Why Start a Recreational Gambling Podcast?

Introduction to Recreational Gambling Podcast

The world needs you to start a recreational gambling podcast. Full Disclosure: Several product and service links below earn an affiliate commission at absolutely no cost to you. I’ve identified each such link.

Having a podcast is:

• Low cost
• You don’t need much equipment or services
• Pretty much anywhere is good enough to record a podcast
• A great deal of fun

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It’s not even public speaking because you’re typically alone or with a friend or two. What’s not to like about starting your podcast? And what better topic than a hobby you already love: Recreational gambling?

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Why You Should Start a Podcast

Gambling in the U.S. was once legal only in Nevada. Later, Atlantic City legalized gambling in the eastern United States. Then, along came tribal casinos with Las Vegas Gaming. Now, as of last year, the Supreme Court removed its ban on sports betting.

In case you hadn’t noticed, the gaming industry is booming. It’s a dynamic time in many states as the gaming industry continues to grow. A lot is going on all over the place.

In many states, too much is happening that’s not shared. Your fellow gamblers need and want to know what you are seeing and experiencing. Have a local recreational gambling podcast is the solution. And you’re just the person to do it.

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Just a few of the state-specific changes taking place in the last few months are:

• Virginians are excitedly preparing for the arrival of casinos.
• Pennsylvania hasn’t built their approved satellite casinos. Plus, multiple airport casinos are still in negotiation. How’s all that going to work out?
• Blackhawk is losing gaming revenue because Colorado built a bypass allowing visitors to arrive at their neighbor Central City first, rather than the other way around after so many years.

Once every week, I research and write about the current state of slots gambling in a U.S. state, territory, or the federal district. It takes me 13 months to get through all of them, and I’ve done it twice so far.

I cover the U.S. slot machine gaming market. I can’t report on casino slots developments in each state as closely as I’d like. No one person can.

And this is where you come in. I can’t research, think about, explain, visit the casinos, and otherwise study gambling in each state. But you can. With a podcast!

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You know your casinos. You know your state. I’m focused on slots, but you might like table games. Maybe you enjoy craps, blackjack, poker, and roulette. That’s great!

Tell people about what you are seeing and learning in your area during this dynamic time in the gaming industry. No one else is doing this, and the need is there.

You have local knowledge, and people want to keep up with what is happening in your state and even at your local casino – people just like you. And having a fanbase is excellent.

Recently, Emiliano joined my Texas Slots Enthusiasts Community on Facebook and wrote:

Thanks, Jon! Loyal listener of your podcast. Trying to get myself to Vegas and this latest episode will come in handy.

Emiliano from Texas

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Imagine people feeling that way about your podcast. Wouldn’t that be nice? There’s something great about being of service to a community, even the recreational gambling community.

Still on the fence about whether to start a recreational gambling podcast? Well, once you develop a following, you can start monetizing your podcast. Yes, even as a recreational gambling podcaster, you could make enough to cover your costs.

No, You Don’t Need to Be Technically Inclined

How hard is it to have a recreational gambling podcast, technically? Frankly, it’s not very difficult at all. If you can handle emails, then you’ve got the necessary skills to have a functioning podcast. It’s that easy to start podcasting.

Let me take some of the mystery away with regards to having a podcast. You need three things to become a recreational gambling podcaster:

1. Computer, tablet, or smartphone with an internet connection or WIFI.
2. A microphone.
3. A podcast host service.
4. A show name.
5. A love of gambling.

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I’ll tell you a secret. Podcasting doesn’t work out if you don’t love your topic. And I know you love gambling. Everything else is just minutiae. These little details include not having a podcast show name with the words “The” or “Podcast” in it.

At its simplest, recording a podcast means:

• Talking into a microphone.
• Saving the audio file, somehow.
• Uploading the audio to a podcast host distribution service.

Let’s talk about the minimum necessary for each of these needs. First, please don’t use the microphone on a laptop or computer – those sound terrible. You’re better than that!

However, any microphone plugged into a computer or smart device doesn’t sound terrible. Have a pair of Apple air pods? Great! You’ve got your microphone.

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Once you talk about whatever you want to talk about on your recreational gambling podcast episode, save the audio file someplace you can upload it. Upload where? To a podcast host service.

What’s a podcast host, you ask? I’ll explain it. All podcast shows have podcast hosts. I assume you listen to podcasts? As a listener, why would you know from where little podcasts come?

Well, Spotify isn’t where podcasters send their audio files. Nor are they sent to any of the many other places people find podcasts like, say, Google Podcasts. Instead, you’ll upload your podcast episode to a service which does all that for you. Nice, yes?

You might need to create a free account at Apple Podcasts or iHeartRadio or TuneIn or other podcast destinations. But afterward, you provide that information to your podcast host, who takes care of the technical details.

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Two of the best podcast hosts out there are Libsyn for Liberated Syndications and Blubrry. No, that’s not a misspelling. The company name sounds like blueberry but isn’t spelled like my favorite fruit. Both e’s are missing.

The monthly fee for having a podcast host starts at $5 per month at Libsyn and $12 per month at Blubrry. Either of these hosting plans is all you’d need to start distributing your podcast everywhere.

A Few Steps Further

That’s all you need to start a podcast. But what happens if your recreational gambling podcast gets a little famous? Well, then you’ll probably want a few more things to go along with it.

What things? Well, a simple website would be helpful for your listeners. Each episode might have show notes. That’s where you’d place links which you mention like local news articles, photos, or whatever else you might share with your audience.

Well, how hard is it to have a website associated with your podcast? It’s dead easy. The podcast hosts mentioned above offer that service, too.

But let’s take this one step further. Maybe you want a unique URL for your website. If you plan ahead you might even name your podcast something for which you can also get the URL. Maybe your name dot com?

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Website hosting is like podcasting hosting. You need both a location and a name. With names, that’s your URL. The site, as mentioned, can start as a service offered by your podcast host.

The podcast host will give you a URL, which is all that most podcasters use. However, these services will also let you attach your custom URL to their website service. But you provide that URL. How?

A custom website URL starts around $1 per year at GoDaddy. Yes, that’s per year. But all the advice I’ve heard says to spend the extra money to buy a URL which ends with .com. That’ll cost you a minimum of $12 per year.

It’s well worth having the URL with dot com at the end. People are unfamiliar with anything else. However, a lot of URLs ending in dot com with most common words are unavailable.

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You have a choice to make even after you pick your podcast name. Let’s say you named your show Casino Talk. I just checked, and CasinoTalk.com has been purchased and, further, is an active website explaining online gambling based in New Jersey.

None of us can have that URL. But CasinoTalk.fun is available. You could buy that for a year at the low, low cost of 99-cents per year. But too many of your audience members would end up at the .com site rather than the .fun site. For all of us, typing .com has become automatic.

There is one final step I must mention to you. I’ve read a lot of books and listened to a lot of podcasts on starting my Professor Slots business. Time and again, I have heard people express only one regret: “I didn’t start my email list soon enough.”

Your email list is a business asset. It’s yours to care for and nurture. If you sell items on Amazon, buyers give their email to Amazon and not you. That buyer’s email is Amazon’s business asset. The same is true for Facebook and others.

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If Amazon or Facebook make a change in their terms and conditions, just like that you’ve lost your audience. It is only then you’ll realize they were never your audience. It doesn’t have to be this way for an independent or “indie” podcaster.

If you start a podcast, also start an email list. Having a list doesn’t mean you need a newsletter immediately. The point here is to start the list, occasionally ask people to join, then have no regrets later when you need it.

There are several email list services available, including MailChimp and AWeber (commission earned). You may have heard of MailChimp due to its popular survey option. I’ve used AWeber to maintain and grow my email list.

This seems like the perfect time to welcome you as a fellow indie podcaster!

Podcasting Equipment I Use

Hobbies are fun. People can spend a lot of money on their hobbies. As recreational gamblers, we know this to be true.

You could easily pick up podcasting as a hobby. It’s doesn’t cost much to start, as I have explained. But what if you want to start investing in your hobby?

Maybe you want a better microphone than your ear pods. Perhaps the mic needs a stand, so you don’t have to hold it when recording. Or you want to start editing your audio file with software to remove coughs or whatever.

All these upgrades and more are available. But I mention them here because there are too many choices. If you wanted to invest in a few upgrades, what might you get?

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Let’s start with a better microphone. Mics can get expensive fast, but low-end mics are great and inexpensive. I recommend the Audio Technica ATR2500 or the Samson Q2U, both just over $60 each on Amazon (commissions earned).

Next up is audio editing software. I recommend free software for this, specifically Audacity. If you have an Apple computer, then you have another free software for editing audio called GarageBand.

Audio editing software which you can purchase includes Adobe Audition and Hindenburg Journalist. Both offer free 30-day trials.

That’s all the audio editing software you’ll likely ever need. But you might want an even better microphone. Again, there are a lot of options for podcast microphones.

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On my podcast, I have used the microphones mentioned. But I quickly upgraded to the Heil PR 40 followed by the Shure SM7B I currently use (commissions earned). Both mics are lovely. They cost around $400 new on Amazon.

But with microphones with better sound quality comes the need for an interface between the mic and your computer. These microphones don’t have a USB connection, but the interface does.

You’d need to plug one or more mics into the interface, then plug the interface into your computer using a USB cable. The microphone interface I’ve enjoyed using is the Scarlet 2i2 from FocusRite (commission earned).

Other items would include accessories like microphone stands, cables, pop filter, headphones, and maybe an in-line pre-amplifier. The headphones I’ve found to be very comfortable to wear for hours on end is the BeyerDynamic DT 770 Studio Pro Headset 80 Ohms (commission earned).

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The microphone in-line pre-amplifier I use is something I’ll steer you away from, given the troubles I’ve had with it. That’s what I got for trying to save a few dollars. Instead, I’ll recommend the highly-regarded Cloudlifter CL-1 pre-amp (commission earned). Another in-line pre-amplifier is the more inexpensive and more colorful sE Electronics DM1 Dynamite (commission earned).

Imagine sitting in your basement or at your kitchen table after the kids are asleep. Recording your podcast by yourself or with a few friends doesn’t take much more. Well, let’s say they aren’t in the same room as you. Then you’ll both need to get something like Skype to hold and record a conversation.

Have you noticed how all this seems to want to snowball into more and more options? Interesting hobbies do that, you know. Plus, it’s what can happen if you get famous. But, as mentioned above, you can start and get by with a computer, external microphone, and an inexpensive podcast host.

Help and Resources

There are details here where you can potentially get stuck. The podcast hosts mentioned have lots of online resources to help explain much of it. This extensive technical support and library of solutions are reasons I like them.

But sometimes you’ll need or want some direct help figuring out how all this podcast equipment, software, and services work together. I found a resource for beginning podcasters over a year ago.

I signed up for a yearly subscription at Dave Jackson’s The School of Podcasting (commission earned). There, I learned everything I needed to start podcasting.

If you have any trouble with learning the editing software or otherwise, I highly recommend learning more about each of these topics from Dave Jackson at The School of Podcasting.

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Besides having several podcasts, Dave teaches beginners how to podcast. He does this with:

• Online courses
• Weekly online office hours
• Monthly meetups in northwest Ohio
• Personal coaching

I found the online courses especially helpful. They explained in easy-to-understand terms how to use readily available audio editing software packages for podcasters.

Further, he provides other online courses on using Skype for co-hosts and interviews, how to organize your podcast workflow, practical steps to monetizing a podcast, and more. He’s also a great guy.

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I will also mention that recreational gambling podcasters are a community that helps each other. We call-in to other shows and meet up here and there. They are a great group of people of which you’ll enjoy being an equal member.

Summary of Recreational Gambling Podcast

Get together with your friends and family, or maybe talk into a microphone yourself, to start a recreational gambling podcast for your local area or state. Costs are minimal, such as having a $5 per month podcast host. Use your computer or smartphone, internet connection, and away you go.

Why? Because nearly every state is finding themselves going through incredible gaming growth. People need and want to know what you know about the gaming industry in your local region. Besides which, it’s a lot of fun. Jump in and start podcasting!

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The companies I’ve recommended in this post aren’t sponsors. To be clear, they have not paid me to mention them. I like their equipment and services and think you will, too.

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