Gambling Sites » The Best Gambling Sites in the UK 2021

Disclaimer I want to thank everyone for the gilds, replies and suggestions. I just do not have time to reply to everyone, but I am reading everything. I am not sure how much bigger the thread can be, I already typed this but it vanished so I think I'm at the limit. I will try to keep updating, but I don't expect the thread to be up top for much longer and will likely vanish soon, so if you need anything save it.
Yes, it's hard, it sucks, it's depressing. It is something we all have to do if you want to see this virus go. Everyone knows the deal, too many think they're the exception but no one is. However, staying home is hard so maybe I can help at least one or two people with some incentives. I'll try to give links to some things that can help cure the boredom, and some support if you need it.
Most of this might be obvious to some, some might not even have internet and of course, money is a big issue, so I'll try to give some suggestions:
For streaming and on demand things such as Netflix et al, don't forget you can subscribe for free for your first month. This goes for most things in the list. If you are worried about putting in your payment details and forgetting to cancel a month later, don't worry! You can sign up and immediately cancel and you still get your free month!
For people who don't have a smart TV, you can buy a cheap Amazon Fire TV stick or a Roku box. The Fire stick can go as low as £20 often for 1080p. It will drop to £30 for 4k.
I picked up a 4k Roku device for £18 on Amazon once. It's fast and snappy. currently it's going for £33 for the 4k version. Having both, there is little difference between the devices. NowTV also do their own roku powered device.
Subscription based streaming sites that all offer 2-4 weeks free for first timers

Netflix *According to comments the second month is free.
Amazon Prime You can either get Amazon video on its own, or take prime with other benefits. I strongly urge those who use Amazon for buying off their store front to use [https://smile.amazon.co.uk/] as there is literally no difference except everything you buy amazon donates to a charity of your choice.
Now TV (I believe it's 7 days)
Disney+
Britbox
Amazon channels. I believe you can get all these individually but Amazon offers them as channels bound to your prime account, and they are again either free for a couple weeks (again, take them, cancel instantly) or very cheap. I recently subscribed to Starzplay for £1 for 3 months. It has some good shows on it like Fringe, doom patrol. It also has channels like Curiosity stream and shudder

If you have not subscribed to the any of the above, you can get a few months of free TV by signing up and cancelling instantly. I suggest waiting at least 5 minutes just to let it go through the system.
Some tips for Now TV. IF you already have a subscription, I've noticed you can get it cheaper by cancelling. When you cancel they will beg you to stay. Select "I can not afford it this month" and they should beg again, telling you what shows they have. If you say you still want to cancel, they'll beg one last time and offer you the subscription for cheaper. This won't work every month, but I've noticed they'll always offer it the first time, then again after a couple months. If you're subscribed to both films and entertainment do the most expensive one as it may not work both times (but it might!). You can also pick up passes from storefronts a lot cheaper sometimes, before I could pick one up on Amazon for £3 but, they seem to have cracked down on it. If you shop around (or if anyone knows of a legitimate store please let me know) you might be able to pick it up cheaper. Lastly, check their website and under your account they should have an "offers for you" section.
Completely free TV

If you do have a smart TV and/or device, there are some good free streaming apps. One I really love is called PlutoTV. I know this is on both Roku and the fire stick, as well as Ps4/Ps5 and xbox.
Pluto offers a bunch of live channels and now an on demand section, all for free. It has adverts but they are actually short (shorter than regular TV and fewer of them). Some of the channels are just streaming certain shows like Mythbusters 24/7 or Dog the bounty hunter, but it has a lot of old movie channels as well as 24/7 kickboxing and MMA. It also has a 24/7 poker channel I quite like.
Another one I like is Rakuten Viki however, I haven't watched it for a while as my fire stick is only 1080p and I have too many other devices attached. I believe it is on Roku but you have to jump through some hoops and have an account. The last I checked on the fire stick you did not. Viki offers a metric ton of Asian shows, mainly from Japan and South Korea but it does have chinese, Malaysian etc. It has subtitles. Some Japanese shows are hysterical, albeit weird.
Roku also do their own channels with free shows if you own a device.
For those who don't have a smart TV or a Streaming device, you can set up your own computer as a dedicated streaming device with Plex. It's been a while since I used it but I believe it now also offers free movies and TV.
Anime
If you are into Anime there is

The first 2 are free to watch, or offer premium without ads which you can have a trial with. Crunchyroll is the better of the two with more original choice for Japanese voice and subs, while Funimation has more Dubs. I don't believe HiDive is free to watch but you do get a 2 week trial. These are more exclusives than the previous two.
PC Centric software
If you are a gamer or like Audiobooks or anything that uses computers for things like music making, programming or graphic design

Humble Bundle offers, as per the name, bundles. A long running site that got bought out by IGN. It offers both single items and bundles you can buy individually/as a pack while also offering a separate monthly subscription for around £8-9. The subscription gives you 12 games on average per month. That's the simplest explanation but it changes somewhat as sometimes you get to pick 10 out of 14 games, or get all 12.
Humble bundle offers more than just games though. Every Tuesday they bring a new bundle of games, while Thursday (I "think) a new bundle of books. They very often have books from the Black Library giving you a ton of Warhammer books. Sometimes it's standard E-books, other times it's audiobooks. A few times a year they do bundles for graphic design, a typical bundle would include programs like Paintshop Pro Corel Painter etc, They usually go for £0.76 for tier 1 up to around £18 for tier 3, which would include 4-6 full titles with 10+ addons. They also often have Music making bundles or video editing software as well as Programming or video game development.
The bundles change often, they usually have around 11 bundles at a time that last for 20 days. Sometimes it's trash but they do often have some very good deals.
Fanatical offers the same as humble bundle except usually not as high quality, but sometimes they do have some incredible deals, and they are very very cheap.
Both humble and fanatical are safe, trusted and been around a long time, and they are NOT grey market key sites. They work with the publishers and developers. You can buy games both old and new for a lot cheaper than you would most other places. Unless it states otherwise, keys are usually for steam.
**BOTH HB and Fanatical (HB much more common) offer free games fairly often. The catch is linking your steam account to them (at least HB). It is safe however.
IndieGala is another site like above. Except, these are much much lower quality. However, they offer a metric ton of free games. Quality is low but it is legitimate, and a lot of free stuff.
Game Store Fronts

Steam This one is so obvious I didn't add it, but apparently many want me to. It is the best out there, and you can find almost everything, with fantastic deals.
Greenmangaming offers games cheaply. Again, not a grey market site (which are legal but unethical) and they sometimes do bundles.
GoG (Good old games) is a DRM free site run by CDPR, the makers of the Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk. They offer you games quite cheap and not needing DRM (such as Steam, Uplay etc which is less invasive versions of dodgy DRM from the olden days).
Epic Games Despite the controversy whether you care about their rivalry with valve, they offer free games ever week. Without ever having bought anything I have gained over 170 games. literally. Good games for the most part. They often give you £10 coupons as well.
Twitch Everyone knows twitch, but if you don't, it's a streaming service for watching gamers and girls with low cut tops accidentally bending over in front of the game. However, if you're signed up to prime, you get free games each month (and randomly between the set bunch).
Playstation Store Currently has January sales. Currently the free games for PS+ are for PS4: Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Greedfall. For the Ps5 it is Maneater
Games with Gold Bleed 2 and the King of Fighters XIII is available until Janurary 15th whilst little Nightmares is available until January 31st.

Gaming Subscriptions
Like the TV versions, you can sign up to these for a free trial (or very cheap). If you do sign up to only one at a time, it should keep you busy for a few months

Xbox Game Pass You can do this on both/either an Xbox or PC. If you sign up to the regular one, you can get a month (maybe three!) for £1. After you have done that, you can sign up to the premium version for 3 months at £1 a month. Most people know game pass, but you can download a large selection of games for free. The premium version gives you games with gold, allowing you to keep the games forever (but can only play with a subscription)
Ubisoft+ I'm not 100% sure if you get a trial or not. This allows a large collection of Ubisoft titles to play for £12.99 a month. Quite expensive but good if you like Ubisoft titles I guess.
EA Play EA's version. Goes by a ton of names I think, EA Access, EA Play, Origin Access etc etc. There's a couple of versions of this, and it is across all platforms (PS4/5, Xbox, PC) but not sure about the switch. I "think" the premium allows you to play on all platforms, while the cheaper one on a single platform, but I may be mistaken.
PS Now a once terrible service that is now actually very good. Allows you to download some Ps4 games to your PS4/5 and lets you stream a massive amount of Ps2/3/4 to your PC or playstation.

There's more like nvidia's service but you need the Shield device which is quite expensive. I'll leave it at that.
Audiobooks & Ebooks

Audible Not sure what the current deal is but if you are a prime member you can sign up for a trial and get a free Audiobook each month for 3 months. Some warhammer books are 48 hours long, 3 of those gives you a good 100+ hours of listening!
Comixology Another Amazon company, but lets you download some free comics I believe.
Marvel Unlimited No experience with this. ItFuckingWont wanted me to add it. A subscription service for Marvel.

Education

Sign Language BSL here No experience myself, suggested by n21brown and asked for a few times. Didn't know SL was so popular! Listed as "Pay what you can"
BBC's Bitesize here is apparently good for home learning. Again, no personal experience.

If you need some spare change
Okay, I don't generally bother with it, but maybe some of this could be useful to you. These are NOT a quick way to make a fortune. These are small things you can do over time for a bit of pocket change

If you have prime you can get a FREE FIVE POUND GIFT CARD by literally just streaming a song from Amazon music (which is included in prime) here is the details According to the comments it's only for select people, but it's worth trying If the link doesn't work for you just google "Amazon £5 coupon music"
Now, these sorts of sites have been around for years, I haven't used any other than talkInsights which I must have signed up to 10-15 years ago. Basically they send you surveys and you answer them. They are confidential and don't ask for personal details in the survey. You need 2000 points and you get £20. During the pandemic they've slowed down but I probably get around £40 a year. Not much I know, but it's an email followed by a quick survey ticking boxes. Depending on your answer sometimes you get screened out, I'm not telling you to lie but just be consistent with your answers and you should be able to work out how to not get screened. Some emails are only worth 20 points, others 200. It's slow to get to the 2000 but very quick to just answer a few questions.
Apparently beermoneyuk is a good sub to make some pocket change with.
There is also matched betting. I have never done this, I don't have the patience but from what I've read, it's legitimate, it works and you can make a fair amount of cash from it so long as you do it correctly, and there's a ton of guides. I mention this because people stuck at home could get into it and as long as you're careful (I.E not entering in the wrong numbers) it's risk free AND it pisses off the betting shops. It seems people in comments have had success with it. Disclaimer A couple have complained about gambling. This arguably is not gambling. If you are susceptible to addiction do not do it. However, it's argued that there is no fun or buzz in this, and it's a very tedious and time consuming thing. Others argue you can't make the same money anymore (People were making thousands, now only hundreds if that). It's risk free providing you know what you're doing, the risks are user error, such as entering the wrong numbers. Someone pointed out that due to the lockdown, bets could potentially be cancelled due to sport stopping. So use on a side of caution. We're (mainly) adults so I'll leave it up just because this doesn't have the excitement of regular gambling.
Microsoft Rewards This is an easy way to make pocket change doing very little. Most people have a MS account. The rewards program offers you numerous ways to grab points, by playing free to play games, answering small questions (you don't even need to answer most of the time, just open the link and shut it) and by using bing and searching on it. I've gotten 20k points JUST by answering questions over a couple months. There are many rewards but you can grab a £5 gift card for 6k for example, or a month of game pass (and AFAIK you can make points playing the games)
Google rewards Someone mentioned this in the comments. I have not used it, so can not give any input on it. Sounds similar to TalkInsights which I linked. Google states "Complete short surveys while standing in line, or waiting for a subway. Get rewarded with Google Play or PayPal credit for each one you complete. Topics include everything from opinion polls, to hotel reviews, to merchant satisfaction surveys. We’ll notify you when a survey is waiting."

That's it for now. I will try to update as I go along. A long post but I hope that it can help some of you with finding something good to do that's free, cheap or a bargain. I do suggest getting prime, especially since you get free music, free delivery, free TV and music and free video games each month. In fact, there's a ton of perks and I feel I've gotten way over the cost investment.
Hope it helps someone at least
PartTimeCrazy said if you bought an Apple product you get 3 free months of Apple Arcade and Apple TV free for a year
fakehunted is upset I didn't mention wanking. Tesco have 225 sheets of Tissue for £0.75!
tale_lost suggested Project Gutenberg for a collection of free E-Books
Learning Language
Unfortunately, I don't have time to check every link listed so I will link the comments:
Togtogtog Gives a lot of links for Spanish

Duolingo Numerous people have suggested this So I haven't used myself. Thanks to OhHiGCHQ StephanieMecredy & Allorie_95

Board & Tabletop games
Corporal_Anaesthetic has made a list of Board games
ilyemco suggested these
HEALTH
I'm not a doctor! But if you're a smoker, something I strongly suggest is to quit. I struggled for years but in the first lockdown I quit, technically. I haven't had a cigarette since, however, I do that silly thing millennials do. I vape, but, it made quitting extremely easy. I would not have been able to do it if it wasn't for 88Vape They sell extremely cheap liquids at £1 each. You can find these in B&M but you can pick up 25 for £20 or buy your own mix.
Vitamin D deficiency has been said to be a big problem for the virus. I'd suggest (again, not a doctor!) that you pick some up. Tesco do a 3 for 2 deal. So you can pick up 270 tablets for £7.
If you are vulnerable you MIGHT be able to phone tesco and get put on their delivery saver list (currently it's paused but phoning may help. At the very least they might give you a priority slot. I did this for my mum, we didn't shop at Tesco but I phoned for her, and they put her on with no hassle, so she can always get a delivery.
HELP & ADVICE
The lockdown Rules.
Reasons to leave home include:

Work or volunteering where it is "unreasonable" to work from home. This includes work in someone else's home, such as that carried out by social workers, nannies, cleaners and tradespeople
Education, training, childcare and medical appointments and emergencies
Exercise outdoors (limited to once a day). This includes meeting one other person from another household in an open public space to exercise
Shopping for essentials such as food and medicine
Communal religious worship
Meeting your support or childcare bubble. Children can also move between separated parents Activities related to moving house

I want to add, if you are in danger you are also allowed (and must!) to get away from the situation for some reason, BBC seems to have missed this very important thing (or I am blind)

To flee the threat of harm or violence.*
CoronaVirus Symptoms
CoronaVirus government site You can check your location and how many cases here.
Worldometers Shows cases around the world.
Interactive UK Map Another easy to read map with cases in counties and local area's.
World Health Organisation

Support

FOR THOSE SHIELDING YOU CAN CONTACT THE ROYAL VOLUNTARY SERVICE. These people helped my mother with picking up her medicine from the chemist. They were very helpful and went out their way to keep in touch and do it immediately. (It's the only experience I have with them though)
_riotingpacifist wanted these links added, but I simply just don't have the time to vet and check all the suggestions here, so I will link as is:

Update:
Digital Art
These are Free

Krita Arguably the best in my opinion. It has a load of options, brushes and a decent UI. It works fantastic with a tablet.
Gimp This is a decent program but last I used, the UI was a pain, and it isn't so user friendly while misses features, but it works, and it is possible to do some incredible creations on it.
Medibang Paint This is slightly geared towards Comics and Manga. I really enjoy using this with my drawing Tablet. As far as I know, it also for regular tablets for Android/Ipad and is free.

You can pick up a drawing tablet on Amazon quite cheap these days! Small ones that are just a black slate such as the wacom ones are good but takes some practice to get use to, but very worth it if you can't afford a dedicated drawing tablet with a screen.
Office suit software
A couple of free applications for word processing, spreadsheets etc.

LibreOffice This has most the average user would need to write their own books or to work from home. There's not a huge amount of difference between the two I'm linking (since I last used anyway) so it's more for preference.
Open Office You can pick this up here and again, like above it's just preference.

Music Making
I'm going to direct to matthewharris806 for some links as all the programs I've used like Reason are expensive, or cheaper stuff in bundles such as Magix software.
Games development
D_Dad_Default gives some links for that here

Lockdown, things to do, help & advice.

Disclaimer I am posting this here because I got a message from the mods asking me to. I'm not from London so links aren't London centric (but hopefully still of help) and the main post is here so any updates will likely be there (I will try here but it's hard to keep up with the amount of suggestions)
Thanks.
Yes, it's hard, it sucks, it's depressing. It is something we all have to do if you want to see this virus go. Everyone knows the deal, too many think they're the exception but no one is. However, staying home is hard so maybe I can help at least one or two people with some incentives. I'll try to give links to some things that can help cure the boredom, and some support if you need it.
Most of this might be obvious to some, some might not even have internet and of course, money is a big issue, so I'll try to give some suggestions:
For streaming and on demand things such as Netflix et al, don't forget you can subscribe for free for your first month. This goes for most things in the list. If you are worried about putting in your payment details and forgetting to cancel a month later, don't worry! You can sign up and immediately cancel and you still get your free month!
For people who don't have a smart TV, you can buy a cheap Amazon Fire TV stick or a Roku box. The Fire stick can go as low as £20 often for 1080p. It will drop to £30 for 4k.
I picked up a 4k Roku device for £18 on Amazon once. It's fast and snappy. currently it's going for £33 for the 4k version. Having both, there is little difference between the devices. NowTV also do their own roku powered device.
Subscription based streaming sites that all offer 2-4 weeks free for first timers

Netflix *According to comments the second month is free.
Amazon Prime You can either get Amazon video on its own, or take prime with other benefits. I strongly urge those who use Amazon for buying off their store front to use [https://smile.amazon.co.uk/] as there is literally no difference except everything you buy amazon donates to a charity of your choice.
Now TV (I believe it's 7 days)
Disney+
Britbox
Amazon channels. I believe you can get all these individually but Amazon offers them as channels bound to your prime account, and they are again either free for a couple weeks (again, take them, cancel instantly) or very cheap. I recently subscribed to Starzplay for £1 for 3 months. It has some good shows on it like Fringe, doom patrol. It also has channels like Curiosity stream and shudder

Steam This one is so obvious I didn't add it, but apparently many want me to. It is the best out there, and you can find almost everything, with fantastic deals.
Greenmangaming offers games cheaply. Again, not a grey market site (which are legal but unethical) and they sometimes do bundles.
GoG (Good old games) is a DRM free site run by CDPR, the makers of the Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk. They offer you games quite cheap and not needing DRM (such as Steam, Uplay etc which is less invasive versions of dodgy DRM from the olden days).
Epic Games Despite the controversy whether you care about their rivalry with valve, they offer free games ever week. Without ever having bought anything I have gained over 170 games. literally. Good games for the most part. They often give you £10 coupons as well.
Twitch Everyone knows twitch, but if you don't, it's a streaming service for watching gamers and girls with low cut tops accidentally bending over in front of the game. However, if you're signed up to prime, you get free games each month (and randomly between the set bunch).
Playstation Store Currently has January sales. Currently the free games for PS+ are for PS4: Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Greedfall. For the Ps5 it is Maneater
Games with Gold Bleed 2 and the King of Fighters XIII is available until Janurary 15th whilst little Nightmares is available until January 31st.

Gaming Subscriptions
Like the TV versions, you can sign up to these for a free trial (or very cheap). If you do sign up to only one at a time, it should keep you busy for a few months

Xbox Game Pass You can do this on both/either an Xbox or PC. If you sign up to the regular one, you can get a month (maybe three!) for £1. After you have done that, you can sign up to the premium version for 3 months at £1 a month. Most people know game pass, but you can download a large selection of games for free. The premium version gives you games with gold, allowing you to keep the games forever (but can only play with a subscription)
Ubisoft+ I'm not 100% sure if you get a trial or not. This allows a large collection of Ubisoft titles to play for £12.99 a month. Quite expensive but good if you like Ubisoft titles I guess.
EA Play EA's version. Goes by a ton of names I think, EA Access, EA Play, Origin Access etc etc. There's a couple of versions of this, and it is across all platforms (PS4/5, Xbox, PC) but not sure about the switch. I "think" the premium allows you to play on all platforms, while the cheaper one on a single platform, but I may be mistaken.
PS Now a once terrible service that is now actually very good. Allows you to download some Ps4 games to your PS4/5 and lets you stream a massive amount of Ps2/3/4 to your PC or playstation.

There's more like nvidia's service but you need the Shield device which is quite expensive. I'll leave it at that.
Audiobooks & Ebooks

Audible Not sure what the current deal is but if you are a prime member you can sign up for a trial and get a free Audiobook each month for 3 months. Some warhammer books are 48 hours long, 3 of those gives you a good 100+ hours of listening!
Comixology Another Amazon company, but lets you download some free comics I believe.
Marvel Unlimited No experience with this. ItFuckingWont wanted me to add it. A subscription service for Marvel.

Education

Sign Language BSL here No experience myself, suggested by n21brown and asked for a few times. Didn't know SL was so popular! Listed as "Pay what you can"
BBC's Bitesize here is apparently good for home learning. Again, no personal experience.

If you have prime you can get a FREE FIVE POUND GIFT CARD by literally just streaming a song from Amazon music (which is included in prime) here is the details According to the comments it's only for select people, but it's worth trying If the link doesn't work for you just google "Amazon £5 coupon music"
Now, these sorts of sites have been around for years, I haven't used any other than talkInsights which I must have signed up to 10-15 years ago. Basically they send you surveys and you answer them. They are confidential and don't ask for personal details in the survey. You need 2000 points and you get £20. During the pandemic they've slowed down but I probably get around £40 a year. Not much I know, but it's an email followed by a quick survey ticking boxes. Depending on your answer sometimes you get screened out, I'm not telling you to lie but just be consistent with your answers and you should be able to work out how to not get screened. Some emails are only worth 20 points, others 200. It's slow to get to the 2000 but very quick to just answer a few questions.
Apparently beermoneyuk is a good sub to make some pocket change with.
There is also matched betting. I have never done this, I don't have the patience but from what I've read, it's legitimate, it works and you can make a fair amount of cash from it so long as you do it correctly, and there's a ton of guides. I mention this because people stuck at home could get into it and as long as you're careful (I.E not entering in the wrong numbers) it's risk free AND it pisses off the betting shops. It seems people in comments have had success with it. Disclaimer A couple have complained about gambling. This arguably is not gambling. If you are susceptible to addiction do not do it. However, it's argued that there is no fun or buzz in this, and it's a very tedious and time consuming thing. Others argue you can't make the same money anymore (People were making thousands, now only hundreds if that). It's risk free providing you know what you're doing, the risks are user error, such as entering the wrong numbers. Someone pointed out that due to the lockdown, bets could potentially be cancelled due to sport stopping. So use on a side of caution. We're (mainly) adults so I'll leave it up just because this doesn't have the excitement of regular gambling.
Microsoft Rewards This is an easy way to make pocket change doing very little. Most people have a MS account. The rewards program offers you numerous ways to grab points, by playing free to play games, answering small questions (you don't even need to answer most of the time, just open the link and shut it) and by using bing and searching on it. I've gotten 20k points JUST by answering questions over a couple months. There are many rewards but you can grab a £5 gift card for 6k for example, or a month of game pass (and AFAIK you can make points playing the games)
Google rewards Someone mentioned this in the comments. I have not used it, so can not give any input on it. Sounds similar to TalkInsights which I linked. Google states "Complete short surveys while standing in line, or waiting for a subway. Get rewarded with Google Play or PayPal credit for each one you complete. Topics include everything from opinion polls, to hotel reviews, to merchant satisfaction surveys. We’ll notify you when a survey is waiting."

Duolingo Numerous people have suggested this So I haven't used myself. Thanks to OhHiGCHQ StephanieMecredy & Allorie_95

Work or volunteering where it is "unreasonable" to work from home. This includes work in someone else's home, such as that carried out by social workers, nannies, cleaners and tradespeople
Education, training, childcare and medical appointments and emergencies
Exercise outdoors (limited to once a day). This includes meeting one other person from another household in an open public space to exercise
Shopping for essentials such as food and medicine
Communal religious worship
Meeting your support or childcare bubble. Children can also move between separated parents Activities related to moving house

I want to add, if you are in danger you are also allowed (and must!) to get away from the situation for some reason, BBC seems to have missed this very important thing (or I am blind)

To flee the threat of harm or violence.*
CoronaVirus Symptoms
CoronaVirus government site You can check your location and how many cases here.
Worldometers Shows cases around the world.
Interactive UK Map Another easy to read map with cases in counties and local area's.
World Health Organisation

Support

FOR THOSE SHIELDING YOU CAN CONTACT THE ROYAL VOLUNTARY SERVICE. These people helped my mother with picking up her medicine from the chemist. They were very helpful and went out their way to keep in touch and do it immediately. (It's the only experience I have with them though)
_riotingpacifist wanted this links added, but I simply just don't have the time to vet and check all the suggestions here, so I will link as is:

Update:
Digital Art
These are Free

Krita Arguably the best in my opinion. It has a load of options, brushes and a decent UI. It works fantastic with a tablet.
Gimp This is a decent program but last I used, the UI was a pain, and it isn't so user friendly while misses features, but it works, and it is possible to do some incredible creations on it.
Medibang Paint This is slightly geared towards Comics and Manga. I really enjoy using this with my drawing Tablet. As far as I know, it also for regular tablets for Android/Ipad and is free.

LibreOffice This has most the average user would need to write their own books or to work from home. There's not a huge amount of difference between the two I'm linking (since I last used anyway) so it's more for preference.
Open Office You can pick this up here and again, like above it's just preference.

Playboy going public: Porn, Gambling, and Cannabis

NEW INFO 5 Results from share redemption are posted. Less than .2% redeemed. Very bullish as investors are showing extreme confidence in the future of PLBY.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/playboy-mountain-crest-acquisition-corp-120000721.html
NEW INFO 4 Definitive Agreement to purchase 100% of Lovers brand stores announced 2/1.
https://www.streetinsider.com/Corporate+News/Playboy+%28MCAC%29+Confirms+Deal+to+Acquire+Lovers/17892359.html
NEW INFO 3 I bought more on the dip today. 5081 total. Price rose AH to $12.38 (2.15%)
NEW INFO 2 Here is the full webinar.
https://icrinc.zoom.us/rec/play/9GWKdmOYumjWfZuufW3QXpe_FW_g--qeNbg6PnTjTMbnNTgLmCbWjeRFpQga1iPc-elpGap8dnDv8Zww.yD7DjUwuPmapeEdP?continueMode=true&tk=lEYc4F_FkKlgsmCIs6w0gtGHT2kbgVGbUju3cIRBSjk.DQIAAAAV8NK49xZWdldRM2xNSFNQcTBmcE00UzM3bXh3AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA&uuid=WN_GKWqbHkeSyuWetJmLFkj4g&_x_zm_rtaid=kR45-uuqRE-L65AxLjpbQw.1611967079119.2c054e3d3f8d8e63339273d9175939ed&_x_zm_rhtaid=866
NEW INFO 1 Live merger webinar with PLBY and MCAC on Friday January 29, 2021 at 12:00 NOON EST link below
https://mcacquisition.com/investor-relations/press-release-details/2021/Playboy-Enterprises-Inc.-and-Mountain-Crest-Acquisition-Corp-Participate-in-SPACInsider-ICR-Webinar-on-January-29th-at-12pm-ET/default.aspx
Playboy going public: Porn, Gambling, and Cannabis
!!!WARNING READING AHEAD!!! TL;DR at the end. It will take some time to sort through all the links and read/watch everything, but you should.
In the next couple weeks, Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp is taking Playboy public. The existing ticker MCAC will become PLBY. Special purpose acquisition companies have taken private companies public in recent months with great success. I believe this will be no exception. Notably, Playboy is profitable and has skyrocketing revenue going into a transformational growth phase.
Porn - First and foremost, let's talk about porn. I know what you guys are thinking. “Porno mags are dead. Why would I want to invest in something like that? I can get porn for free online.” Guess what? You are absolutely right. And that’s exactly why Playboy doesn’t do that anymore. That’s right, they eliminated their print division. And yet they somehow STILL make money from porn that people (see: boomers) pay for on their website through PlayboyTV, Playboy Plus, and iPlayboy. Here’s the thing: Playboy has international, multi-generational name recognition from porn. They have content available in 180 countries. It will be the only publicly traded adult entertainment (porn) company. But that is not where this company is going. It will help support them along the way. You can see every Playboy magazine through iPlayboy if you’re interested. NSFW links below:
https://www.playboy.com/
https://www.playboytv.com/
https://www.playboyplus.com/
https://www.iplayboy.com/
Gambling - Some of you might recognize the Playboy brand from gambling trips to places like Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Cancun, London or Macau. They’ve been in the gambling biz for decades through their casinos, clubs, and licensed gaming products. They see the writing on the wall. COVID is accelerating the transition to digital, application based GAMBLING. That’s right. What we are doing on Robinhood with risky options is gambling, and the only reason regulators might give a shit anymore is because we are making too much money. There may be some restrictions put in place, but gambling from your phone on your couch is not going anywhere. More and more states are allowing things like Draftkings, poker, state ‘lottery” apps, hell - even political betting. Michigan and Virginia just ok’d gambling apps. They won’t be the last. This is all from your couch and any 18 year old with a cracked iphone can access it. Wouldn’t it be cool if Playboy was going to do something like that? They’re already working on it. As per CEO Ben Kohn who we will get to later, “...the company’s casino-style digital gaming products with Scientific Games and Microgaming continue to see significant global growth.” Honestly, I stopped researching Scientific Games' sports betting segment when I saw the word ‘omni-channel’. That told me all I needed to know about it’s success.
“Our SG Sports™ platform is an enhanced, omni-channel solution for online, self-service and retail fixed odds sports betting – from soccer to tennis, basketball, football, baseball, hockey, motor sports, racing and more.”
https://www.scientificgames.com/
https://www.microgaming.co.uk/
“This latter segment has become increasingly enticing for Playboy, and it said last week that it is considering new tie-ups that could include gaming operators like PointsBet and 888Holdings.”
https://calvinayre.com/2020/10/05/business/playboys-gaming-ops-could-get-a-boost-from-spac-purchase/
As per their SEC filing:
“Significant consumer engagement and spend with Playboy-branded gaming properties around the world, including with leading partners such as Microgaming, Scientific Games, and Caesar’s Entertainment, steers our investment in digital gaming, sports betting and other digital offerings to further support our commercial strategy to expand consumer spend with minimal marginal cost, and gain consumer data to inform go-to-market plans across categories.”
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tMDAA1
They are expanding into more areas of gaming/gambling, working with international players in the digital gaming/gambling arena, and a Playboy sportsbook is on the horizon.
https://www.playboy.com/read/the-pleasure-of-playing-with-yourself-mobile-gaming-in-the-covid-era
Cannabis - If you’ve ever read through a Playboy magazine, you know they’ve had a positive relationship with cannabis for many years. As of September 2020, Playboy has made a major shift into the cannabis space. Too good to be true you say? Check their website. Playboy currently sells a range of CBD products. This is a good sign. Federal hemp products, which these most likely are, can be mailed across state lines and most importantly for a company like Playboy, can operate through a traditional banking institution. CBD products are usually the first step towards the cannabis space for large companies. Playboy didn’t make these products themselves meaning they are working with a processor in the cannabis industry. Another good sign for future expansion. What else do they have for sale? Pipes, grinders, ashtrays, rolling trays, joint holders. Hmm. Ok. So it looks like they want to sell some shit. They probably don’t have an active interest in cannabis right? Think again:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2020/09/24/playboy-gets-serious-about-cannabis-law-reform-advocacy-with-new-partnership-grants/?sh=62f044a65cea
“Taking yet another step into the cannabis space, Playboy will be announcing later on Thursday (September, 2020) that it is launching a cannabis law reform and advocacy campaign in partnership with National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), Last Prisoner Project, Marijuana Policy Project, the Veterans Cannabis Project, and the Eaze Momentum Program.”
“According to information procured exclusively, the three-pronged campaign will focus on calling for federal legalization. The program also includes the creation of a mentorship plan, through which the Playboy Foundation will support entrepreneurs from groups that are underrepresented in the industry.” Remember that CEO Kohn from earlier? He wrote this recently:
https://medium.com/naked-open-letters-from-playboy/congress-must-pass-the-more-act-c867c35239ae
Seems like he really wants weed to be legal? Hmm wonder why? The writing's on the wall my friends. Playboy wants into the cannabis industry, they are making steps towards this end, and we have favorable conditions for legislative progress.
Don’t think branding your own cannabis line is profitable or worthwhile? Tell me why these 41 celebrity millionaires and billionaires are dummies. I’ll wait.
https://www.celebstoner.com/news/celebstoner-news/2019/07/12/top-celebrity-cannabis-brands/
Confirmation: I hear you. “This all seems pretty speculative. It would be wildly profitable if they pull this shift off. But how do we really know?” Watch this whole video:
https://finance.yahoo.com/video/playboy-ceo-telling-story-female-154907068.html
Man - this interview just gets my juices flowing. And highlights one of my favorite reasons for this play. They have so many different business avenues from which a catalyst could appear. I think paying attention, holding shares, and options on these staggered announcements over the next year is the way I am going to go about it. "There's definitely been a shift to direct-to-consumer," he (Kohn) said. "About 50 percent of our revenue today is direct-to-consumer, and that will continue to grow going forward.” “Kohn touted Playboy's portfolio of both digital and consumer products, with casino-style gaming, in particular, serving a crucial role under the company's new business model. Playboy also has its sights on the emerging cannabis market, from CBD products to marijuana products geared toward sexual health and pleasure.” "If THC does become legal in the United States, we have developed certain strains to enhance your sex life that we will launch," Kohn said. https://cheddar.com/media/playboy-goes-public-health-gaming-lifestyle-focus Oh? The CEO actually said it? Ok then. “We have developed certain strains…” They’re already working with growers on strains and genetics? Ok. There are several legal cannabis markets for those products right now, international and stateside. I expect Playboy licensed hemp and THC pre-rolls by EOY. Something like this: https://www.etsy.com/listing/842996758/10-playboy-pre-roll-tubes-limited?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=pre+roll+playboy&ref=sr_gallery-1-2&organic_search_click=1 Maintaining cannabis operations can be costly and a regulatory headache. Playboy’s licensing strategy allows them to pick successful, established partners and sidestep traditional barriers to entry. You know what I like about these new markets? They’re expanding. Worldwide. And they are going to be a bigger deal than they already are with or without Playboy. Who thinks weed and gambling are going away? Too many people like that stuff. These are easy markets. And Playboy is early enough to carve out their spot in each. Fuck it, read this too: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimosman/2020/10/20/playboy-could-be-the-king-of-spacs-here-are-three-picks/?sh=2e13dcaa3e05
Numbers: You want numbers? I got numbers. As per the company’s most recent SEC filing:
“For the year ended December 31, 2019, and the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s historical consolidated revenue was $78.1 million and $101.3 million, respectively, historical consolidated net income (loss) was $(23.6) million and $(4.8) million, respectively, and Adjusted EBITDA was $13.1 million and $21.8 million, respectively.”
“In the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Licensing segment contributed $44.2 million in revenue and $31.1 million in net income.”
“In the ninth months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Direct-to-Consumer segment contributed $40.2 million in revenue and net income of $0.1 million.”
“In the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Digital Subscriptions and Content segment contributed $15.4 million in revenue and net income of $7.4 million.”
They are profitable across all three of their current business segments.
“Playboy’s return to the public markets presents a transformed, streamlined and high-growth business. The Company has over $400 million in cash flows contracted through 2029, sexual wellness products available for sale online and in over 10,000 major retail stores in the US, and a growing variety of clothing and branded lifestyle and digital gaming products.”
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tSHCF
Growth: Playboy has massive growth in China and massive growth potential in India. “In China, where Playboy has spent more than 25 years building its business, our licensees have an enormous footprint of nearly 2,500 brick and mortar stores and 1,000 ecommerce stores selling high quality, Playboy-branded men’s casual wear, shoes/footwear, sleepwear, swimwear, formal suits, leather & non-leather goods, sweaters, active wear, and accessories. We have achieved significant growth in China licensing revenues over the past several years in partnership with strong licensees and high-quality manufacturers, and we are planning for increased growth through updates to our men’s fashion lines and expansion into adjacent categories in men’s skincare and grooming, sexual wellness, and women’s fashion, a category where recent launches have been well received.” The men’s market in China is about the same size as the entire population of the United States and European Union combined. Playboy is a leading brand in this market. They are expanding into the women’s market too. Did you know CBD toothpaste is huge in China? China loves CBD products and has hemp fields that dwarf those in the US. If Playboy expands their CBD line China it will be huge. Did you know the gambling money in Macau absolutely puts Las Vegas to shame? Technically, it's illegal on the mainland, but in reality, there is a lot of gambling going on in China. https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2020/10/19/magic-johnson-and-uncle-buds-cbd-brand-enter-china-via-tmall-partnership/?sh=271776ca411e “In India, Playboy today has a presence through select apparel licensees and hospitality establishments. Consumer research suggests significant growth opportunities in the territory with Playboy’s brand and categories of focus.” “Playboy Enterprises has announced the expansion of its global consumer products business into India as part of a partnership with Jay Jay Iconic Brands, a leading fashion and lifestyle Company in India.” “The Indian market today is dominated by consumers under the age of 35, who represent more than 65 percent of the country’s total population and are driving India’s significant online shopping growth. The Playboy brand’s core values of playfulness and exploration resonate strongly with the expressed desires of today’s younger millennial consumers. For us, Playboy was the perfect fit.” “The Playboy international portfolio has been flourishing for more than 25 years in several South Asian markets such as China and Japan. In particular, it has strategically targeted the millennial and gen-Z audiences across categories such as apparel, footwear, home textiles, eyewear and watches.” https://www.licenseglobal.com/industry-news/playboy-expands-global-footprint-india It looks like they gave COVID the heisman in terms of net damage sustained: “Although Playboy has not suffered any material adverse consequences to date from the COVID-19 pandemic, the business has been impacted both negatively and positively. The remote working and stay-at-home orders resulted in the closure of the London Playboy Club and retail stores of Playboy’s licensees, decreasing licensing revenues in the second quarter, as well as causing supply chain disruption and less efficient product development thereby slowing the launch of new products. However, these negative impacts were offset by an increase in Yandy’s direct-to-consumer sales, which have benefited in part from overall increases in online retail sales so far during the pandemic.” Looks like the positives are long term (Yandy acquisition) and the negatives are temporary (stay-at-home orders).
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921006093/tm213766-1_defa14a.htm
This speaks to their ability to maintain a financially solvent company throughout the transition phase to the aforementioned areas. They’d say some fancy shit like “expanded business model to encompass four key revenue streams: Sexual Wellness, Style & Apparel, Gaming & Lifestyle, and Beauty & Grooming.” I hear “we’re just biding our time with these trinkets until those dollar dollar bill y’all markets are fully up and running.” But the truth is these existing revenue streams are profitable, scalable, and rapidly expanding Playboy’s e-commerce segment around the world.
"Even in the face of COVID this year, we've been able to grow EBITDA over 100 percent and revenue over 68 percent, and I expect that to accelerate going into 2021," he said. “Playboy is accelerating its growth in company-owned and branded consumer products in attractive and expanding markets in which it has a proven history of brand affinity and consumer spend.”
Also in the SEC filing, the Time Frame:
“As we detailed in the definitive proxy statement, the SPAC stockholder meeting to vote on the transaction has been set for February 9th, and, subject to stockholder approval and satisfaction of the other closing conditions, we expect to complete the merger and begin trading on NASDAQ under ticker PLBY shortly thereafter,” concluded Kohn.
The Players: Suhail “The Whale” Rizvi (HMFIC), Ben “The Bridge” Kohn (CEO), “lil” Suying Liu & “Big” Dong Liu (Young-gun China gang). I encourage you to look these folks up. The real OG here is Suhail Rizvi. He’s from India originally and Chairman of the Board for the new PLBY company. He was an early investor in Twitter, Square, Facebook and others. His firm, Rizvi Traverse, currently invests in Instacart, Pinterest, Snapchat, Playboy, and SpaceX. Maybe you’ve heard of them. “Rizvi, who owns a sprawling three-home compound in Greenwich, Connecticut, and a 1.65-acre estate in Palm Beach, Florida, near Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg, moved to Iowa Falls when he was five. His father was a professor of psychology at Iowa. Along with his older brother Ashraf, a hedge fund manager, Rizvi graduated from Wharton business school.” “Suhail Rizvi: the 47-year-old 'unsocial' social media baron: When Twitter goes public in the coming weeks (2013), one of the biggest winners will be a 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his photos from the internet. In IPO, Twitter seeks to be 'anti-FB'” “Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia looks like a big Twitter winner. So do the moneyed clients of Jamie Dimon. But as you’ve-got-to-be-joking wealth washed over Twitter on Thursday — a company that didn’t exist eight years ago was worth $31.7 billion after its first day on the stock market — the non-boldface name of the moment is Suhail R. Rizvi. Mr. Rizvi, 47, runs a private investment company that is the largest outside investor in Twitter with a 15.6 percent stake worth $3.8 billion at the end of trading on Thursday (November, 2013). Using a web of connections in the tech industry and in finance, as well as a hearty dose of good timing, he brought many prominent names in at the ground floor, including the Saudi prince and some of JPMorgan’s wealthiest clients.” https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/08/technology/at-twitter-working-behind-the-scenes-toward-a-billion-dollar-payday.html Y’all like that Arab money? How about a dude that can call up Saudi Princes and convince them to spend? Funniest shit about I read about him: “Rizvi was able to buy only $100 million in Facebook shortly before its IPO, thus limiting his returns, according to people with knowledge of the matter.” Poor guy :(
He should be fine with the 16 million PLBY shares he's going to have though :)
Shuhail also has experience in the entertainment industry. He’s invested in companies like SESAC, ICM, and Summit Entertainment. He’s got Hollywood connections to blast this stuff post-merger. And he’s at least partially responsible for that whole Twilight thing. I’m team Edward btw.
I really like what Suhail has done so far. He’s lurked in the shadows while Kohn is consolidating the company, trimming the fat, making Playboy profitable, and aiming the ship at modern growing markets.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-ipo-rizvi-insight/insight-little-known-hollywood-investor-poised-to-score-with-twitter-ipo-idUSBRE9920VW20131003
Ben “The Bridge” Kohn is an interesting guy. He’s the connection between Rizvi Traverse and Playboy. He’s both CEO of Playboy and was previously Managing Partner at Rizvi Traverse. Ben seems to be the voice of the Playboy-Rizvi partnership, which makes sense with Suhail’s privacy concerns. Kohn said this:
“Today is a very big day for all of us at Playboy and for all our partners globally. I stepped into the CEO role at Playboy in 2017 because I saw the biggest opportunity of my career. Playboy is a brand and platform that could not be replicated today. It has massive global reach, with more than $3B of global consumer spend and products sold in over 180 countries. Our mission – to create a culture where all people can pursue pleasure – is rooted in our 67-year history and creates a clear focus for our business and role we play in people’s lives, providing them with the products, services and experiences that create a lifestyle of pleasure. We are taking this step into the public markets because the committed capital will enable us to accelerate our product development and go-to-market strategies and to more rapidly build our direct to consumer capabilities,” said Ben Kohn, CEO of Playboy.
“Playboy today is a highly profitable commerce business with a total addressable market projected in the trillions of dollars,” Mr. Kohn continued, “We are actively selling into the Sexual Wellness consumer category, projected to be approximately $400 billion in size by 2024, where our recently launched intimacy products have rolled out to more than 10,000 stores at major US retailers in the United States. Combined with our owned & operated ecommerce Sexual Wellness initiatives, the category will contribute more than 40% of our revenue this year. In our Apparel and Beauty categories, our collaborations with high-end fashion brands including Missguided and PacSun are projected to achieve over $50M in retail sales across the US and UK this year, our leading men’s apparel lines in China expanded to nearly 2500 brick and mortar stores and almost 1000 digital stores, and our new men’s and women’s fragrance line recently launched in Europe. In Gaming, our casino-style digital gaming products with Scientific Games and Microgaming continue to see significant global growth. Our product strategy is informed by years of consumer data as we actively expand from a purely licensing model into owning and operating key high-growth product lines focused on driving profitability and consumer lifetime value. We are thrilled about the future of Playboy. Our foundation has been set to drive further growth and margin, and with the committed capital from this transaction and our more than $180M in NOLs, we will take advantage of the opportunity in front of us, building to our goal of $100M of adjusted EBITDA in 2025.”
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201001005404/en/Playboy-to-Become-a-Public-Company
Also, according to their Form 4s, “Big” Dong Liu and “lil” Suying Liu just loaded up with shares last week. These guys are brothers and seem like the Chinese market connection. They are only 32 & 35 years old. I don’t even know what that means, but it's provocative.
https://www.secform4.com/insider-trading/1832415.htm
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mountain-crest-acquisition-corp-ii-002600994.html
Y’all like that China money?
“Mr. Liu has been the Chief Financial Officer of Dongguan Zhishang Photoelectric Technology Co., Ltd., a regional designer, manufacturer and distributor of LED lights serving commercial customers throughout Southern China since November 2016, at which time he led a syndicate of investments into the firm. Mr. Liu has since overseen the financials of Dongguan Zhishang as well as provided strategic guidance to its board of directors, advising on operational efficiency and cash flow performance. From March 2010 to October 2016, Mr. Liu was the Head of Finance at Feidiao Electrical Group Co., Ltd., a leading Chinese manufacturer of electrical outlets headquartered in Shanghai and with businesses in the greater China region as well as Europe.”
Dr. Suying Liu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp., commented, “Playboy is a unique and compelling investment opportunity, with one of the world’s largest and most recognized brands, its proven consumer affinity and spend, and its enormous future growth potential in its four product segments and new and existing geographic regions. I am thrilled to be partnering with Ben and his exceptional team to bring his vision to fruition.”
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201001005404/en/Playboy-to-Become-a-Public-Company
These guys are good. They have a proven track record of success across multiple industries. Connections and money run deep with all of these guys. I don’t think they’re in the game to lose.
I was going to write a couple more paragraphs about why you should have a look at this but really the best thing you can do is read this SEC filing from a couple days ago. It explains the situation in far better detail. Specifically, look to page 137 and read through their strategy. Also, look at their ownership percentages and compensation plans including the stock options and their prices. The financials look great, revenue is up 90% Q3, and it looks like a bright future.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tSHCF
I’m hesitant to attach this because his position seems short term, but I’m going to with a warning because he does hit on some good points (two are below his link) and he’s got a sizable position in this thing (500k+ on margin, I think). I don’t know this guy but he did look at the same publicly available info and make roughly the same prediction, albeit without the in depth gambling or cannabis mention. You can also search reddit for ‘MCAC’ and very few relevant results come up and none of them even come close to really looking at this thing.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gOvAd6lebs452hFlWWbxVjQ3VMsjGBkbJeXRwDwIJfM/edit?usp=sharing
“Also, before you people start making claims that Playboy is a “boomer” company, STOP RIGHT THERE. This is not a good argument. Simply put. The only thing that matters is Playboy’s name recognition, not their archaic business model which doesn’t even exist anymore as they have completely repurposed their business.”
“Imagine not buying $MCAC at a 400M valuation lol. Streetwear department is worth 1B alone imo.”
Considering the ridiculous Chinese growth as a lifestyle brand, he’s not wrong.
Current Cultural Significance and Meme Value: A year ago I wouldn’t have included this section but the events from the last several weeks (even going back to tsla) have proven that a company’s ability to meme and/or gain social network popularity can have an effect. Tik-tok, Snapchat, Twitch, Reddit, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter. They all have Playboy stuff on them. Kids in middle and highschool know what Playboy is but will likely never see or touch one of the magazines in person. They’ll have a Playboy hoodie though. Crazy huh? A lot like GME, PLBY would hugely benefit from meme-value stock interest to drive engagement towards their new business model while also building strategic coffers. This interest may not directly and/or significantly move the stock price but can generate significant interest from larger players who will.
Bull Case: The year is 2025. Playboy is now the world leader pleasure brand. They began by offering Playboy licensed gaming products, including gambling products, direct to consumers through existing names. By 2022, demand has skyrocketed and Playboy has designed and released their own gambling platforms. In 2025, they are also a leading cannabis brand in the United States and Canada with proprietary strains and products geared towards sexual wellness. Cannabis was legalized in the US in 2023 when President Biden got glaucoma but had success with cannabis treatment. He personally pushes for cannabis legalization as he steps out of office after his first term. Playboy has also grown their brand in China and India to multi-billion per year markets. The stock goes up from 11ish to 100ish and everyone makes big gains buying somewhere along the way.
Bear Case: The United States does a complete 180 on marijuana and gambling. President Biden overdoses on marijuana in the Lincoln bedroom when his FDs go tits up and he loses a ton of money in his sports book app after the Fighting Blue Hens narrowly lose the National Championship to Bama. Playboy is unable to expand their cannabis and gambling brands but still does well with their worldwide lifestyle brand. They gain and lose some interest in China and India but the markets are too large to ignore them completely. The stock goes up from 11ish to 13ish and everyone makes 15-20% gains.
TL;DR: Successful technology/e-commerce investment firm took over Playboy to turn it into a porn, online gambling/gaming, sports book, cannabis company, worldwide lifestyle brand that promotes sexual wellness, vetern access, women-ownership, minority-ownership, and “pleasure for all”. Does a successful online team reinventing an antiquated physical copy giant sound familiar? No options yet, shares only for now. $11.38 per share at time of writing. My guess? $20 by the end of February. $50 by EOY. This is not financial advice. I am not qualified to give financial advice. I’m just sayin’ I would personally use a Playboy sports book app while smoking a Playboy strain specific joint and it would be cool if they did that. Do your own research. You’d probably want to start here:
WARNING - POTENTIALLY NSFW - SEXY MODELS AHEAD - no actual nudity though
https://s26.q4cdn.com/895475556/files/doc_presentations/Playboy-Craig-Hallum-Conference-Investor-Presentation-11_17_20-compressed.pdf
Or here:
https://www.mcacquisition.com/investor-relations/default.aspx
Jimmy Chill: “Get into any SPAC at $10 or $11 and you are going to make money.”
STL;DR: Buy MCAC. MCAC > PLBY couple weeks. Rocketship. Moon.
Position: 5000 shares. I will buy short, medium, and long-dated calls once available.

26 Capital Corp (ADERU) is a new at-NAV SPAC with world-leading online gambling expertise - worth a bet

EDIT - one week after i posted this, Britain's most successful hedge fund manager Michael Platt has taken a 6.5% stake
tl;dr
At-NAV new SPAC with world-leading expertise in online gambling. Worth a bet on potential to be next DKNG on the hype train

+++++++
Hi all - have had a lot of great tips from this sub. Hopefully this pays some of you back. I have been watching and researching this since 23 December when it first filed S1, awaiting the units to be listed - they are available today trading as ADERU
Positions - 500 units @ 10.42 to start. Will be monitoring and building position below $15, especially if attention starts to build ahead of units and warrants splitting and shares coming available to Robinhood.
(My other SPAC positions are OPEN, IPO-E-F, PSTH, FUSE, PIPP, ACTC, CCIV and DMYD, 100 to 1000 shares each mostly around NAV and numerous warrants and options around these.)
As ever, this is not investment advice and do your own research
+++++++

26 Capital Acquisition Corp or ADER
is a 240m SPAC with usual terms - 10$ units, 1/2 warrants. Seeking a merger in "gaming and gaming technology, branded consumer, lodging and entertainment, and Internet commerce sectors".
I think this is highly worth a play on the online gambling hype if you can get in at near NAV, based entirely on the management which is unbeatable in its knowledge of the gambling industry

CEO Jason Ader
has held director level positions at Las Vegas Sands Corp. ($42bn one of biggest casino groups in world), IGT (£3.72bn multinational gambling firm specialised in software and slot machines) and Playtech (£1.4bn multinational gambling software firm)
Before starting his own fund in 2013 he was regularly ranked Wall Street's top analyst on the gambling and leisure sector
His fund, Spring Owl Capital, is a small activist fund focused on gambling and leisure. They are probably most famous for ousting the CEO of Viacom in 2016 and a crusade against Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer in 2015.
Ader knows the gambling - and online gambling - industry inside out. He drove bWin to a £1.1bn takeover by gambling giant GVC (now Entain) in 2016, and has been driving similar change and demands for improvement at board level at Playtech
The fund mostly manages money for a select group of wealthy families, which could be a positive sign for the SPAC (although I don't know how much skin in the SPAC the fund has, if any)
Here is a video of Ader from November talking about how he's excited about SPACs. He talks about how he has been advising certain States about legalising sports betting and how to maximise value and liquidity by linking up with European companies in the space (Playtech e.g.??).
Ader is extremely bullish on US legalising online casino and more sports betting options, accelerated by need for revenue because of pandemic

Rafi Ashkenazi
One of the most highly respected names in the online gambling world, including COO and CEO positions at major online gambling firms such as Playtech and Stars Group (a world leader in online poker and casino). At Stars he led the $4.7bn takeover of Sky Betting to create the world's largest publicly listed online betting firm in 2018. Most recently he led the £10bn merger between Flutter (biggest gambling company in world by revenue, market cap £26bn), and Stars Group (Ader also involved). Also has connections into the booming Israel tech space which is interesting

Joseph Kaminkow
Special Advisor to the Chief Product Officer at Aristocrat, a leading gambling software provider and games publisher, previously Vice President of Game Design at Zynga Inc. This guy is a former video game / pinball designer who is credited with revolutionising the slots industry after moving into gambling software from video games in 1999. Regarded as a "legend" and "hall of famer" in this niche. At Zynga he designed so-called 'social casino games' which don't involve real-money gambling but are otherwise basically gambling apps (revenue from microtransactions etc). 130 patents on gambling/gaming design inventions

Greg Lyss
This is a very interesting but extremely low profile person. He was Bill Ackman a.k.a SPACman's right hand man at Gotham Capital. Ackman respected him so much that when Ackman set up a personal hedge fund to invest the Ackman family's money, he put Lyss in charge of it. To repeat - Bill Ackman thinks this guy is such a good investor and trustworthy that he put him in charge of investing his family's money. Don't know anything more about him, but I like this association with Ackman, which suggests to me some integrity around management of this SPAC, especially as the gambling world can be very murky.
The other member of the team is the CFO of SpringOwl with 20+ years' hedge fund experience and not notable (although clearly competent)

Thesis / potential targets
Based on the above experience and many public comments by Ader over the past year, I would be very surprised if ADER is not looking to merge with an online gambling technology provider / existing online betting website / social casino app / possibly a supporting technology provider
They are activist inventors, and specifically say in the IPO prospectus that they could look for businesses that can benefit from turnaround or are not being run well. I speculate that their deep knowledge of the European / global online gambling industry means they have a target in mind that they think would benefit from their expertise and US liberalisation of gambling legislation.

1) Ader believes the listing of UK-listed gambling companies in US is immediately big in terms of market cap because of the premium on online gambling stocks in US. He has pitched DraftKings to takeover Playtech and called on Playtech to spin off non-core business. This makes me wonder if he would spin off some element of Playtech to list in US to cash in on gambling hype.
This might be Finalto.com / TradeTech which is an online financial platform owned by Playtech. Playtech has been trying to sell this for 200 - 240m since August so it fits. This company provides liquidity and trading to brokerages and runs markets.com a trading site. I wouldn't be that excited although apparently the business has been booming during COVID and there could be a decent pop just on fintech hype.

2) This could be a 'picks and shovel' type data/B2B betting software play a la DMYD, or something like e.g. Israel based CRM software Optimove which works with some of biggest online gambling cos and has links to Ashkenazi. This would be interesting but probably not a huge pop

3) Possibly - given Ader's links to Sands - an online gambling tie-up with one of the big Vegas casinos who are desperate to get into the online betting space (see MGM's attempt to buy Entain for $8bn last week). Interestingly, Sands' owner Sheldon Adelson, previously a major opponent of online betting, has just died. Ader predicted a few months ago that Sands would be moving in this direction.

“There’s no stopping online gaming,” Ader said [before Adelson's death]. “(Las Vegas Sands’) initiatives to stop online gaming, at this stage, are largely historic. There hasn’t been a lot of spending recently to do that, especially post-pandemic.”
“I think the company will see the value created by DraftKings and FanDuel and Penn (National) Gaming and others. They’re not foolish,” Ader added. source

4) Ader is very confident that Macau will legalise online gambling in next year or two. Sands is big in Macau, the biggest gambling market in the world. A SaaS-type product positioned to capitalise on Asian gambling would be MASSIVE - at present however, China's attitude to gambling and local regulations mean this is unlikely

5) I also wonder if they might try to take legitimate one of the offshore bookmakers with big customer databases and brand recognition but which have been grey-area/illegal under US gaming legislation. For example, Five Dimes recently announced a settlement with the FBI to attempt to transition into newly legalised US markets. This might have the most hype potential

Potential upside
This is entirely a play on management experience and the meme factor / hype around online gambling in the US. I think if they pick a good target - which given their experience and connections seems likely - and get the right publicity and attention from retail investors looking for the next DKNG this could easily 3x and maybe 5-6x if on DKNG-type hype levels.
There is currently little spotlight on this and it is a good time to get in at NAV

Potential Downside

Ader has been vocal that he thinks US online betting is overvalued and in a bubble - why is he starting his own SPAC in the space then? Does he just want to cash in while the hype is at all-time high or does he have a legitimate business goal?
If he just wants to dump a part of Playtech which he does not like onto retail investors, this is a bad deal.
Other targets could be e.g. hotel industry or other leisure sector which would be zero sexiness to retail. Given Ashkenazi and Kaminkow's background this seems unlikely though
Usual SPAC caveats apply about potential difficulty finding a target, locking up your money for unspecified period of time, and the fact I may have completely misread the potential and my above thesis might be totally wrong

$BFT (FoleyTrasimene II), SPAC to become Paysafe

I think that this one has been under-reported somewhat but since I work in the online gaming industry, it showed up on my radar.
This SPAC has reached a deal to bring back Paysafe to the market, at a valuation of 9 billions.
What is Paysafe?
Paysafe Group has been consolidating the market for e-wallets and alternative payment methods for years and went back into private hands 3 years ago.
They regroup all the main e-wallets used for online gambling and Forex: Skrill and Neteller and also prepaid cards (to be bought in 7/11 and the like) under the Paysafe brand.
Why e-wallets matter in the online gambling market?
E-wallets and prepaid cards represent about 25% of the volume of payments in online gambling in UK, Europe, Canada and Skrill/NetellePaysafe are by far the biggest names in this field.
https://www.fisglobal.com/-/media/fisglobal/WorldPay/Docs/Miscellaneous/Gaming%20Payments%20Report%202019
Neteller and Moneybookers (as Skrill was known then) were dominating the US alternative payment methods gambling market in the US before they got pushed out in 2007. They still have high name recognition amongst the gambling crowd and web searches in the US for these brands remain high, even if they can’t process much transactions there for gambling since many states don’t have online gambling legislations yet, or very limiting ones.
E-Wallets are often the preferred payment method for gamblers since it allows to move money from one operator site to the other quickly and cheaply. They can also use it as a bankroll segregated from their main bank account/CC and on top of that, Paysafe offers loyalty benefits to users based on their transaction volumes. As such, their user retention is very good.
The prepaid card business is also a major factor for this stock attractiveness. Prepaid cards to be bought in gas stations or the like are often preferred by gamblers who want to strictly control their gambling or those who don’t have access to a CC (maybe because they gambled too much) or those that prefer cash transactions out of privacy concerns…
Why not invest in the gambling operators instead?
Operators such as Draftkings or legacy casino groups are going to make money but the regulatory environment is harsh and gambling taxes are crazy in some states and might keep going higher.
Moreover, the regulations being so fragmented, many smaller operators push in certain states and not others and the competitive environment is broad. Remember that gambling is a fungible good. There is no difference in the casino games that the operators can offer (same game studios, same rules) and aside from bonuses and the margins on sports bets, the only differentiation is in branding, which is a thin moat on a product that often leaves the users disgruntled (losers).
Payments on the other hand are not taxed for their relationship to gambling and there are far fewer players.
How does Paysafe make money?
The margins on their products are pretty high and Paysafe charges both sides of the transaction in the case of the e-wallets and the merchant side in the case of the prepaid cards.
For the use of Skrill and Neteller wallets, Paysafe charges on average 4.5% on the merchant side for deposits and a whooping 9.9% on deposits with prepaid cards… Larger merchants certainly can negotiate these rates down but this is still a healthy fee, much higher than credit card processors.
In markets where Paysafe has established domination they charge a small deposit fee to the user and a withdrawal fee.
For now, they charge no fees to the US users in a bid to grow market share surely but that will probably end some day.
Growth opportunity:
For now, the US online gambling market is still very limited. Most states have not legalized, the majority of those who have legalized only did so for sports betting and then a handful have legalized online casino gaming (where the real money is made). The opening up of the market is bound to grow as states need money and more of the world moves online.
https://www.playusa.com/us/
It is estimated that the online gaming market could reach 25 billions a year in the US in a few years time and 150 billions worldwide.
https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/online-gambling-market#:~:text=The%20North%20America%20online%20gambling,CAGR%20during%20the%20forecast%20period.
https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-online-gambling-market
These revenues do not equal to deposited amounts, they equal net deposits (deposits minus withdrawals). The hold % of online casinos can be anywhere between 50% and 80% depending on how degenerate the market is in a given country but we can conservatively assume 60%.
This means that deposits volume in the US alone would reach about 40 billions, Europe about 50 Billions and worldwide 250 billions.
That should give Paysafe around 8-10 billions in transaction volume per year in the US alone , another 10-12 billions in Europe and conservatively, another 20 billions worldwide.
Valuation estimates:
Rough estimates are therefore revenues of about 1.5 billions per year for Paysafe group in a few years for gambling alone.
Paysafe claims 1.5 billions in revenues total projected for 2021, with only a third from gambling.
Even assuming no growth from the other verticals, this means that the total revenues of Paysafe should grow by 66% with gambling alone in the next 5 years or so.
Pysafe is investing a lot into expansion in other areas than gambling, notably video-gaming and remittance so assuming they don’t fuck it up completely, we are likely to see a 3 billions dollar in revenues in the next 5 years.
Using Paypal’s marketcap vs revenues, that would mean 50 billions in marketcap for Paysafe… Of course, Paypal is ingrained deeply in the whole of ecommerce and Paysafe is more specialized in gambling which might be shakier and herefore command a lower valuation.
The deal details are not fully known but it looks like a current valuation of 9 billions for Paysafe Group upon listing.
Based on my estimates, the marketcap could reach 50 billions in a few years time, one US market for gambling fully opens.
$BFT is trading at a 25% premium right now, therefore the estimate is 4x on investment over a few years.
Obviously you retards are not the most patient bunch but I believe the stock will jump when it morphs and so keep an eye out for the options.

Ego Casino 20 Free Spins Bonus No Deposit Required

LPT: If you have a lot of free time at the moment, you can generate a little income on the side by doing online work like teaching english, transcription, microtasks or surveys. It's not a fortune but if you have time to spare anyway it's a good way to pay a few bills. (list of sites attached)

Dr. Ronald Weiss: Chronic post-vasectomy pain syndrome is exceedingly rare.

Dr. Ronald Weiss:
Aug 25, 2002
Re: Painful reminder, Aug. 19.
This article is incomplete and misleading. Chronic post-vasectomy pain syndrome is exceedingly rare. According to Dr. Marc Goldstein, the foremost authority on vasectomy in the world, it's likely closer to 1 in 10,000 or one one-hundredth of one per cent, rather than the one to five per cent of men quoted in the article.
It is not unusual to experience some discomfort following vasectomy, or any other surgery for that matter, but this short-lived pain does not constitute post-vasectomy pain syndrome. Your readers should not be led to believe that if they experience some discomfort following their procedure, that they will be saddled with this distressing condition forever. Discomfort following vasectomy is a function of many things, including the experience of the surgeon (the more vasectomies the surgeon does, the less likely the complications); the technique (no-scalpel versus conventional, open-ended versus closed-ended); and the experience of pain during the procedure (better anesthesia increases the likelihood of a better outcome). None of this was mentioned in the article.
Chronic post-vasectomy pain syndrome is a well-recognized condition in the medical community and, rare as it is, forms part of all informed consents for this procedure.
Dr. Ronald S. Weiss, Ottawa, assistant professor, University of Ottawa medical school
Editor's note: Dr. Weiss, a family doctor, has performed more than 10,000 vasectomies.
https://imgur.com/gallery/nJkGG3B
Statement Score:
★★★☆☆ -- Mentions chronic pain risk but gives incorrect statistics

This article is incomplete and misleading. Chronic post-vasectomy pain syndrome is exceedingly rare. According to Dr. Marc Goldstein, the foremost authority on vasectomy in the world, it's likely closer to 1 in 10,000 or one one-hundredth of one per cent, rather than the one to five per cent of men quoted in the article.

Here are the chances for chronic pain caused by vasectomy given by several national level health organizations. These are the professional societies and experts that the urologists are supposed to be getting their statistics from:

Canadian Urology Association give the chronic pain outcomes for vasectomy at between 1-14% (Link)
American Urological Association says chronic pain serious enough to impact quality of life occurs after 1-2% of vasectomies. (Link)
British Association of Urological Surgeons, patient advice reports troublesome chronic testicular pain which can be severe enough to affect day-to-day activities in 5-14% of vasectomy patients. (Link)
UK National Health Service says long-term testicular pain affects around 10% of men after vasectomy. (Link)
11th edition of Campbell Walsh Urology (2015) cites 10% incidence of chronic scrotal pain caused by vasectomy. (Link)
European Association of Urology (2012) cites 1-14% incidence of chronic scrotal pain caused by vasectomy, usually mild but sometimes requiring pain management or surgery (Link)
Royal College of Surgeons of England says significant chronic orchalgia may occur in up to 15% of men after vasectomy, and may require epididymectomy or vasectomy reversal. (Link)
Journal of Andrology cites large studies that find Post Vasectomy Pain Syndrome 2-6% of the time (Link)
UpToDate says "surveys have found that the incidence of "troublesome" post-vasectomy pain is reported by approximately 15% of men, with pain severe enough to affect quality of life in 2%. However, survey respondents may not have been representative of all men who have had a vasectomy." (Link)
European Association of Urology says Post-vasectomy scrotal pain syndrome is a scrotal pain syndrome that follows vasectomy. Post-vasectomy scrotal pain syndrome is often associated with negative cognitive, behavioural, sexual or emotional consequences, as well as with symptoms suggestive of lower urinary tract and sexual dysfunction. Post-vasectomy pain may be as frequent as 1% following vasectomy, possibly more frequent. (Link)
German Federal Center for Health Education says "The information on how many men seek medical treatment because of this fluctuates between one and 14 percent." (Link)
American Family Physician says "Recent studies estimate the incidence of severe postvasectomy pain syndrome to be between 1% and 6%" (Link)
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health published a meta-analysis in March 2020 to determine the incidence of PVPS, which examined 559 peer-reviewed studies and concluded that "Post-vasectomy pain syndrome occurred in 5% of subjects" (Link) The authors determined that "the overall incidence of post-vasectomy pain is greater than previously reported."
StatPearls says "about 1% to 2% of all men who undergo vasectomies will develop constant or intermittent testicular pain lasting greater than 3 months which is then defined as post-vasectomy pain syndrome." (Link)

According to Dr. Marc Goldstein, the foremost authority on vasectomy in the world, it's likely closer to 1 in 10,000 or one one-hundredth of one per cent

I wasn't able to find an instance of Dr. Goldstein claiming that the rate of PVPS is 1 in 10,000 but here is an example of Dr. Goldstein claiming that the rate of PVPS is 1 in 1,000:

Several possible long-term effects associated with vasectomy include chronic testiculaepididymal pain, testicular dysfunction, vasitis nodosa, and chronic epididymal obstruction. Approximately 1 in 1000 men will experience chronic testiculaepididymal pain postoperatively. Possible treatments for this bothersome complication include vasectomy reversal, open-ended vasectomy, or even total epididymovasectomy.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16806411/ via (https://www.maleinfertility.org/sites/default/files/general/vasectomy_packet.pdf )
What do Dr. Weiss' patients have to say?
I had my vasectomy done by Dr. Ronald Weiss in Ottawa last year. Still in severe pain and taking numerous nerve drugs daily.
I was told by him that the risk was 1 in 10,000 risk of a chronic ache in the testicle for which a reversal is required. I read stuff on the internet beforehand, and here beforehand, and I honestly thought that some guys were exaggerating their pain and it must be really rare. I also thought ‘a doctor can’t lie about risks of surgery, with liability reasons and all.’
Well, I guess my suffering from PVPS is karma for not believing all the guys on here suffering.
https://www.postvasectomypain.org/t/are-you-a-pvps-victim-of-dr-ronald-weiss-in-ottawa-ontario/1777
I am experiencing PVPS. Dr. Weiss was very efficient. The procedure was also very efficient. His staff was also very efficient. That is where it ends. If you are lucky to have no complications after the surgery then consider yourself lucky. If you do have complications, and the risk is higher than you are led to believe, then don't bother calling Dr. Weiss. Once you are through his assembly-line procedure he is done with you. He has zero compassion. He has zero bedside manner. He will tell you to your face "It's not my fault" and spout off statistics like "I've done this 55,000 times" What doctor keeps stats like this?
If you are considering a vasectomy, my advice is DON'T. It is not worth the high risk of pain that may plague you for the rest of your life.
https://www.ratemds.com/doctor-ratings/98740/Dr-Ronald-Weiss-Ottawa-ON.html
Having chronic pain 3 months after the procedure...
Seems to be granuloma. His nurse told me rest and anti inflammatory meds or a few days until it subsided.. after reading numerous forums on post vasectomy pain, I’m becoming increasingly concerned with the outcome... a recent 4-wheeler ride has made me have some sharp pain and inflammation.
I would NOT reccomend the procedure or doctor at this point...
Do not alter your body. The stats you are given are NOT accurate and you are at more of a risk than you realize.
https://www.ratemds.com/doctor-ratings/98740/Dr-Ronald-Weiss-Ottawa-ON.html
DON'T DO IT
I've learned a few things since this regrettable decision I made. First and foremost is that nature is not to be f'd with - altering your natural body is not a good idea if it can be avoided. The other things I've been learning is how ill-informed us guys are about the consequences of having a vasectomy and all the things that can go wrong. "you'll be fine" they all said, "a couple days" they kept saying, "it can't be any worse than giving birth" - ya F that. Giving birth is the most natural part of living and a woman gets the gift of a child from it. Altering your insides is not natural at all and it has given me nothing but terrible pain and that sick nauseous feeling you get when kicked in the balls HARD - CONSTANTLY each and every day for 7 weeks now. I am so f'ing sick of icing my balls each and every f'ing day but it is the only thing that helps. I've now had the shits on top of all the other discomfort from being on meds for so long. I'm not even sure that the pills are helping but I take them and put up with the diarrhea because I am willing to do whatever it takes to try and get through this and get back to normal. I cannot put into words how badly I wish I could have a do-over and listen to my gut that was telling me over and over again not to do it. I did it for my wife and now I hate my f'ing life. I've contemplated suicide more times than I care to admit because I do not want to live like this. I was a f'ing stallion in bed before and I haven't been able to be who I was before with my wife ever since. The only sex I can handle now is very lame, lazy, and stupid careful so that I don't bring on the crazy pain I've experienced the few times I attempted to become even half the man I was before. Release has moved from a desire to a necessity because the pain increases substantially when my balls are full - not cool. Epididymitis I believe is what I am suffering from, although I don't know that for sure because when I went back for an exam I was told in about 5 minutes that I just need to give it more time and more drugs. This has affected my quality of life in a way I never imagined. I've given up exercise (and I am very active), I can't lift anything heavy anymore, it pains me to lift my children, I begin and end every day with ice on my nuts, I'm dealing with the effects of the nonstop ingestion of drugs, I'm in pain and discomfort constantly 24/7, and my sex-life has suffered terribly. Ball pain has become the new norm for me so now it just depends on the level I'm feeling that day whether I say I'm good or not - I'm never feeling great anymore, some days are just better than others - some are brutal. Guys are not informed enough about this so this is my attempt to remedy this. I wish I could go back in time but I can't. Instead I just have to hope and pray that this eventually goes away, though it doesn't feel like that is ever going to happen. Don't gamble on permanent ball pain guys, it is the absolute worst. I try not to blame my wife for the pressure she put on me to have this done but I curse her often.. some days I snap because I'm just so tired of feeling this way. I've yelled at people at work, I've been a grown man crying on my couch, I've thought about ending it - only reason I will put up with it is because of my 2 beautiful boys who I could never abandon no matter how much I hurt... just cannot describe how much I regret this decision. Sure most guys say they are fine but it's not guaranteed. If you feel pressured by any woman to have this done my advice is to tell them to go F themselves. There are other alternatives to contraception that avoid any chance of these terrible outcomes and they should be the go to. This practice should be banned in my opinion. All I can do is pray that this pain goes away. Worst decision of my life by far. Don't do it.
https://www.ratemds.com/doctor-ratings/98740/Dr-Ronald-Weiss-Ottawa-ON.html?page=2
My husband seen Dr. Weiss in April. We are now the end of August and he is still in pain. This isn’t normal. He went to a walk in clinic and they gave him inflammatories and told him to call doctor Weiss on the Monday. Monday morning comes, he calls and the secretary tells him she will prescribe him inflammatories and for him to come in a week later. Of course my husband got frustrated, he’s in pain, missing work because of this and this secretary plays him for a fool. He finally went in this morning and the doctor prescribed him inflammatories and tells him to call his family doctor as he was rude on the phone with the secretary and doesn’t want to see him in the office anymore. Seriously!!!!!! Just get your money and don’t deal with your patients problem afterwards. Way to do business. He’s been in pain for 4 months, shame on you and your coworker. You need to stop your practice because you aren’t very good at it and do not take responsibility.
https://www.ratemds.com/doctor-ratings/98740/Dr-Ronald-Weiss-Ottawa-ON.html?page=2
I had a V in 2006, procedure itself went fairly smooth however my life has never been the same. I called the office a day or so after the procedure explaining the pain I was in but my plea for help was dismissed and I was told it was "normal". I made an apt with Dr Weiss shortly after the V and told him the about the pain I was suffering. He simply didn't give a sh*t and even had the nerve to say "its not from anything I did". I saw a Urologist about a year after the V and he said to try and wait it out, the pain may just go away. Slowly, month by month, year by year, the pain did get better however I was far from 100%. Around year 4 I felt a sudden twinge in my testicles and it has been complete nightmare since. I'm now entertaining the V-reversal idea, I've seen countless Dr's, Urologists, Surgeons, Gp's seeking help but nobody seems to know what to do. I would strongly advise anyone out there NOT TO GET A VASECTOMY! The 1in10,000 odds are simply lies. Having the V was easily the worst decision of my life, I'll never be whole again. I sincerely don't want to continue living in this condition, if I was a family pet, my owners would have put me down long ago. I was duped by this man, the numbers speak for themselves. POST VASECTOMY PAIN IS A REALITY.
https://www.ratemds.com/doctor-ratings/98740/Dr-Ronald-Weiss-Ottawa-ON.html?page=3
I had a vasectomy done by Dr. Weiss in 2009, and am still dealing with the aftermath.
I had sometimes severe post-vasectomy pain for fourteen months following the procedure. Dr. Weiss initially told me the pain would just go away, and then when it didn't, became angry with me and told me the only treatment was a reversal. I wrote him a letter in an effort to improve his practice, but he again blew me off.
It is eight years later, and I now have cysts and debris in my scrotum. I have had to see urologists about the complications.
Dr. Weiss has the worst bedside manner of any specialist I have ever seen in Ottawa. He should not be performing a procedure the consequences of which he does not seem to understand.
https://www.ratemds.com/doctor-ratings/98740/Dr-Ronald-Weiss-Ottawa-ON.html?page=3
2 months later my balls still hurts, it ruins my life. No more sport, constant pain, to come back, never have done it!!!
https://www.ratemds.com/doctor-ratings/98740/Dr-Ronald-Weiss-Ottawa-ON.html?page=3
Me too on the pain. Also have found out that the rates given were not true. I tried to report him to the urologists Ontario group but he is not a urologist. He is a family doctor. That's seems the next step. Anyone tried to sue for the misinformation and pain?
https://www.ratemds.com/doctor-ratings/98740/Dr-Ronald-Weiss-Ottawa-ON.html?page=4
Dr. Weiss botched my husband's vasectomy and left him in constant agony. He went from being a great dad and sweet husband to a pill popping couch potato overnight. Dr. Weiss' staff said wear the support and take the naproxen.
It's been nine months now and my husband is getting worse - I don't know how we will make ends meet, we never, in our wildest dreams expected him to become incapacitated from this 'safe and simple procedure.'
I have come to find out through various medical channels that my husband's post vasectomy pain is more common than Dr. Weiss let on. It's actually more like 2%, so 1 in 50, not 1 in 10,000. I can't believe how many 'victims' of Dr. Weiss are on this site alone. It's mind-boggling.
You misled us Dr. Weiss and now our lives are ruined. You stole my husband from me and you stole my children's father from them. You should be ashamed of yourself, you greedy lying swine.
https://www.ratemds.com/doctor-ratings/98740/Dr-Ronald-Weiss-Ottawa-ON.html?page=4
Amateur Hack! Don't go. This guy aint even a urologist! He's just a family doc not a friggin surgeon.
When the kicked in the balls pain that I have never went away and I went to see him about it, he had no idea what to do and acts like he's never even seen this crap before! Then I start researching (shoulda done that before) and find out that anywhere from 1-5% will have severe scrotal pain and it cant be fixed! WTF!! I fell like Im being kicked in the nuts all day every day - I cant sleep I cant eat I cant work and its been almost a year now! Im ready to hack my nuts off with a garden shear, but will that make it worse?
Thanks Ronnie you lying scumbag...1 in 10,000 my a.s.s. more like 1 in 20
https://www.ratemds.com/doctor-ratings/98740/Dr-Ronald-Weiss-Ottawa-ON.html?page=4
I can't believe I have PVPS. I cant believe this doc lied to me. My life is a living nightmare and I am now disabled.
My current urologist who is trying to fix my PVP/s (without much success) has told me that there are numerous postal surveys and studies done which show PVP to be anywhere from 1-2% or 5-10% depending upon source. He admits it's a serious problem and that vasectomists all over the place lie about the risks.
Dr. Weiss told me it was 1 in 10,000 chance of a chronic ache and that a reversal would fix it - couldn't be more untrue. I can't sleep, i can't exercise, I take pain meds all day and cant work as my job requires heavy lifting.
Dont go. I wish I could take back that fateful day.
https://www.ratemds.com/doctor-ratings/98740/Dr-Ronald-Weiss-Ottawa-ON.html?page=4
Count me in as another unlucky PVPS sufferer. If it was really 1 in 10,000 as Dr. Weiss stated, then why are there so many of us on here?
Also check this out: https://www.auanet.org/common/pdf/education/clinical-guidance/Vasectomy.pdf
It's the American Urological Association's guidelines on vasectomy, wherein they state a 1-2% chance of chronic scrotal pain severe enough to impact quality of life, with a bunch of peer reviewers, including, none other than Dr. Ronald Weiss himself!
So he peer reviewed AUA guidelines and agreed with the 1-2% severe pain figure, yet prefers to say the chance is actually .01%?
Unbelievable.
Oh BTW, a reversal failed to fix my pain, and it's suspected that the perineal branch of my pudendal nerve (which is in your scrotum) was hit by Dr. Weiss during my vasectomy.
No wonder why I not only have stabbing, tingling, burning scrotal pain, but also anal pain and severe pain when sitting.
I was perfectly healthy before and now life sucks. I'm middle aged and don't want to live another 20-30 years like this. No way.
There's nothing to be done that can fully bring you back to the way you were. Look it up online, it's all over the place, numerous studies have been published for decades. I've never seen such lies about a medical procedure before, never in my entire life.
Don't do it, just use condoms, sure they suck, but at least you won't end up with pain in your junk for your whole life.
https://www.ratemds.com/doctor-ratings/98740/Dr-Ronald-Weiss-Ottawa-ON.html?page=5
Dr. Weiss should be sued for misleading his patients into believing that the rate of Post-Vasectomy complications, also known as Post-Vasectomy-Pain-Syndrome (PVPS), is lower than it actually is. His brochure misstates the rate of this life-crippling condition. Whether he is too busy making $ to update his brochure with actual research findings or whether he is purposely misleading his clientele, matters little. He is uncaring and more worried about his reputation than his patients. Surveys in recent years have found that almost 15% of men suffer from PVPS, with 2% of men experiencing pain intense enough to impact their quality of life. One review reported that 1 in 1000 men who undergo a vasectomy will sustain long-term pain requiring surgical intervention. So his brochure is absolutely bogus. Do not believe a word he tells you--reconsider your options.
Dr. Weiss has been dismissive of chronic pain resulting form his surgery for years. His solution is to ignore or write prescriptions in doses that even raises the pharmacists' eyebrows. I think the worst problem is that in order to guard his obviously frail reputation, he refuses to write referrals to see REAL urologists that can actually help try remedy the problem.
Do yourself a BIG favour and research the risks associated with PVPS. Yes, all surgeries have risks, but if someone told you you have 1-3 chances in ten to be in debilitating pain for months, years, and possibly the rest of your life, would you make the same decision? Please think twice and see another doctor that isn't just interested in money. He is the WORST choice you will make in your life.
https://www.ratemds.com/doctor-ratings/98740/Dr-Ronald-Weiss-Ottawa-ON.html?page=5

Zac Barnes (18) jumped out of a car never to be seen again. What happened to Zac?

Classic 'first time poster, long time lurker' warning! Please feel free to give me feedback on the post but be kind.

On Friday the 11th of November, 2016, Karen said goodbye to her son Zac, as she dropped him off at work. Two days later, Zac jumped out of his friends car and disappeared into night, never to be seen again. What happened to Zac?

Background
Zac Barnes was born on May 22, 1998, to childhood sweethearts who eventually came to have four children, all boys – Jarred (23), Cody (21), Zac (18), and Liam (16). The family grew up in Metford, Maitland, New South Wales, Australia. Metford was a suburb of ~5000 people within the city of Maitland of roughly 80,000 people. The town is ~150km (~100miles) north of Sydney and sat on the Hunter river, approximately a 30 minute drive from the beach to the east.
As a child, Zac would be the one following his mother around and latched to her leg. Unfortunately, their father became involved in heroin and for the boys safety, Karen took her children and left that environment. Regardless, she held no ill will towards him and left it up to her boys as to their relationship with their father. Zac chose not to have anything to do with him.
When Zac was about 7, Karen and Mick began dating. Initially hesitant of Mick and protective of his mother, Zac eventually welcomed Mick’s strong character and inherited this trait from his step-father. Zac became known for standing up to bullies and for what he thought was right.
Karen and Mick welcomed two daughters, Makayla and Mia, who adored Zac. It was a busy household in Metford, with 6 children under the one roof.
With brown hair, brown eyes and a fair complexion, Zac was never shy of attention from the girls - which he was quite proud of. As a true aussie larrikin, he loved the beach, hanging out with his mates & playing rugby league. Despite his lively antics, Zac liked things orderly and clean according to his family. His drink of choice was a VB and much to his mother’s dismay, one day he had the beer logo tattooed on the back of his right calf.
At the age of 17, Zac began an apprenticeship in bricklaying - the same job as his brother Cody. He loved the job and was great at it – as he would tell anyone who would listen. He grew his hair out to form dreadlocks that were often filled with dust from the days work. Earning his own income, Zac was a partier. His mother admitted that they rarely saw him on weekends. Often he would go straight from work on a Friday to a mates place and stay there for the weekend. When Zac began partying, his mother had stressed to him never to try and get home if he had been drinking. She didn’t want him getting into a car with other drunk kids or anything and emphasised that she would rather have him spend the night at a friends place instead. Her children’s safety was Karen’s top concern.
His mother never worried as every Sunday, like clockwork, Zac would reappear, often hungover and ready for a feed, a shower, and to prepare for work the next day.
After his 18th birthday, Zac opted for a new look and had his mother painstakingly comb his dreadlocks out. After several hours work, they went to the hairdresser and Zac had his last haircut. This clean cut image of Zac is the main picture that is circulated in his missing photos as it was taken 3 weeks before his disappearance.
The Disappearance
Zac (18) overslept on Friday the 11th of November and so his mother offered to drive him to work. All he took with him was some cash, leaving his wallet and ID at home. His mum has said that his phone was broken at the time.
From work he went to lunch with his work crew and enjoyed a pub meal and drink with them. Zac left work early that day as apparently, he felt it was unsafe to continue because he’d had a drink at lunch. A work colleague drove him to a friend’s place in east Maitland.
From here, things tend to get a bit murky and there is much less information available.
Zac was spotted at the same friend’s house in East Maitland on Saturday night and his brother reports that he was still on social media as he had seen his snapchat. It’s never explained how he was able to check his snapchat given his mother had said his phone was broken.
At about 6pm on Sunday, his mother Karen and brother Cody began to worry after Zac didn’t come home to lunch and hadn’t communicated in a while. Given his phone was broken, they began trying to contact him and reaching out to his friends over facebook. Eventually they got word that he had been seen at the friends place in East Maitland on Saturday night.
Cody asked a nearby friend, Bree, to go around to the house to check on Zac.
There is not much information out there about Bree’s relationship to Zac or the family but she had been in contact with him over the weekend. At approximately 1am on Sunday, Zac had sent out a snapchat to Bree that said “dead”. Bree responded with “are you okay?” to which Zac replied “F- no”. From then on there was no further communication from Zac over any social media.
Bree reached the East Maitland house where Zac had been reported to be staying. He peeped through the blinds, looking scared, and shutting them quickly. Another male answered the door and hesitantly let Bree in. Zac looked extremely worried and was ‘acting unusual’ saying that Bree shouldn’t be there. Bree reported that Zac said hurtful things including “I’ll bite your face if I get in the car with you”. They had never fought before. Zac became increasingly agitated. Seeing she wasn’t getting anywhere, she told Zac his mum was worried about him. He walked to the front door, put on his work boots and walked over to a silver 2 door hatchback. The two men at the house followed him to the car and all three got in.
According to the two friends he was with, waking up on Sunday he had appeared fine. Over the course of the day his mood suddenly shifted, becoming increasingly distressed and he wanted to leave to get a train at the nearby Thornton Station.
On the way to the station, Zac asked his friends to stop the car before he jumped out and ran off near the intersection of Haussman Drive and Tripp Close. This was the last time Zac was seen.
One side of the intersection is residential, while the other has a short strip of land with shrubbery and then a tall wall. Beyond the wall is a railway line and beyond that is bushland including a deep, murky swamp. It was initially reported that Zac jumped out of the car at a different site closer to an old quarry that’s also quite dangerous.
The police and community have since combed through the area. The deep bodies of water around the area have been searched by divers and “sonically” according to Zac’s mother, however as previously mentioned, the water is deep and murky and difficult to navigate. The quarry has never been dredged.
All the above information was combined from a variety of sources but the official missing persons states that Zac Barnes was last seen wearing a faded blue singlet and dark blue boardshorts at 8pm on the 13th of November 2016 at Thornton NSW. The tattoo of the VB logo on his back right calf is a distinguishing feature. Zac would be 22 today.
Theories

He ran away

Zac’s mother has stated that she was not aware of any mental issues and it wasn’t something that her family was afraid of. Immediately prior to his disappearance he was acting increasingly agitated. Now there have been a couple of ideas floating around to explain why he was so distressed and none of them have been largely substantiated.
The first that gained traction was that Zac was involved in online pokergames and owed someone money. One article claims that he thought when Bree came to check on him on Sunday, Bree was associated with the people who he owed and was scouting him out for them. In addition to this, there were rumours floating around that he had lost his job on Friday (no reason has been added to this) and he was worried to go home and tell his family. This theory explains Zac’s sudden change in demeanour on the Sunday with people hypothesising that he either tried to run away from his debt or came to a more sinister end. Both of these notions have been widely discredited by both his friends and family. They’ve come out as saying that he didn’t owe a significant amount of money and it wasn’t that big of an issue to him. All in all, it sounds like the rumour mill has simply gotten out of control here and was likely perpetuated by mainstream media. Additionally, his family have said if he did try to run away, he would have come home on Monday as for all he knew, everyone would have been out and he could have grabbed some supplies such as his credit card, ID, food, toothbrush etc – but nothing of his has ever been touched since.
A couple of articles have cropped up saying that Zac was involved with drugs, which would certainly explain the unusual behaviour. His mother has explained that not unlike most teenagers, she believes that Zac would likely have experimented with drugs but only socially and would not be heavily involved nor addicted in any way. As Karen described, although the area is known to have an ice problem, due to his father’s heroin addiction, Zac wouldn’t have done anything too extreme. Regardless, I do think that sometimes people do react in completely unpredictable ways to some drugs and if they had been in play here, could’ve caused Zac to become unusually agitated and paranoid and may have led him to attempting to escape whatever danger he perceived. This may also account for suddenly jumping out of the car and running into the bush as his friends described. He may have even been slightly disorientated and thought he could navigate from that drop off point to his home through the bushland – not intending to run away but simply trying to get home to Metford.
Regardless of the cause, if he did jump out of the car, as his friends say, and run into the bushland alone there seems to be only two outcomes: he got out of town without anyone noticing or whilst trying to navigate the bushland, hurt himself and was unable to get help (no phone).
Whilst there have been several unconfirmed sightings of Zac around Australia, police have said it is unlikely that he would have been able to get on the train unnoticed.

His friends lied

I think this is the more obvious theory, and given facebook posts by his friends and family, one that they believe. The two friends that drove Zac to the intersection and saw him jump out suddenly were the only witnesses to this. Although initially cooperative with police, they distanced themselves more and more from the situation. As Zac’s family admits, they did hound the friends with questions (as you could imagine with your son/brother missing) and the friends became less and less helpful as time passed. Eventually they ended up unfriending or unfollowing Zac and his associated missing persons page on facebook. Karen has kept their identities hidden to prevent any sort of witch hunt. There is also the discrepancy of a different drop off points reported by the friends – although changes in witnesses stories are not uncommon, it does lend undermine their story slightly.
Additionally, the story of Zac jumping out of the car suddenly, is, to put it simply, unbelievable. All sources lack any substantial detail on this story.
There is the question of why they let their friend go into the bushland alone, in the dark, when he was acting so erratically. A 2 door hatchback was described as the last car he was seen in – this means it’s likely one of them had to exit the car in order to let him out. Even if they hadn’t been thinking clearly at the time to let him out of the car, there is no mention of them attempting to follow him or anything similar.
Unfortunately, I do think the answer of what happened to Zac likely lies with the friends. If their whole story of letting Zac out at this point is untrue, they were able to lead the investigation in a different direction, potentially cover up something more sinister. There are several baseless theories out there that his friends dropped him off with whoever he owed money to but I think the rumour mill is spinning on this again.
No motive by Zac’s friends in the car has ever gained traction across any of the sources, which creates doubts that the friends had any involvement. Even so, with such an unbelievable story resulting in no new evidence or clues, it is likely that these two friends know more than they’re telling.
Conclusion
This case draws at the heartstrings – a mother endlessly waiting for her son to come home. Some may jump on the drug or gambling aspect of the story, and although there are circumstances in which these would cause an individual to go missing, I do think the resolution to this case lies with his friends and potentially the greater public. Was there someone out there who saw something and didn’t realise it?
This case is filled with rumours, gossip, and vague, unsubstantiated stories, none of which resolve Zac's sudden disappearance, leaving his family and friends still wondering, What happened to Zac?

If you know anything, please report to Australian crime stoppers here https://crimestoppers.com.au/
The family are now waiting to hear whether a coroner inquest will be granted. Usually at no cost for families they expect to challenge the brief and have set up a gofund me to aid with legal representation: https://au.gofundme.com/f/7t3xd6-help-find-zac-barnes
Sources:
- https://missingpersons.gov.au/search/nsw/zac-barnes
- The “What happened to Zac?” podcast at https://play.acast.com/s/whathappenedtozac
- https://pressfrom.info/au/news/australia/-98556-so-what-did-happen-to-zac-mother-of-teenager-who-vanished-two-years-ago-demands-answers-as-the-last-friends-who-saw-him-alive-refuse-to-answer-her-questions-and-insist-he-simply-ran-off-into-the-bush.html
- https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4069764/New-South-Wales-teen-VB-tattoo-Zac-Barnes-missing-six-weeks-owed-people-money.html
- https://www.newcastleherald.com.au/story/4568088/i-know-he-would-not-have-just-run-off/#slide=10

Gambling Sites » The Best Gambling Sites in the UK 2021

top 10 online gambling sites uk

top 10 online gambling sites uk - win

Lockdown 3.0 Things to do, plus help and support.

Lockdown, things to do, help & advice.

Playboy going public: Porn, Gambling, and Cannabis

26 Capital Corp (ADERU) is a new at-NAV SPAC with world-leading online gambling expertise - worth a bet

$BFT (FoleyTrasimene II), SPAC to become Paysafe

Ego Casino 20 Free Spins Bonus No Deposit Required

Ego Casino Review - Bonus Codes, Free Spins & More

Ego Casino Sign-Up Bonus And Promos

No Deposit Bonus/Free Spins Bonus

Cashback Bonus

High Roller Bonus

Weekly Reload Bonus

EGO Casino Games & Software Providers Available

Slot Games

Compatibility: Desktop & Ego Casino's Mobile Casino App

Top Security Protocols & Customer Service at Ego Casino

Ego Casino Complaints Reviewed

LPT: If you have a lot of free time at the moment, you can generate a little income on the side by doing online work like teaching english, transcription, microtasks or surveys. It's not a fortune but if you have time to spare anyway it's a good way to pay a few bills. (list of sites attached)

Dr. Ronald Weiss: Chronic post-vasectomy pain syndrome is exceedingly rare.

Zac Barnes (18) jumped out of a car never to be seen again. What happened to Zac?

top 10 online gambling sites uk video

top 10 online gambling sites uk top