Everything is gambling now
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How did Sean Harding’s spending on Whatnot spiral to $1.3 million in four months?
Sean Harding is a 45-year-old finance manager from Denver. So Sean found himself on this app, and he wasn't spending too much in the very beginning, maybe $100 or a few dollars a day. And then within 40 days, he was spending over $1,000, $5,000 a day. Just swiping whenever he could really get a free moment, when he was doing laundry, sitting on the toilet. And it was only when his wife confronted him about this odd behavior, about some missing pages on his credit report, that he really looked at what he had spent. And that number was crazy. It was $1.3 million in four months. He had borrowed money from a friend. He had taken out personal loans. And finally, when all that was depleted, he had used his employer's credit card.
The app is whatnot on today's Explain from Vox.
I'm Ina Garten, and each week on Happy Hour, I invite new and old friends for a drink and a fun conversation at my kitchen table in New York City. On this week's episode, I'm joined by Sofia Coppola. Sofia is an Academy Award-winning filmmaker. Cheers. Cheers.
Hey, it's me, Will Anderson, host of the new music history podcast, Monday Music Club. And on this week's episode, we're talking about pop music with the boys from one of my favorite podcasts, Switched on Pop. Charlie Harding and Nate Sloan are two of the smartest and sharpest minds chatting about music right now. And we got into how they got their start, what they love about pop music, and some recommendations on what we should be listening to. It's a great conversation. These guys are just brilliant. And you can find it by searching for Monday Music Club wherever you get your podcasts. Hannah
Kruger is an investigative reporter at the Wall Street Journal, and she recently investigated Whatnot.
Whatnot is a live shopping app. So imagine the Home Shopping Network had a baby with TikTok and eBay, and it was on your phone, and it was running 24 hours a day.
This box is loaded, shop. Let's get another giveaway going. Congrats to that giveaway winner. Give me a warning if you're going to participate in the bidding. Grab this. Once again, it's a solid 10-carat gold with boys and night. Live right now going in... Gorgeous oversized sweater. It has little, I guess you can say, patterns.
So you open up the app. There's... countless numbers of categories. You can get coins, you can get cards, you can get horse tack, plants, goo, lobsters.
What is Whatnot and how does its live‑shopping format work?
There's any, I mean, the categories are expanding all the time and there are sellers live auctioning off these goods in real time.
Here we go. Nunes in the lead. Three, two, one.
Size large bodysuit with padding and sportswear protection. Four seconds large. Three, two, one. Sold. Congrats.
and there's a countdown clock that can go anywhere from three seconds to 60 seconds, and it's counting down, and the auctioneer is, or the seller is hyping up the chat, as they call it. Bonkers prices, chat, bonkers
prices. What an insane steal, another Sugar Squish Dragon go.
And that chat is commenting like,
wow, look at this, what a deal.
And in the meantime, there's some music, sometimes it's nice mellow music, other times it's metal or EDM.
Unless you want all the Pikachus. I know you could probably sell them.
Depending on like the personality of the seller, there can be a various degree of moods in there. But the end result is that the last person to swipe at the bottom of the screen, which is how you bid, gets the item. And once you have swiped and you're the final person to do that, there's no real confirmation screen. We're just on to the next product and you only really find out what you got when it shows up at your door. It started as a marketplace for Funko Pop figurines, which are these like square headed niche figurines in the collectible world. But it quickly expanded. I would say the biggest categories are sports cards and trading cards like Pokemon. That's a big, big one. And then the other one is women's fashion and beauty products.
I spoke to multiple people who found themselves just spiraling into really, I mean, holes of addiction and what they liken to gambling because of especially that break
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How did Sean Harding’s spending on Whatnot spiral to $1.3 million in four months?
0:00–3:06
2
What is Whatnot and how does its live‑shopping format work?
3:06–5:41
3
Why do users describe Whatnot’s bidding as a form of gambling?
5:41–9:48
4
What psychological tricks turn mobile games into Skinner boxes?
9:48–13:05
5
How does Monopoly Go combine slot‑machine mechanics with a board‑game façade?
13:05–16:07
6
Why are kid‑rated mobile games now generating the highest revenues?
16:07–19:47
7
What recent lawsuits are targeting video‑game addiction in children?
19:47–24:00
8
How did the team create the “Subway Rat” demo to expose addictive design?
24:00–27:04