I arrived in Barcelona around 9am, having been up 5 hours already. It was the first day of the International Casino Expo, which is in it’s inaugural year in its new home in mainland Europe. The casino and gambling world was about to descend on the Catalan capital and I was fortunate enough to have bagged some time with one of the best known Youtube stars in this industry.
A genuine slots celebrity
Brian Christopher, a land-based slots player and entertainer, was in Barcelona promoting his new slot ‘Brian Christopher’s World Cruise’. If you are not familiar with Brian’s work, he has an incredibly popular Youtube Channel, packed full of playing sessions at casinos around North America – typically in Vegas and his native state of California. Brian’s empire has grown phenomenally in recent years, with his own self-branded website, promoting land-based and online slots, as well as merch and cruise tickets.
I met Brian and his partner Marco in the media centre of the Expo. He is tall, slim, and greets me with a broad friendly smile. Anyone that knows his content will be familiar with his gregarious personality, which often finds him at the centre of a crowd of loyal fans in the casino. However, this morning he was more relaxed and, after a few pleasantries, we got into the Q & A.
Gamingslots: Do you remember the first time you played a video slot and can you tell me about that experience?
Brian Christopher: I had to think about this really hard, back to when you had to put coins in the machines. It goes back to when I was 19, I was living in Canada, where I am from. There was a game called the ‘Big Bang Piggy Bankin’, which was a mechanical-reeled slot machine, but if you got the bonus there was a digital screen above. It wasn’t even a proper digital screen, but this was when I fell in love with slots.
This is when I fell in love with slots.
GS: And did you get a win on this slot game?
BC: I did yes! Buckets of coins filling up. The sound of the coins dropping and the machine making noises was very exciting. I recall when coins were being replaced with tickets and everyone hated the idea at the time, but it didn’t take long for us to get used to it and eventually the coin machines were all replaced and mechanical slots were largely replaced with digital ones.
GS: Tell me about the new slot you are launching? What is it called and what are the features of this new game?
BC: It’s called Brian Christopher’s World Cruise, it’s my second land-based slot machine. The first one came out 3 years ago, which was called Brian Christopher’s Pop and Pays More. So this one, from the ground up, was created just for us, whereas the previous slot was a remake of another game.
BC: We host a number of cruises every year, so it made sense to create a cruise-themed slot that our fans could enjoy. There are also very few games on this theme, so it seemed like a great opportunity to try something different.
It made sense to create a cruise-themed slot
On cruises, quite often there will be these little rubber duckies hidden all over the place, which players love to discover. So we made a rubber ducky a main part of the game. There are 3 ducks at the top of the screen, which grow, and the bigger they get the bigger the bonus. You will find me in the game as The Captain, and Marco makes an appearance as one of the wild symbols in the bonus. The game has a lot of features and it also has a lot of voice-overs from me, with many of my favourite sayings.
GS: What is the volatility of Brian Christopher’s World Cruise?
BC: I would say it’s probably a medium.
GS: Will this be available online or just in land-based?
BC: It will start out as a land-based slot machine. We are hoping to officially release it end of March at the Plaza Casino in Vegas. After that it will be rolled out to other states and countries.
GS: Do you play your own branded slots?
BC: All the time! A lot of the features and interactions in the game we helped build, so I love them. My new game is going to be even better, so I can’t wait for it to come out. Brian Christopher’s Pop and Pays More is available on a social casino, so I can play that anytime I want.
GS: Can I ask who makes your branded slot?
Gaming Arts makes the slot machine and VGW has the rights to have it on their website through Chumba Casino.
GS: Do you have a favourite land-based casino?
BC: So there is Plaza Casino in Vegas, which I go to every month. I have my own space there, it’s called the Brian Christopher Slots at Plaza area. An area they built for us, which has all my favourite slots in it and is also smoke free – something I am a big proponent of.
Closer to home in California, I tend to go to Yaamava Casino quite a lot. It’s the biggest casino resort on the West Coast. We’re talking over 7000 slot machines, 5-star hotel, it’s stunning in every aspect.
GS: Do you get time to go to casinos recreationally, without the camera?
BC: I really don’t do recreational gambling anymore, I just don’t have time. What I will do is work between 8am – 6pm on new content, then shower and go have dinner, and then after that I will go play some slots on my own, just to unwind – that’s how I relax.
I also spend a lot of money on slots during my work days, so spending more on my downtime doesn’t always seem such a good idea.
GS: You have a lot of catchy sayings, where did they come from?
BC: Yes, my sayings, ha ha, well there is a funny story to many of these. So, the word ‘rude’, I had no idea that I was saying this a lot in my videos. However, it didn’t take long for my fans to start repeating back to me ‘rude’ in the comments. The name of my fan club is now known as ‘The Rudies’ – so that one really stuck.
I remember this one time we were filming, I’m in the bonus and you really want to get the words, the Mini, the Minor, the Major, you know. So I literally just came out with ‘Come on, tell me a story’ as in the words on the screen. All of a sudden everyone was like ‘I love that idea’ so that one became popular.
Another day I just started rubbing the slot machine, which is something I don’t like seeing other people do as I am not superstitious. However, I stupidly made the comment ‘it’s like I am windexing the machine’ and that caught on like that. Now fans are like ‘windex the machine, windex the machine’, so you have to be careful what you say.
GS: I have seen them in the comments, people firing back at you ‘Line ‘em up buttercup’.
BC: Yep, ‘Line ‘em up buttercup’, that one came in the beginning and another one is ‘Banza’. That one came out of a live recording where I was playing the recently released Karate Kid game and the machine kept saying ‘Banza’ every time I got a win. It took me twenty minutes to realise it doesn’t say ‘Banza’, it says ‘Bonsai’, but I guess ‘Banza’ just stuck and fans loved it. We now sell t-shirts with the word ‘Banza’ on them.
It took me twenty minutes to realise it doesn’t say ‘Banza’, it says ‘Bonsai’
GS: Is your audience mainly from North America?
BC: The majority are, it’s about 75% in the US. We also have lots of fans in Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand.
GS: Is there a part of the US that you are really popular in?
BC: It tends to be the states where there are a lot of land-based casinos already. Throughout California is big, Oklahoma is big, New Jersey is big, Vegas is big.
BC: We tend to find that my fans watch the channel for different reasons. Some like to see me play big stakes, sometimes hundreds of dollars a spin. Others like to check out slots I will try out that are unusual or different. Slots are way more complicated then they used to be, so you can learn a lot from a channel like mine if that is what you are into.
GS: Do you like to try out new slot games?
BC: Of course, I will be playing something new and I will be like ‘I have no idea why anyone would play this game’ and then boom, all of a sudden a big bonus drops in and I am like ‘ah, now I get it’. So trying out new slot games is something I like to do a lot on my channel.
GS: In a recent blog post you spoke passionately about authentic play. Why is authentic play so important to you?
BC: Authentic play is really important to me as I am not putting on some pretend show, it’s actually me. My fans will often comment on how they love how I am the same in-person as I am in my videos. When it comes down to it I am playing with my own money, not money the casino has given me to play with. That way it is real, it’s not an act, it’s the ups and downs of a real gambler. That is also why I will post all my wins and all my losses. Everything is uploaded in the order it was filmed and we share all the recorded content in my channel.
I want to make sure I promote responsible gambling, it’s important to me that we show all my wins and all my losses, so fans that follow along can see that I’m not winning all the time. I know fans trust me because of this and it’s really important to me that we do it this way – to show the reality. I coined the phrase ‘always use an entertainment budget’, as I believe people should only spend what they can afford.
I feel that my fans see me in themselves, ‘Oh Brian loses like I do, that’s good’. I want them to know that the reality of gambling is that you will lose as well as win.
GS: You mentioned earlier that you are an advocate for making casinos smoke free. Why do you feel so strongly about this?
BC: I don’t know why it is still a thing that you can smoke in a casino in the US. I came from Canada and when I left Canada there was no more smoking in casinos and they were doing just fine. I got to The States and I was just shocked – I mean why is there still smoking here? I thought that was a thing of the past. We know from all the education on this that smoking is bad for you, yet gamblers, staff, and anyone else in that casino is exposed to smoke. So why is it still a thing?
BC: There seems to be this long held belief that smoking and gambling go hand in hand, and it has been proven that it doesn’t. Smoking is dwindling in the US and is now at about 11% of the adult population, yet casinos still are allowing people to light up indoors. There is some evidence that a higher proportion of gamblers smoke than the country average, but it still doesn’t justify why everyone has to breathe it in.
It’s not smokers that play slots, it’s gamblers that play slots
In my experience, a lot of the casinos don’t do the research. They just assume they are busy because they allow smoking, but in my opinion they are busy because people like to gamble – not to smoke. If you want to attract smokers you can make a sexy patio area outside with heaters, but don’t force your staff and patrons to breathe it all in and potentially get cancer from doing so.
We are very pleased with our relationship with The Plaza, who built a gaming room for us from the ground up. It is 100% smoke free and has its own ventilation system. I really hope more casinos pick this us and they realise the benefits from it. I really hope that within the next 5-10 years smoking is eradicated from casinos in the US.
GS: What are you doing in Europe? Will you be producing any new content while you are here?
BC: Were going to check out the Casino Barcelona while we are here. I’ve never been before, so that should be fun. I am also going to visit some of the manufacturers at the Expo and we may do some content there. We did a live stream with my fans at the welcome drinks last night, which was really great.
GS: Can you tell me about your collaboration with SportsGrid?
BC: Yes, this is something I am super-excited about, it’s only just started. They have a huge network in The States, which is predominantly Sports. We have just launched some content with them that they are trying out, and SportsGrid will soon launch a casino platform too.
With SportsGrid we are going to be producing a brand new TV show, a Brian Christopher show, which is going to be slots based. We are still working out how it is going to look, we’re having lots of meetings right now, and figuring things out. My fans are ready for it though, they cannot wait. They have been begging for something like this.
GS: Land-based v’s online, tell me what you feel are the pros and cons
BC: They both have pros and cons. The excitement is level on a casino floor is unmatched. You got the loud music, the atmosphere, and you can hang out with your friends. Whereas online you can do it at home in your underwear, you don’t have to get dressed up or anything like that. Also online your Return to Player (RTP) is typically higher, so your money is going to go a lot further. Online you also have the benefit of some responsible gambling controls, like setting your own limits and play time.
Legal online casino gambling is coming in the US and I work closely with BetMGM in the states where it is legal and I also work with Chumba Casino on social casino, so we will see how things progress over the coming years with more states coming online.
Interview ends.
Gamingslots would like to thank Brian and Marco for making the time to speak to us. Photos and permission to use recording material were granted by Brian Christopher. Please contact us if you wish to use any of the material in this interview.
Listen to the interview with Bryan Christoper here:
