How Gambling Predicts the Next Recession
Duration
17:11
Captions
1
Language
EN
Published
Sep 17, 2025
Description
Try OpusClip with my link https://clip.opus.pro/dashboard?special_credit=GEN for 1 free week + 3 months at 50% off ----------------------- 🗞️ Sign up to our free newsletter to get smarter about money and power in 5 minutes, every week: https://www.themoneytrails.com/ ----------------------- Follow GEN on social media: 📸 Follow me on IG: @genkimura // https://www.instagram.com/genkimura/ 📱 Follow me on X: @genkimura_ // https://x.com/genkimura_ ----------------------- Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:31 How Gambling Infiltrated Everyday Life 06:03 How Gambling Infiltrated Women 12:07 How Small Bets Predict Economic Collapse 14:59 How Gambling is Dictating the Future ✉️ For sponsorship inquiries, please contact business@exploretheunfamiliar.com 📧 To inquire about collaborations or personal requests, send an email here: producer@exploretheunfamiliar.com 👕 Get Merch here: https://shop.exploretheunfamiliar.com/
Captions (1)
Yeah, you electabus. Wa.
When you were a kid, how much did you
spend on Pokémon boosters or hope that
you'll get your favorite toy that you
wanted from your Happy Meal? Well,
congratulations.
You were gambling. Stick with me here.
But as adults, we've gotten to a point
where you're gambling every single day.
It's all without you even knowing it. In
fact, companies are spending billions to
further turn consumption into the
world's most hidden casino. And they've
already successfully expanded their
targets. One in two American men aged 18
to 49 already have a gambling account,
but now it's increasingly reaching women
with creepy toys, blind boxes, and
retail therapy. So, how exactly do we
get from childhood toys to now
everything we buy feeling like a gamble?
Well, after weeks of research, I found
that this goes way beyond this secret
form of the gambling epidemic. To a
point where the US is increasingly
becoming an economy that runs on it.
Because when life gets unaffordable,
addiction usually becomes the only
escape. But if something isn't done
about this soon, it's slowly becoming an
addiction without a cure.
How much did you spend on La Boooos last
month?
Probably like 700.
You're choosing $700 in La Boooos over
your marriage. blind boxes for many many
of the consumers is an experience and so
you've been investing that anticipation
and you want that big payoff. So in that
sense it resembles very strongly
gambling.
So to understand how gambling has
infiltrated almost every aspect of
American life, we need to go back in
history. Because what you're about to
see is that this only became possible
under the right economic conditions. And
to get there, an entire generation,
including many of you watching, were the
very guinea pigs that made everything
that we see today happen. So with that,
let's start in the 1950s. Because back
then, buying American products wasn't
just shopping. It was like a patriotic
duty. So much so that American leaders
were literally branding mass consumption
as freedom. Unlike the Soviet Union
state controlled communistic economy and
it worked. By the 1960s, middle-ass
Americans enjoyed a living standard
never before seen in history. And
consumption became a way to prove
capitalism superiority. But then zooming
forward, the cracks started showing. The
1970s brought foreign competition. In
the 1980s, we saw auto workers smashing
Toyotas with sledgehammers, furious that
Japanese imports were taking American
jobs. And by the 90s, when the Cold War
ended, so did the us versus them
narrative that slowly started fading
away. And as globalization and
outsourcing took over, the byamerican
campaigns also started fading in the
mainstream. But look, here's where it
gets interesting. Because as patriotic
consumption died, something else was
being born. Companies like Walmart began
branding themselves as priceconscious
retailers as they started noticing that
consumers were increasingly becoming
price and novelty driven.
And you'll always find low prices.
That's our promise and our commitment to
you.
But the problem was competing on low
prices usually makes it a lot harder to
build loyalty. And so companies needed a
new way to create addiction. And you and
I became the perfect guinea pigs. While
this economic shift was happening,
companies began quietly experimenting on
kids by turning shopping into more of a
game of chance. So remember, Happy Meal
toys, Pokémon card packs, claw machines
at the arcade. The collect them all
appeal drove repeated purchases in
pursuit of rare items. But more
importantly, in pursuit of unpredictable
rewards. And this is key here because
what unpredictability taps into is a
powerful conditioning that psychologists
call the intermittent reinforcement. In
short, it triggers a bunch of dopamine
into your brain. As you can imagine,
it's the same mechanism that makes
gambling so addictive.
Yes.
A 2023 study found that over 90% of
young adults recalled playing call
machines as children, and those who did
so more frequently were significantly
more likely to gamble as adults. And the
same playbook is being repeated with
today's kids but at scale. For us, it
might have been claw machines, but
today's kids are on Roblox, which is
free to play, but it hooks kids through
in-game purchases and random rewards.
So, I'll get into all this, but as
consumption evolved, companies started
figuring out that the best way to create
lifelong customers is to condition us
early on as kids to crave surprises and
random rewards. And as I'll reveal by
the end of the video, the uncertainty
surrounding today's economy almost
guarantees that this is about to get a
whole lot worse. And as you know, with
gambling, the house always wins. But
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Because just how companies perfected
this formula on kids, companies have now
figured out how to get into a previously
untapped market. Because we all know
that traditional gambling already has a
grip over men through sports betting and
poker, but women have historically
avoided these spaces. So their master
plan was this. Instead of calling it
gambling as we know it, the goal was to
make it cute, social, and about treating
yourself.
And I have to give it to them because
it's absolutely genius and it's working
like crazy. And a perfect example of
this are blind boxes. Walk into any
trendy toy store today and you'll see
this collectible toys packaged like
mystery prizes where you don't know
what's inside until you open it. And the
poster child for this trend, this little
guy here, if you're 90% of my audience,
you probably have absolutely no idea
what this is, but this is a laboo. And
these goblin face, to be honest, I don't
know what it is, is made from a Chinese
toy maker called PopMart. And it's
achieving cult status.
I wanted labuboos.
What is a boo boo?
A laboo.
Lab boo.
Laboo.
Celebrities from Rihanna to K-pop bands
have all been spotted carrying laboo.
Limited edition drops sell out within
hours and people wait hours in line just
to buy one of these things.
The universe is about to give you a
gift. I'm dead wrong.
In fact, demand is so high that there's
an entire resale market. Rare boooos
fetch three times more than their
original price. $80 or more for aing
figurine that retails around $30 to $45.
But the reason why it's gotten this way
is because these blind boxes exploit the
very same psychological triggers as slot
machines, but it's cute. They play on
curiosity and anticipation, collection
and completion impulses and FOMO from
the limited availability that they
release. And all this taps into the
variable ratio reward system where every
purchase is a chance of hitting the
jackpot or in practice pulling a secret
rare labu that completes your
collection. and the fact that it's in a
blind box where you don't know which toy
you're going to get when you buy one.
It's the very point. It's the gambling
thrill that gets you hooked like one of
the 75% of PopMart's customers that are
young women. So, if you really think
about it, blind boxes are essentially
just slot machines on steroids, but for
women, and they're making billions of
dollars on this behind the fact that
it's so cute. Sorry. But anyways, blind
boxes are just the beginning of what I
call softcore gambling. And it's not
just infiltrating young women. There's
even examples like social casinos that
literally simulate slot machines, poker,
and other casino games, except no real
money is won. And you start playing with
virtual coins in which you can buy more
coins using real cash. And these social
casino apps like Slot Mania are made up
of 72% women, mainly aged around 35 to
55. But the most concerning soft
gambling example is in gamified shopping
that is designed to make spending money
feel less like shopping and more like
gaming. You probably heard of Sheen and
Teimu by now, but what you may not know
is that their user base is 63 to 66%
women versus Amazon, which primarily
skews male. And if you've ever been on
it, you can probably guess why this is
the case. As soon as you go on, you get
blasted with slot machines and spin the
wheel popups for mystery coupons and
flash sales and timers telling you that
you have to buy now. And by creating
these artificial urgencies, these apps
nudge users to buy now, think later,
where the deal itself becomes a jackpot
if you're able to snag it in time. And
through all these examples, what the
question now becomes is, what explains
this massive gender divide between
softcore and hardcore gambling? Simply
put, it's psychology. Research shows
that the further you move away from
money on the table towards surprise for
its own sake, the more female the
audience becomes. In simple terms, women
respond more to lowrisk steady rewards
focused on collection, completion, and
community rather than pure competition.
Think about it this way. A girl buying a
Laboo finds happiness in finally getting
the pink bunny or whatever the hell it
is that completes their zodiac set.
Whereas men are more likely to gamble
for the competitive and financial
reasons like Logan Paul making an entire
video flexing how he finally got this
ultra rare Pokemon card that costs
millions. So, just to drive the point
home, men prefer more of these
highstakes environments, like the fact
that 96% of the players in the 2025
World Series of Poker were men versus
only 4% women. And as you can imagine
with these gender differences, so is the
differences in the business model of
these companies. Traditional hardcore
gambling relies on a small percentage of
whales or high rollers that spend huge
amounts of money.
The most you lost in around 300,000. But
so gambling is the direct opposite.
Instead of needing every each user to
spend a lot, they need millions of users
to spend a little. And so the goal
becomes fundamentally different where
it's more about making every customer a
consistent spender by keeping them
within the ecosystem. And they're doing
that successfully. Nearly half of
PopMart's purchases are from returning
customers. And there's a whole ass
community. fans attend PopMart
conventions, share collections on social
media, and anticipate new releases just
like a sneaker head would wave for the
new Jordans. And it's how just in a
couple of years, they've skyrocketed to
a multi-billion dollar valuation by
selling what are essentially cheap 5
cent toys for $45.
By turning retail into a reoccurring
service with built-in reasons to come
back, they've turned millions of women
into consistent gamblers without them
realizing it. And the genius play behind
it is that they're creating an illusion
of winning for the customer, making
spending feel like playing. And it's all
built on a system where the house is
guaranteed to win. But like I've been
saying, none of this can happen without
the right economic conditions. Because
what most people aren't talking about is
that this gambling epidemic isn't
random. It's a direct response to
economic desperation.
When people can't afford the big things
in life, they start making small bets on
happiness instead. And this pattern of
behavior is actually an economic
indicator that predicts when everything
is about to collapse. In fact, there's
even a theory for all of this. In the
aftermath of 2001, the chairman of Estee
Lauder, the beauty empire that owns
brands like Labau and Clinique, noticed
something strange. Lipstick sales were
surging despite a slumping economy. And
he noticed it again after the 2008
financial crash. Lipstick sales spiked.
And during the inflation of 2022, the
same thing happened. He called it the
lipstick index. that when times get
tough, people swap big purchases for
small luxuries. And it wasn't just
lipstick, but fancy chocolates, $10
lattes, and artisal candles. All these
sales surged when a house, car, or
vacation became unaffordable. It kind of
makes sense when you think about it.
These little treats that make you feel
better become a guilt-free bet on
happiness. If we're going to get all
technical, it serves as this economic
escapism to cope with the fact that the
bigger goals in life has become
impossible. And that's exactly what
we're seeing now, but on steroids with
blind boxes, social casinos, and
gamified shopping. But it's not just
women. Men, too, are doing this, but
just a little differently. Right now,
Google searches for how to day trade are
at all-time highs. And just how
unemployment numbers serve as recession
predictors, so does unconventional
spikes in amateur day trading.
Historically, we also saw this in 2021
during the AMC short squeeze frenzy. And
when paychecks started becoming
uncertain, people started chasing fast
money and upside to make up that
difference in income. And when regular
people lose hope in steady jobs and find
overconfident hope in easy trading apps,
recession typically followed within the
next 6 to 12 months. And with online
gambling becoming more legal and
available, this desperation is showing
up in the fact that one in two American
men today have a gambling account. So
when traditional paths to prosperity
like home ownership, stable careers,
building wealth, feels more like the
lottery than a certainty, both men and
women don't just stop seeking rewards.
They just downsize their bets in
different ways when the big wins in life
seem impossible. And these companies are
smart because they're hooking you in an
endless dopamine loop where your
economic anxiety continues to get
monetized. But the more dangerous aspect
about this is that it's not just
changing how we spend money. It's
starting to change reality itself.
Because when everything becomes a bet,
the line between prediction and
manipulation starts disappearing. And
that's where everything truly gets
scary.
And believe it or not, we just saw this
threshold get crossed this year. Just
over a month ago, something kept
happening in the middle of WNBA games.
No, it wasn't people deciding to sleep
during the game. Let's just say that
people were throwing certain objects on
the court.
And you can see the object, the block
right there. The object comes, that
green thing bounces, and it goes to the
sideline. And after a few of these
incidents started happening, platforms
like Poly Market that allow people to
bet on real life events started posting
a market for people to predict which day
the next object will be thrown. So think
about what that means. Like this guy
says, prediction markets aren't just
predicting outcomes anymore. They're
encouraging people to interfere and
create future outcomes. We're literally
at a stage where platforms and betterers
profit from disrupting future events
because it drives engagement and betting
volume. And so even if you don't shop on
Sheen or place bets on draft picks, you
and I included are increasingly engaging
in this overall gambling economy. One
where companies profit from creating
addictive spending behavior like
gamblers feeding coins into a machine
that's ultimately rigged against them.
So, the choice is yours, really. I mean,
it's your money. But next time you're
about to make that purchase to treat
yourself, really ask yourself, am I
buying something I need, or am I buying
a temporary fix for my economic anxiety?
Could that money be invested in
something that could actually change
your situation, or are you just feeding
the machine that keeps you exactly where
you are? Because in an economy where
everything is a bet, just like gambling,
the house always wins. So maybe the only
winning move left is recognizing what
game do I really want to play? Is if
you're the special 2400 of you who
already are learning how money and power
works, I'll be going even deeper into
this issue next week on my free
newsletter in the video description. But
if you want to watch the first part of
this series on this gambling epidemic,
go and watch this next video on how
online gambling broke America.