Rocket Men

About Rocket Men

Hollywood is rolling out the welcome mat for one of Las Vegas’ most popular gambling influencers.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, an independent feature film is in development about Stephen Matt Morrow—known to more than 1.6 million YouTube subscribers as Vegas Matt—marking the latest sign of mainstream entertainment’s growing fascination with casino content creation.

While traditional advantage play—a strategy-driven niche where gamblers use math and timing to tilt the odds—has long fascinated casinos, Hollywood is expanding its lens to include the modern world of slot influencers and casino content creators.

What is Rocket Men?

While Station has remained steadfast in its opposition to Culinary, the union has made gains elsewhere in recent years. The entire Las Vegas Strip is now unionised, and Culinary used city-wide strikes as leverage in late 2023 and early 2024 to gain new multi-year labour agreements with the city’s major operators, including Wynn, Caesars and MGM.

Other than Station, Las Vegas Sands had been the other largest non-union holdout in Las Vegas for many years. But when the Venetian-Palazzo was sold to Apollo Global Management in 2021, the firm had no issues with Culinary and ratified the property’s first-ever deal with the union in 2024.

The animosity between the sides has become political over the years. Station is owned and operated by the Fertitta family, who have been prominent Republican donors for many years. Culinary is a largely Democratic organisation that typically supports and endorses left-leaning candidates.

About Rocket Men

The report assesses black market activity across 28 European jurisdictions, including the UK, Netherlands and Germany. According to estimates across a mature black market ecosystem, 25 operators account for approximately 64% of relevant black market traffic.

Thanks to the “rapid growth of crypto currencies” and globally recognisable branding through marketing and sponsorships, this handful of operators are generating the majority of illegal gambling traffic across Europe.

The report also cites brands targeting a specifically banned vertical or product within a jurisdiction as driving black market activity. While markets across Europe have many examples, one such flagged in the report is that iGaming remains illegal for licensed operators in France.