Perfume, tequila, a Netflix special, a podcast. The celebrity side hustle checklist keeps growing, and somewhere near the bottom of it sits a line most fans never notice. A slot machine. Not a cameo in a casino movie, an actual licensed game with the star’s face on the reels, their songs on the soundtrack and their name on the paytable. It sounds like a joke until you realise how many big names have already signed on.
Rock stars got there first
Blame the rockers. Back in 2016, Swedish studio NetEnt rolled out a trio of music slots under the NetEnt Rocks banner. Guns N’ Roses came first, with a soundtrack you can flip between mid spin and a bonus round built around the band’s biggest hits. Jimi Hendrix followed, then Motörhead, which turned the reels black and let Ace of Spades rip while you play. Three years later NetEnt went back for Ozzy Osbourne, bats and all. If that sounds like an odd career move for a Prince of Darkness, remember this is a man who sold a reality show about his family. The slot was arguably the quieter option.
So where do you actually spin these?
Not every casino carries the music catalogue, since the licences cost real money and the rights holders are picky. In the regulated US market, the Betinia NJ slot games lobby gathers the whole rock lineup in one place. Guns N’ Roses, Motörhead, Ozzy Osbourne and Jimi Hendrix all sit there, next to Def Leppard Hysteria and Gordon Ramsay Hell’s Kitchen, under a New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement licence. Which is handy if you’re the kind of fan who already owns the band tee, the vinyl reissue and now, apparently, wants the free spins too.
Wait, Gordon Ramsay has a slot?
He does, and it’s exactly what you’d expect. NetEnt built Hell’s Kitchen in 2021 with Ramsay barking at you from the screen, kitchen stations as bonus features and a red team versus blue team twist lifted straight from the show. It’s loud, it’s a bit much, and it’s weirdly fun. Def Leppard’s Hysteria slot landed the same year from Play’n GO, built around the 1987 album, so the band’s biggest singles play on a loop and the bonus rounds feel like a stadium show.
Why would a celebrity say yes to this?
Money, obviously, but it’s smarter money than it looks. A branded slot is a licensing deal. The artist’s estate or management hands over the name, the likeness and a handful of master recordings, and in return takes a cut every time the game gets played, for years. No tour dates. No new album. The catalogue keeps earning while the artist does something else entirely. For older acts whose fans are now in their forties and fifties with disposable income, that’s a very easy yes.
Las Vegas floors figured this out long before the internet did. Michael Jackson, Dolly Parton and Britney Spears all had physical machines with their names in lights on the Strip years before the online versions caught up. The web just made the deal cheaper to sign and easier to ship.
It also keeps the music in front of people who might never stream it. Someone hears Ace of Spades in a bonus round and suddenly Motörhead has a new listener. Record labels noticed that a while ago.
The 2026 crop
The trend isn’t slowing down. In April this year, Octoplay launched Elvis Presley: Viva Las Records, a Hold and Win slot with five jackpots and the King’s silhouette doing the heavy lifting, with a second Elvis title promised for later in the year. Snoop Dogg already has Snoop Dogg Dollars from BGaming, that studio’s first celebrity game and proof that the format isn’t only for guitar bands anymore. Expect more, and expect actors and athletes to follow once their agents see the royalty statements. The music industry has worked out that a slot is just another format for the back catalogue, somewhere between a biopic and a Vegas residency.
Do the stars actually play them?
Probably not. These games exist for the fans, the ones who grew up with the poster on the wall and now have twenty minutes to kill on the train. Spinning Hendrix instead of a generic fruit machine costs the same and feels like a tiny act of loyalty. Which, when you think about it, is the whole celebrity business in miniature. Sell the feeling, not the product.
