Okay, since I still don't know what Mikki's deal is, I don't want to make any allegations about his situation, other than stating that I don't believe he's beating -EV games long term or even medium term.

However, let's discuss fictitious generic gambler John Whaledoe, who bets huge money in Vegas casinos, and makes it very public on social media. What are the possible explanations for what's really going on with John?


1) Scamming or keeping in action: With money starting to run short (or at least short by the standards of the level he likes to bet), John creates an image as a nosebleed-stakes gambler who is crushing the casinos, hoping that will encourage others to "invest" in continued casino gambling. This is actually an old MLM trick, where salespeople would present a lavish lifestyle in order to sell "opportunities" to people. In other words, John is a much higher stakes version of Christopher Mitchell.

2) Money laundering: Casinos are a frequent tool for money laundering. By playing both sides of games like roulette and baccarat (using a second person to do so), a fake "win" can be established, and the money can come out clean on the other end, with a fairly clear expected loss in the process. This, of course, can be done without a social media backstory, but creating such a backstory could allow John's true scheme to fly under the radar amidst all the noise.

3) Celebrity: Dan Bilzerian built a brand, playing the part of high stakes poker player and alpha-male playboy. It worked. He developed a huge Instagram following, and is now semi-famous. John could be attempting to be the next Dan Bilzerian.

4) Rich guy who likes attention: Nobody likes feeling like a sucker. It's hard to get positive attention for megastakes casino gambling unless you also accompany it with stories of actually being an overall winner. John might just be a rich degenerate, either self-made, family money, or both, likes the attention he gets for it, but needs the attention to be positive.

5) Access to celebrities: Remmeber Rob Gorodetsky, the young fraudster who pretended to be a sportsbetting genius, when in reality he was just using other people's money to fund a degenerate lifestyle? But there was more to this. Gorodetsky actually befriended celebrities and athletes, who bought into his lie, and wanted to tail the bets of this "genius". Without this illegal scheme, there is no way any celebrities or athletes would have talked to Gorodetsky. Thus, the fake "winning gambler" persona was partially to open doors to these types of relationships. This could be John's story, too.

6) Creating other opportunities: It might be worth it for John to lose a certain amount of money, in order to get eyeballs onto his "success", which would then open the door for other business opportunties.