Shadowing Practice: I Got Kids Addicted to Gambling (to prove how easy it is) - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Hi, I'm seven years old and I love video games.
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My dad, however, is addicted to gambling and I don't want to be like him, so I'm not gonna do that.
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I'm just gonna stick to good old fashioned video games.
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Hey, this is awesome!
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Hello.
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For the decades that casinos have existed, children have been unable to gamble in them.
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For pretty good reason, I'd say.
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Just because kids shouldn't gamble hasn't stopped people from trying to toe that line and get kids hooked on it young.
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And I know that because...
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I'm a victim of it.
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When I was 10 years old, I finished my first match of Counter-Strike and received an item.
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A weapons case.
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You could buy a key for it and you could win all sorts of items, all of which are worth real-world money.
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Now you and I see this as what it is.
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It's just gambling, but a little bit abstracted.
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Rather than spending money to win money, you're spending money on an item to win an item that is worth money.
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Now I was a pretty smart kid and I knew exactly what this was right away, so I made the right decision and- Hey, this looks like fun.
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I bought a key and I opened the case and I won.
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Huge.
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I won a knife worth $400.
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Okay, so just put yourself in my shoes.
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What do you do if you're a little kid
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and just won more money from gambling than you've ever owned in your entire life?
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Well, you sell it, buy a hundred more case keys, and then lose it all.
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Because you're like 10 and don't know how gambling works.
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Aw, cheer up buddy.
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The thrill of winning just changed your brain chemistry forever.
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I'm noticing that a lot of people have a pretty similar story to mine, And the more I think about it, the more that I realize how gambling really is everywhere.
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Everybody knows that a bunch of video games and child-friendly places have forms of gambling, but how deep does it really go?
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How many children are actually suffering from gambling addictions?
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Is it a profitable business?
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Can I make money doing it?
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And above all else...
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Now, there's only really one way that I can fully answer this question.
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But if I want to do
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that then I got to take a look at some other
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things first most importantly how much child gambling really is there on the internet?
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You know how prevalent is this issue?
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Yep, you guessed it.
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I'm gonna go undercover as a baby I want to pose as somebody who's one year old on the internet
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and see how much gambling I can expose myself to I remembered
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that the very first website I ever went on as a kid was Roblox So I just started there.
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Literally before I could even click off of the first page, Roblox recommended me this game.
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It was the seventh game that Roblox recommended to me.
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So uh, You want to see what this game is?
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You're kidding right?
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So you spend money to drop these little Plinko balls, and if they land on the right spots, then you can win money.
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Hey, wait a second.
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I'm one!
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I'm fucking one!
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This is the first game I played!
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This is an example of a simulated gambling or harmless betting, which is thankfully not all that dangerous for kids.
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It just makes them four times more likely to get gambling addictions.
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It's not technically gambling because you can't really win any real-life money, but you can spend a real-life money to win more fake money.
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So it's like gambling, but way cooler.
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But something in this game just felt kinda off.
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There was a swarm of children sitting in front of this Plinko board.
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None of them were talking, barely any of them were moving.
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They were just staring straight ahead, clicking the drop button over and over again.
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Completely fixated at what they were looking at.
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Alright, I think I've seen enough of that game, so let's go check something else out on Roblox.
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The first couple games are Tower Defense RNG, Winter Dungeon RNG.
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All these games with RNG in the title are games where you spin a wheel and get something.
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That's pretty much it.
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You're fucking kidding me, right?
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It mostly just seems like rebranded slot machines to me.
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Say, this kind of looks familiar, doesn't it?
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Look at all these kids, dude.
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King of Beast Mode, KC.
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I underscore love my brother.
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These are genuine children just locked here like zombies, doing nothing but rolling the fucking car wheel.
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Who knows what kind of long-term damage this is doing to these kids' brains.
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I don't know if it's a direct pipeline from Plinko RNG to becoming one of these people,
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but it can't be good for kids to have the feeling of winning burnt into their mind from a young age, right?
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I mean, after winning that knife, I was legit addicted to CSGO cases for years.
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Pretty much every dollar that I made for mowing the lawn went straight back into CSGO case keys.
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Sorry, mom and dad, I think you thought I was saving for college or something.
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God knows what this is going to look like in an era where online gambling is literally everywhere that you look.
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FanDuel, official partner of the NBA.
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That MG app.
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Hard Rock's back.
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Points back.
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You know what to do.
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Alright, well, I think we've answered our first question gambling and related themes are very prevalent online for children.
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But it is all simulated gambling.
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I mean, nobody's actually losing any money, right?
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Did you ever engage in any gambling when you were a child?
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Yes.
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I'd say totally, man.
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Dude, yes.
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Oh, yeah.
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Oh, did I ever.
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Yeah, oh, yeah.
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A lot.
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Yes.
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Yeah.
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Yes, yes, I have.
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Yes.
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Yeah.
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Yes.
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$750.
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Oh my god!
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A good $200.
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What?
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As you can tell, like, I was in the green.
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Oh my god.
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You go there and you gamble your robux away.
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40 bucks a night.
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Like at least $200.
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These case gambling sites?
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I didn't even play CSGO.
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I just wanted to get in on it. $100.
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I did not win anything.
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Ever.
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Wow.
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There are really a lot of ways to get kids to gamble online.
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I think that goes to show how these gambling mechanics are not only prevalent, but also predatory for these younger people.
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I just wish that I could examine this problem further.
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You know, maybe see it from the other side.
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Like run a virtual casino myself and see if I can get kids addicted to it.
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I'm not fucking around either.
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I'm putting my genuine best effort into getting kids addicted to gambling.
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I thought a lot about the ways that I can do this, but the best answer is the most obvious one.
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Roblox.
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Okay, so you see a game like Plinko RNG, right?
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Sure, it's gambling, but there's also a lot of colorful lights, and they're cute little pets you can buy with your money.
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Stupid and unnecessary.
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So I took some inspiration and made a game with a lot less fun, but a lot more gambling.
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Now I love programming, but I don't want to bore you with all those details.
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Instead, I'll just condense it into a 20 second drum and bass montage. Are these playable?
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Oh, oh, oh, God!
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What do you think?
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I just thought I would like screw something with like a little decor?
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If you do want to know how the game is made, I'll just flash some text up on the screen for like two seconds.
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Alright, that's enough.
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And I know what you want to see.
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You want to see what it looks like what it looks like.
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I named it Row Slots, and this is what a player would see upon entering the game.
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It's a slot machine.
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There's very little else to the game.
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All you get is $500 and a spin button.
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There's a leaderboard and there's a shop where you can buy this cool hat, but really the game is meaningless.
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It's set in a dingy warehouse, there's basically nothing you can use your money on, and there is no purpose whatsoever.
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The only reason you would play this game is to spin
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the slot The only reason you would play this game is because you love the slot machine.
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And just like real life, if you run out of money, you just spiral into debt.
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This is where the real test comes in, because there's only one way to get out of debt.
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You just have to be dedicated enough to do it.
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All right, well, uh, my Roblox game is done.
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The only issue is that now I got to get people to actually play the game so I can, you know, experiment on them.
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I tried a few things over the course of a week, but nothing was really working too well.
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I tried to advertise it via word of mouth just in popular games.
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I think nobody actually went to Squid Game.
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Hey, I got a question for you, Pablo.
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Do you like to like playing gambling games on Roblox like slot machines and stuff?
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Yeah, I actually just made a very famous casino I couldn't even get one person to play it
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and eventually I just got laughed off the server Did I?
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Yes, yeah What'd you sit what what what what and I tried turning Jimmy into a gambling kick streamer yes Yes,
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I see there's a farter here.
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I see you.
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Oh I seem to have lost all my money. So...
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When you're up, you can't get fucking tilted, but right now I want to stab everybody in the room.
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We should talk about...
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Alright.
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I'm not sure I fit in here.
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But I couldn't get many people to actually play the game, so it looks like I'm gonna have to go with my last resort.
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I'm gonna have to spend money on Roblox advertising.
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Specifically, I paid for my game to show up and search next to games like Plinko RNG and other games like that.
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I also wasn't super confident in the branding for my game, so I paid somebody on five or twenty bucks to make a thumbnail for me.
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Wow, it looks like total slop, but the kids are gonna love it!
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All in all though, I had no idea if this was actually gonna work to get my game out there.
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After starting the ads, I nervously logged on, and to my surprise, somebody was playing!
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People were joining left and right!
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Unfortunately, I broke the game, and everybody just had zero dollars.
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But uh, at least the ads were working.
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There's three people and they all have zero money because I broke it!
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I quickly fixed the problem and row slots was off and running.
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So what I'm looking for is a few things.
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Are kids having fun playing my game?
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Do they play it for more than just a few minutes at a time?
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And most importantly, are they willing to go to extreme lengths to get themselves out of debt?
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That's an actual mechanic that I put in the game, by the way.
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You can get out of debt if you yourself.
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I think that we can use these metrics to see if it's actually this easy to get kids hooked on gambling.
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The first day was very successful.
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A lot of people were genuinely enjoying my game.
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There's three other people here.
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They're all just sitting completely still, eyes glossed over, just gambling.
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Even though there was nothing that you could do with your money, these kids just couldn't stop hitting the spin button.
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This guy just joined, lost all of his money instantly, and is now just looking at me.
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A lot of people just came and went, but there was a good amount of people who genuinely loved the game.
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Oh my God.
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Like this person who was playing for at least an hour when somebody joined and the two started fighting in chat.
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Did I just witness a couple break up because one of them couldn't stop playing my slot machine?
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I think it's pretty safe to say that so far this game has been a major success.
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Day 2 started off just as strong, and from the moment that I joined, there were people playing the game.
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The leaderboard was full of names that I didn't recognize, so clearly a lot of people played overnight.
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In fact, I even saw this guy who was playing for a really long time yesterday.
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He loved the game so much that he came back for more!
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Even the person who lost their spouse playing my slot machine came back to play again!
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This guy came back too!
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Mine's biggest fan!
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This person played for like a solid...
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It looks pretty obvious to me.
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The game was popping off.
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Just kidding, it's not popping off.
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It's actually been banned.
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I woke up on day three to a message saying that Rose Slots has been taken down.
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I sent them a very polite appeal, but they just denied me instantly.
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They said that my game had playable gambling, which is against the Roblox guidelines.
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Weird.
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Huh.
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I mean, it does make sense.
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It is a slot machine, after all.
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So, just out of curiosity, I want to look...
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Oh.
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What the fuck, Roblox?
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Either ban all gambling or ban none of it.
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Hashtag bring back row slots.
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Whatever it is, I'm not done with row slots.
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I want to send it off with a bang, but if I'm gonna do that, then I'm gonna have to sneak below the wall.
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So I copied row slots over to Jimmy's account and then I renamed it to Row Arcade.
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Either way, I think that our question has already been answered.
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Kids clearly had a lot of fun playing my game and we saw some people who were...
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devoted.
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On top of that, people played it for a decently long time.
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25% were still playing after five minutes, which to my knowledge is pretty damn good.
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I'd like to note that the ages of the people who played the longest?
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Ages 9 through 12.
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That being said though, I want to give Roe Slots a grand send-off.
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So I went live on Twitch with an inconspicuous Roblox Casino Night.
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I played a few other casino games and then stumbled upon Roe Arcade.
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My viewers had no idea that it was my game.
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They just kind of blindly followed me in
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and I watched in a blaze of glory as more people played row slots than ever have before.
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Who Can Benefit from This Video?
This video is perfect for intermediate English learners aiming to boost conversational skills, especially for IELTS speaking practice. Its mix of casual storytelling and critical discussion helps you grasp real-world language use, making it ideal for those working on fluency and understanding informal speech. The narrative style also suits learners practicing the shadowing technique, as the speaker’s pace and tone are easy to mimic.
Words & Idioms Worth Stealing
- Toe that line: To act close to a rule without breaking it. Example: "Companies often toe the line between creativity and copyright laws."
- Abstracted: Made less direct or clear. Example: "Her explanation was abstracted, so I asked for details."
- Prevalent: Widespread. Example: "Social media is prevalent among teens today."
- Undercover: Pretending to be someone else. Example: "The journalist went undercover to expose the scam."
These phrases add depth to your speech, useful for both daily conversations and exams like IELTS.
How to Get the Accent Right
The speaker uses a conversational American accent with natural pauses and emphasis. To practice, focus on shadowspeak (repeating lines immediately after the speaker) to mimic:
- Contractions: "I'm", "don't", "you're" – these make speech sound natural.
- Stress on key words: In "I won a knife worth $400", stress "won" and "$400" to highlight the surprise.
- Intonation in questions: The rise in "You're kidding right?" shows disbelief – copy this to convey emotion.
Practicing with this video helps refine your shadow speech skills, making your English sound more native-like. For best results, pause and repeat short sections, focusing on rhythm and tone.
Learning English with YouTube videos like this combines entertainment with practical skill-building, making it a powerful tool for improving speaking and listening. Whether you’re prepping for IELTS or just want to sound more confident, the shadowing technique and focus on real-world phrases here will accelerate your progress.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have existed · hasn't stopped · you've ever owned |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is addicted · is made · be dedicated |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | betting, which is · people who genuinely · person who was |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.