as long as they meet certain loophole criteria.
00:16:47.560 If we're going to operate in your state and generate revenue, we must control any and all gambling.
00:16:54.640 To put it simply, my friends, the argument I've made, and I made on my Tim Pool Show channel,
00:17:00.300 as I'm an avid poker player, notably Texas Hold'em, not other poker games. Well,
00:17:04.720 there's a handful that I play. Texas Hold'em is entirely a game of skill.
00:17:10.240 And that's my argument. And I have argued that because of the expansion of these casinos,
00:17:15.320 sooner or later, there's going to be a lawsuit pertaining to Pokemon, Magic, and Yu-Gi-Ohm,
00:17:18.880 also very avid Magic the Gathering players. I often point out I got Magic cards all over
00:17:22.300 the place behind me. There has not been any precedent set on what's called the predominant
00:17:27.880 factor test for these card games, which means they need to prove to the courts they are not
00:17:34.040 games of chance. The problem is that the laws in most states, especially like New York,
00:17:39.400 don't specify that factor. It's just been the courts have decided it. No, the law literally
00:17:45.080 says any card game. Well, these trading card games are card games. So let's bring it back
00:17:51.440 to the political, because I don't want to harp on just card games. I did that in my Tim Pool
00:17:54.800 show segment. I want to talk to you about why this is happening. Miriam Edelson is one of Trump's
00:17:59.300 biggest donors. I believe, what, do they own the Mirage or the Venetia? I don't remember which
00:18:03.980 casinos they own. They want casinos in Texas. Well, a lot of right wingers in Texas don't want 0.90
00:18:08.860 it because they think gambling is degeneracy. And they're not wrong, but it's going to happen.
00:18:13.300 So in New York, here's the here's the threat. Kids are playing video games where they let's
00:18:21.440 or $10 equivalent, you get a loot box, you get a rare item, you can exchange that for money.
00:18:26.620 They're saying, listen, sooner or later, these lawsuits will be adjudicated and we
00:18:31.900 must win. Because if you're allowed to wager something for a chance to win prizes,
00:18:38.720 people won't go to our casinos. And if we're going to make any money for you,
00:18:43.320 we have to have full control. And guess what Leticia James says? And it's hypothetical.
00:18:47.300 As the AG, she says, you're right. We're projecting billions per year in tax revenue from all of these casinos. Billions. In order for us to receive those billions, all gaming, gambling or anything like it must occur in these casinos. That means any money wagered up front on any game of chance must be controlled by the casinos.
00:19:10.500 tell me why these trading card games that have operated in a gray area
00:19:16.020 why would the casinos allow them to operate freely without license
00:19:20.400 they are losing something that they control and then an argument is made
00:19:24.400 i could make a new trading card game i did actually it's called debate me it functions
00:19:31.640 very similarly to texas hold'em but it uses new cards with a different value ranking system
00:19:36.360 Thus, it is not poker.
00:19:38.920 So I can just legally have debate me tournaments?
00:19:41.960 The answer is yes, because these trading card games operate in a gray area.
00:19:45.900 Until there is a lawsuit where an individual has standing and can claim it's gambling,
00:19:51.060 it's going to be allowed.
00:19:52.720 And no one who's lost a Pokemon tournament has ever argued it was gambling because they
00:19:56.120 liked the game.
00:19:56.980 Thus, no individual player has ever sued with standing.
00:20:00.540 But what about an AG?
00:20:02.280 What about an AG who says, this is gambling.
00:20:06.000 A wager is made on a card game of chance.
00:20:08.740 And it's taking revenue away from our tax base because this is supposed to be legally
00:20:13.400 in a casino.
00:20:15.780 Now, the casino may actually say, we don't want to host Pokemon cards, tournaments.
00:20:19.000 We don't care about that.
00:20:20.180 But we don't want new games and variants of card games to emerge that we would have to
00:20:27.120 force into court.
00:20:28.540 So let's put it this way.
00:20:30.320 Poker is a specific game, a variant of games that use suits and cards.
00:20:34.480 What if you make a game that doesn't use suits?
00:20:36.440 What if it uses magical elements?
00:20:39.300 What if it uses monosymbols and has a convoluted value ranking system that the average person
00:20:43.380 doesn't understand?
00:20:44.500 It'll take you a day or two to figure out the rankings, but then you're smart enough
00:20:47.000 to play poker with those cards, or at least a facsimile of.
00:20:50.640 Do you think the casinos will just let you do that?
00:20:53.120 I don't think so.
00:20:54.300 Take a look at this from Texas Monthly.
00:20:55.980 How a Vegas billionaire's plan to bring casinos in Texas went bust.
00:20:59.720 They say the town hall was proving to be yet another disaster for the Las Vegas Sands Corporation.
00:21:06.240 The Irving Convention Center was jammed with several hundred angry North Texans. 1.00
00:21:10.180 They held signs that read Don't Vegas My Irving and circulated flyers warning that predatory gambling breeds crime, failed marriages and addiction.
00:21:18.000 Three days later, on March 17th, let me get the exact date on this one. It's from last year.
00:21:21.680 A city commission was set to consider a contentious zoning change.
00:21:24.440 It would permit Sands to someday build a destination resort complex on land adjacent to the site of the demolished Texas Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys, until 2008.
00:21:33.720 The proposal also conspicuously allowed for a casino as part of the resort.
00:21:37.860 It was a peculiar concept.
00:21:39.440 Other than two Native American-owned properties in far-flung parts of the state, casinos are banned in Texas.
00:21:44.060 But Sands was planning for the future when it hoped the legislature would ask voters to amend the state's constitution to allow for gambling, a future it was furiously trying to make reality.
00:21:53.640 Pause.
00:21:54.440 A few weeks ago, I was invited to play on the World Poker Tour wildcard stream at the Lodge
00:22:00.600 Card Club in Austin, Texas. I am an avid poker player, and I was going to play on stream
00:22:06.360 with some other semi-pros and pros, and it was going to be a fun game. Promotional marketing
00:22:11.680 for me, good fun for everybody in the family. Unfortunately, the Lodge Card Club in Austin
00:22:16.640 was raided by the authorities and shut down. Curious. Everybody's wondering why it happened.
00:22:22.080 Well, here's the thing. Gambling is illegal in Texas, except two individuals or more are allowed
00:22:27.640 to wager poker amongst themselves. It is an affirmative defense. Texas basically said we're
00:22:32.700 not banning poker among friends. We're just banning casinos. So what happens? Well, a card room opens
00:22:39.280 up saying we're a private club. Individuals can play poker among themselves. In the olden days,
00:22:45.140 it was very, very simple. You pay a membership fee and you pay hourly beat the club. But when
00:22:49.840 you're playing poker, you're playing between you and the other person. That was the law. In fact,
00:22:53.420 they tried to shut him down and lost. Thus, card rooms began to pop up all over the state.
00:22:58.520 They operate under what people refer to as a gray area, but it's explicitly legal.
00:23:03.260 It's defended. It is an affirmative defense. However, the TABC, that's the Alcohol Bureau in
00:23:09.880 Texas, shut down the largest, arguably largest card club in the world,
00:23:14.920 saying money laundering and illegal gambling. The question is why? One conspiracy theory,
00:23:22.100 which honestly, I'm not sure that I believe, but maybe the case. You'll get this. Ken Paxton
00:23:28.680 is the attorney general. I'm a big fan. He does great work. Ken Paxton is the attorney general.
00:23:33.840 He is running for the Senate. He is. I believe he's getting Trump's endorsement.
00:23:39.880 He's in a runoff with Cornyn, and many believe he will win that Senate seat.
00:23:44.400 But he's currently the attorney general, and he needs Trump's endorsement to win.
00:23:49.740 He flew to meet with Trump the same week the lodge was shut down.
00:23:55.820 He leaves, and the rumors are he's getting that endorsement.
00:23:59.600 What does that mean?
00:24:01.120 One of Trump's largest donors is Miriam Adelson, who wants to open casinos in Texas.
00:24:06.880 Now, again, it's conspiratorial.
00:24:08.140 This is what I was hearing from some of the poker players. They think they think that Ken Paxton ordered his people go after the biggest card club, the Lodge, shut them down, send a message. We are shutting these things down. Why? Because he wants Trump's endorsement. Trump needs a favor for Miriam Adelson, who wants casinos in Texas.
00:24:29.160 and these card rooms are operating in what they define as a gray area and it interferes with her
00:24:35.800 ability to open a casino or more importantly, when they finally do open those casinos, they do not
00:24:41.740 want competition. They must own gambling. Now I'd make the argument I don't necessarily believe
00:24:47.740 that's the case, largely because Miriam Adelson lost and because the existence of these card
00:24:53.000 rooms actually provides legal cover for her to open casinos, in which case may actually be 1.00
00:24:58.960 beneficial that they exist because she can argue, look, you allow this. It could be that she went
00:25:04.440 to the state and said, you allow poker rooms. And they said, well, we shouldn't. And she's like,
00:25:07.200 well, as long as you do, I can have a casino. And they went, then we're going to shut them down.
00:25:10.740 But I will say this, considering they are popping up, considering this is one of Trump's biggest
00:25:15.420 donors, I'd make the argument, my friends, that the game here is actually quite simple.
00:25:19.960 They want to open casinos in Texas.
00:25:22.500 There are many card rooms that are operating and they will get in the way.
00:25:27.840 They already tried to open a casino and Texans blocked it. 0.96
00:25:31.640 But I guarantee you, you bring in some more crony establishment figures, even some Democrats,
00:25:36.640 and they're going to argue for the academic benefits of casinos.
00:25:40.320 And these card rooms are in the way.
00:25:43.440 So I'm not saying I know that's true, but there are many people in Texas who believe
00:25:46.500 that's exactly what happened.
00:25:47.540 So let me just tell you the timeline of events.
00:25:49.300 Tuesday morning, the Lodge Card Club is raided and shut down.
00:25:52.880 Friday, I believe it was Friday of that week.
00:25:57.200 Was it?
00:25:57.960 It might have been the next week, actually.
00:25:59.660 But let's just say within that week, within a week or two,
00:26:02.960 Ken Paxton flies to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Donald Trump.
00:26:07.040 And it seems like he will be receiving that endorsement.
00:26:10.240 I'm not, I don't want to play this game.
00:26:11.640 I like Ken Paxton.
00:26:12.460 He's probably like the best AG in the country.
00:26:15.560 He's filed a ton of lawsuits on behalf of the people that have worked out really well.
00:26:18.460 And I'm sure many of you are arguing, well, good, shut down these gambling rooms.
00:26:21.540 They shouldn't exist.
00:26:22.980 The only argument is people believe it's not to end gambling, but to pave the way for large
00:26:29.460 casino resorts and to move the card rooms, shut them down so the casinos will own it.
00:26:37.280 This is the game that's being played, my friends.
00:26:40.640 Here's this is from Andrew Hramer.
00:26:43.660 If it walks and talks like gambling, it's probably gambling.
00:26:46.320 how popular video game loot boxes likely violate Texas gambling laws from 2025.
00:26:52.460 Interesting, I must say, my friends, here's the big play. Gambling is here to stay.
00:26:59.020 You may not like it, but there is nothing you can do to stop it. That's the reality.
00:27:04.300 International casinos exist. There's no law for the most. Well, for the most part, it's not illegal
00:27:09.740 for an individual to gamble. It's illegal for an institution to offer gambling. So what we're
00:27:14.520 seeing now is tons of people streaming gambling through crypto international casinos. It don't
00:27:21.260 matter anymore. I did a stream the other day playing poker on BetRivers, a certified Google
00:27:26.660 advertiser, and Google explicitly told me I am allowed to play and live stream with BetRivers.
00:27:33.160 Now, I'll stress this. Poker is a wholly different beast, specifically Texas Hold'em.
00:27:38.680 let's say PLO, let's say, you know, Pineapple and Badoogie. These are different than five-card
00:27:48.680 stud and other just overt poker gambling games like three-card poker and four-card poker and
00:27:55.280 things like that. It's resource management. If you want to say no direct wagers and the outcome
00:28:00.000 of cards is fine, then tournaments should be legal. But casinos own them. And the question
00:28:05.520 is why. A tournament is money paid up front where you play a resource management game where the
00:28:10.520 value, the chips have no real cash value and you either win or you lose. That's it. So why is that
00:28:15.720 considered gambling? By all means, if you want to consider gambling, that's allowed, but understand
00:28:19.580 what that's going to mean. It means that casinos will own all card games. They will own all loot
00:28:27.300 boxes. They will control all games of chance. So long as there's a tournament for it. Think about
00:28:34.640 what that means for every major city. You want to have a board game tournament? Is there a dice
00:28:39.460 roll element of chance? You've got to call the casino and say, we're having a Monopoly tournament.
00:28:44.760 Why wouldn't the casinos want that? Now, by all means, you might argue that's silly. 0.87
00:28:48.200 Casinos are never going to try and take over a Monopoly. Agreed. And they will face a battle
00:28:53.160 from Nintendo and Hasbro and other big companies. But if I was a casino operator and I was going to
00:28:59.820 open a casino in New York City. In fact, New York was going to open three. The first thing I would
00:29:05.900 do as attorney general, I'd say, okay, anything wagered on chance is being shut down as of right
00:29:13.340 now. If you want to do it, you got to pay a fee to the casinos. Why? Because the casinos pay me.
00:29:21.000 Ain't that a... I was talking with West Virginia people in the government, and they told me the
00:29:26.500 casinos here are very powerful. They make so much money. How do you beat them? And they want all of
00:29:33.960 these games owned and regulated by them. The hammer drop. The argument that I've made is because there
00:29:39.820 are unregulated card games that have never faced the predominant factor test, there is an open door
00:29:45.820 for a multitude of lawsuits every single time a new trading card game is played or made, in which
00:29:53.420 case, you either have to say, all chance games for money, fortunately, it's gambling. All skill
00:30:03.020 games of perfect information, not gambling. But this would mean that Pokemon, Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh!,
00:30:07.480 Lorcanaxxed, and all these games are going to be considered gambling because chance is a
00:30:10.440 substantial element of those games. Or you might argue, Tim, you're wrong. I think it's a skill
00:30:17.060 game. I play Magic. Here's the issue. And I ask you guys to comment below to tell me what you
00:30:22.240 think? Do you believe the state courts, the state lottery commissions will want to adjudicate
00:30:30.100 every single new trading card game that comes out or card game in general? No, they're not going to.
00:30:38.060 So what will they do? They will require licensing for all new trading card games before they can be
00:30:46.100 sold or played. Why not? You think the casinos are going to let them just allow people to make
00:30:53.000 games of chance that can be played for money? I don't think so. The big picture. Obviously,
00:31:00.660 you know, I care about this issue. I've talked about it quite a bit. But for all of you that
00:31:04.120 are less interested, the bigger picture is that Gen Z are becoming gambling influencers. 0.93
00:31:09.000 This is taking over. There will be casinos everywhere. They will lobby. They will control.
00:31:15.360 and young people are going to film it.
00:31:18.700 More and more new influences are popping up every day.
00:31:21.440 This, my friends, is the next big cultural zeitgeist.
00:31:25.100 Mark my words.
00:31:26.720 Have you not been paying attention?
00:31:29.120 Here's a story from July from Poker News.
00:31:32.300 Poker vlogger Corey Eyring risks entire net worth on one hand.
00:31:37.880 And oh boy, was he gambling.
00:31:39.900 For those that don't know, I'll explain it to you.
00:31:41.340 the board had five cards, 9, 7, 8, 3, 10. Now, that means there's 7, 8, 9, 10 of hearts.
00:31:48.660 That means the strongest possible hand would be the jack of hearts for the complete high.
00:31:55.580 Well, actually, to be clear, it would be jack queen, giving you 8, 9, 10 jack queen,
00:32:01.520 a queen high straight flush. Corey Eyring had just the ace. That gives what's called the nut
00:32:08.620 flush. Meaning, if there wasn't a sequence of hearts, the ace would be the highest value.
00:32:15.400 But because it went 7, 8, 9, 10, the ace will lose to Queen Jack, just a single Jack,
00:32:21.960 and just a single six. He was in for, I think, $100,000. No, no, it would be $50,000. I'm sorry,
00:32:30.260 $50,000. He had, what did he have left? Did he have 85? I don't know how much he was in for.
00:32:37.640 He put all of his money in with just the ace, which we would call that the fourth nuts,
00:32:42.360 the fourth strongest hand.
00:32:44.180 And then he said, I'm going to mix up my cards.
00:32:46.620 And if I flip over the ace of hearts, I will call you.
00:32:48.800 So he was gambling, pure gambling.
00:32:51.600 He didn't know if he was going to win or not.
00:32:53.480 And so he set it to chance, 50-50.
00:32:56.080 If I flip over the right card, I call.
00:32:58.220 That is gambling.
00:32:59.660 And that is what we are seeing heavily among young people.
00:33:01.960 In fact, in this one hand, I would largely say it was not gambling, this move that he made where he lost $30,000.
00:33:11.660 He tried to do an all-in bluff in an area where I think it didn't rightly make sense.
00:33:16.580 But he got called by someone who had a good hand, calculated the odds, thought that the story didn't make sense, and made the bet.
00:33:22.820 Some people said to the guy who called, how could you have called there?
00:33:25.800 But based on the play, I actually think it does make sense.
00:33:29.100 his call was good, and Corey risked everything poorly. My point ultimately is this. You can
00:33:36.240 gamble on anything. Cash games of poker, some people are gambling, some people are not.
00:33:41.600 It has an element of gambling that you're risking money on the outcome of cards, but the individual
00:33:45.240 hands dealt, it's not the whole game. The whole game is the four hours you play. When you go on
00:33:50.700 streams, they say you must play for four hours, unless you lose everything and you have no choice.
00:33:54.440 My point ultimately is, do you believe that casinos are going to allow any element of chance
00:34:02.640 games that they could control to be played anywhere else? And with this, it's to show you
00:34:07.320 a Gen Z guy who is trying to build a personality by making insane risks entertainment. Gen Z is
00:34:15.000 doing this like crazy. I don't play this way. Guys, I don't play this way. When I play games,
00:34:21.260 Like if you watched my stream last night on the Tim Pool channel, at Tim Pool on YouTube,
00:34:25.260 you can watch it.
00:34:27.040 $200 was my buy-in.
00:34:28.960 That's it.
00:34:29.820 I am not playing to make tons of money.
00:34:31.860 I'm playing just for the skill and the thrill and a resource management game.
00:34:36.480 I would never risk millions of dollars in any one of these games. 0.94
00:34:39.820 That's ridiculous.
00:34:41.080 I play small. 0.95
00:34:43.200 I play long-term because for me, it's not about money or gambling.
00:34:46.640 It's about tracking my skill in the game, my ability to read people, my math capabilities,
00:34:50.620 my resource management, and whether or not I'm a long-term winning player.
00:34:54.680 For young people, it is shock content entertainment, and it is taking over.
00:35:00.620 Tell me what you want.
00:35:02.160 Say gambling is bad.
00:35:03.720 The big picture is, oh boy, is it coming.
00:35:07.040 And special moneyed interests are coming.
00:35:09.740 Trump tried to open a casino.
00:35:11.240 Trump had the Taj Mahal, I think, right?
00:35:13.040 That's what he had in Vegas?
00:35:15.580 Was that what he had?
00:35:16.120 The Trump Taj Mahal?
00:35:16.540 I don't remember.
00:35:17.800 And he's got a big donor who wants casinos.
00:35:19.620 they are going to expand it. They're going to go after your video games. They're going to go
00:35:23.800 after your card games. It's coming. I guess in the end, the only thing I can really add to this is,
00:35:30.880 you know, what do you do about Gen Z being addicted to gambling? 0.97
00:35:35.420 I don't see how you ban it, especially when Trump's got a gambling ally.
00:35:39.240 Tell me what you think. Smash the like button, my friends. Share the show with everyone you know.
00:35:43.780 We got more coming up throughout the day. Thanks for hanging out and we will see you all in the
00:35:46.480 next show.
00:35:49.620 You