After promoting an unregulated offshore online casino and sportsbook on his Instagram account, social media influencer and self-described "greatest blackjack player to ever walk the land" John Cerasani is no longer welcome at a number of the biggest casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip.

Cerasani recently advertised MyBookie.ag on Instagram, where he has 173K followers on one account and 614K on another. The company, which is headquartered in Curacao, has been the target of cease-and-desist orders in the US despite not having licenses to provide iGaming and sports betting in any US state.The Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) sent the operator a letter in January stating that MyBookie had violated both the state's Internet Gaming and Revenue Act and its Gaming Control and Revenue Act.

Cerasani recently sponsored MyBookie on Instagram, as shown in the images of a skimpily dressed woman below. It seems that he had a financial tie with the illegal bookmaker because he showed his followers a discount code.

Only seven states allow iGaming, yet 39 allow sports betting. Promises of tax income and consumer protections are the main selling arguments used by the gaming industry to persuade state regulators to permit various types of wagering; these points are under danger from offshore, black market operators.

According to an anonymous source who spoke to Casino.org, several Las Vegas casino owners have banned Cerasani from their establishments because they don't want to take the legal and reputational risk of being linked to supporters of illicit gaming websites.

Cerasani is also prohibited by tribal casinos due of the MyBookie flap

Additionally, the source informed Casino.org that Foxwoods in Connecticut, Hard Rock International, and Seminole Gaming had barred Cerasani.

The other Hard Rock-branded casinos in the US and abroad are run by Hard Rock International, while the Seminole Tribe owns casinos in Florida.To put it another way, it's a big list of casinos where the social media celebrity is no longer able to place bets, such as Hard Rock Casino Rockford in Illinois, which is close to his birthplace of Chicago.

Hard Rock and Seminole are thought to have been among the first gaming companies to react when they discovered Cerasani was promoting MyBookie to his Instagram followers. From a regulatory standpoint, the action is wise even though it is not shocking. Hard Rock Digital provides online sports betting in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, and Virginia in addition to having a monopoly on sports betting in Florida.

Among the states that have been particularly active in sending cease-and-desist letters to unlicensed gambling enterprises trying to operate in those jurisdictions are Arizona and Tennessee, both of which have been successful in expelling some of those operations.

Cerasani Uses Well-Known Influencer Strategies

Casinos, especially those in Las Vegas, have loosened their filming regulations in an attempt to better appeal to younger bettors. It used to be forbidden to film on casino floors, but gambling corporations have loosened the rules in an effort to attract more social media-savvy Gen Zers and millennials.

This has made it possible for a number of influencers, like Cerasani, to become "internet famous," using casinos and alleged profits as a basis for gaining followers and sponsorship deals. Cerasani's strategies are well-known and resemble those employed by memecoin and penny stock dealers. There is a lot of macho, arrogance, and talk of large money.

“A former W-2’er trying to share his path to a NOT GEN POP life. Entrepreneur. Venture Capitalist. Winner. The best blackjack player to ever walk the land,” according to his YouTube page.

“Gen pop” is prison parlance for “general population.” In this case, Cerasani is implying that his gambling successes have helped him avoid the rat race and live an extraordinary life.