An email marketer, legendary spammer, slot machine enthusiast, gambling influencer, multimillionaire… Scott Richter’s journey has been anything but conventional. In the second part of this iGBA Barcelona 2025 speaker interview series, we speak to the man once sued by Bill Gates on his past lawsuits and the making of his viral YouTube channel The Big Jackpot.
With 855k followers on Facebook and 616k subscribers on YouTube, even Scott Richter has imposter syndrome.
The 53-year-old is renowned for his casino live-streaming videos, featuring a $1 million (€0.96m/ £0.80m) jackpot win in 2023 from a $250 bet. With over 2.5 million followers across platforms, his videos easily gather 150 to 200 million monthly views. In restaurants, at airports, in shopping malls… Richter would get recognised by fans eager for autographs nonstop. Casinos are smitten with him, frequently inviting him to play the latest slot machines for exposure.
Yet to his twin sons, Richter used to joke around: “Can you believe Dad’s hitting 100k followers on TikTok?”. To this day, he rarely signs autographs and describes himself as a “shy person”. The fame has also made his dating life hell, as he is often “swarmed by opportunists”, according to the New York Post.
“It takes a lot for me to speak in front of crowds. I wasn’t looking to be a celebrity. I wasn’t looking to be in the spotlight,” he says. “I was a behind-the-scenes operations person.”
Most people have problems after lawsuits because they would stop everything they were doing. For me, life doesn’t stop
From the Spam King
Richter has been in the affiliate marketing space for over two decades, but it’s only a recent development that he became an igaming influencer - and receives positive publicity. Before launching “The Big Jackpot” YouTube account in December 2015, Richter was best known as the “Spam King”, a title crowned by the media.
His curriculum in spamming is nothing short of colourful, having earned a spot in the top 100 spammers list by ROKSO. One of Richter’s legendary stunts was the offer of most-wanted Iraqi playing cards, selling 40,000 decks before they were even printed. In the halcyon days, he was sending 100 million emails a day. In return, Richter faced a $500 million lawsuit by Microsoft in 2003 and was sued again by MySpace in 2007 for allegedly accessing users’ accounts to send spam messages. The infamy brought him to an interview on The Daily Show with comedian Rob Corddry in 2004.
However, Richter was unfazed by the media barrage back then. When a reporter asked him for an interview amid the Microsoft saga, his explanation for “not now” was simply “I’m going to play hockey”.
“Then she was like, you just got sued, how are you gonna play hockey?” he recalls. “Well, most people have problems after lawsuits because they would stop everything they were doing. For me, life doesn’t stop.”
Does Richter feel sorry for those he spammed, though?
“I hope they enjoyed my emails,” he chuckles. Richter is a firm believer in “any publicity is good publicity” and says his controversy offered an opportunity to monetise. In the Wild West of the affiliate marketing world in the 2000s, the lawsuits soon became the industrial endorsement for “the best of the best” and made him the “poster child for email marketing”.
“I definitely always push the boundaries of what’s allowed in my career. Controversy causes publicity, and that’s what I’m doing. Even when I make my viral videos today, although they are not controversial, they are unique and they stand out,” Richter says.
To The Big Jackpot
As regulations tightened up in the marketing space, Richter’s company Dynamic Dolphin was terminated as a domain registrar in 2013 due to his felony convictions. But his pivot to the influencer world was more of a stumble than a strategic move. Richter has always had a penchant for gambling since he was 18, and when his ex-girlfriend offered to record bonuses, the YouTube channel was born.
Any gambler who tells you they win all the time is lying to you. In my entire life, I have lost more than I have won
Richter is among the world’s first 25 people to start slot streaming. The early start and the low competition helped him to attract views, and the channel quickly took off.
“Back then, social media was just at the beginning. Facebook had been around for a while, but it didn’t have video streaming. YouTube was infantile but it just rolled out live streaming. It was totally different,” Richter recalls. “I think I also put on a good show, I have good humour. If you watch other people in this space, many of them are not very funny.”
One of the most common hurdles for gambling streamers is that video recording is usually prohibited in casinos. However, being a high roller gave Richter the prerogative: “Nobody else was making any large bets, so people really liked my videos, and I was able to get permission from casinos to stream.”
Richter’s highest bet was on his birthday two years ago, when he spent a quarter of a million dollars on 50 spins, ultimately losing nearly all of it. Another YouTube video with 1.5 million views captures him losing $100,000 in just 10 minutes back in 2019.
“Any gambler who tells you they win all the time is lying to you. In my entire life, I have lost more than I have won. Some machines are all pure luck. There’s no strategy… But obviously, big wins like a million dollars helps to make up the gap of losses,” he says.
No easy feat
By 2025, the affiliate marketing landscape has shifted significantly over the past decade. With the rise of AI-driven search and unpredictable Google updates, many argue that SEO is dying. Although Richter disagrees with the pessimism and acknowledges the role of SEO in driving traffic for local casinos, he says “SEO is not as important as it used to be”.
“It would be pretty impossible for a casino site to be the number one in Google solely relying on SEO. Nowadays, it’s about branding,” he explains. “TikTok has also changed the algorithm for going viral. With other platforms, you have to do something that’s really good to meet the algorithm and get rewarded, but TikTok is random and gives everybody their five minutes of fame.”
Gambling is a hobby. You have to set a budget and you have to live within your means
Nevertheless, becoming a successful influencer is no easy feat. Apart from the increasing competition in the field, Richter notes he is “in a sport that requires a lot of effort, work and skills”. In an average month, he spends 18 to 22 days traveling to casinos to produce livestreams – many of which are vertically optimised for mobile devices – along with other daily content such as reviews and snappy meme videos. He has also designed a Big Jackpot app for direct access to his videos, events info, swag shop and an exclusive slot game.
For those looking to enter the igaming influencer space, Richter’s best advice is to “be true to yourself”.
“There’s gonna be lots of trials and errors. You have to find a niche, you have to know what your audience likes, and you have to think about what differentiates yourself from everyone else,” he says. “But if you are just doing the same thing I do, it will be very hard to grow and break into the market.”
He also warns aspiring influencers to steer clear from gambling addiction, noting that he has seen many enter the space solely to fund their habit.
“Gambling is a hobby. You have to set a budget and you have to live within your means. Imagine your budget is $100. You go to the casino, and hopefully, you win. But realistically, you’re planning on spending $100. If you get two or three hours of entertainment out of it, you’re happy.”
With the diversification of live streaming services, The Big Jackpot is branching out to newer platforms including Twitch. However, Richter doesn’t appear to have a fixed long-term goal – and he certainly has no plans to retire, as he enjoys the perks of the job. Three or four times a year, he would go on international casino cruises with his loyal fans, who he occasionally shares his jackpots with.
“Gambling is a very lonely sport. It’s very depressing, ” he says. “So it’s very nice we built this community around. I’ve helped so many people make friends. I’ve even married some. After all, it’s all about making it fun and interactive.”
Scott Richter currently lives in Colorado with his twin sons and two dogs. He will be speaking at “Crack the Code to Viral Success: The Ultimate Guide to a Million Views & Building a Robust Multi-Stream Influencer Business Model” on 22 January 2025 at iGBA Barcelona 2025.