Iggy Azalea’s Latest Win

After several years spent trying to get her foot in the door of the music business, Australian transplant Iggy Azalea is easily having her best year ever. The critical response to her debut album, The New Classic, has been inconsistent—it has an aggregated score of 57 on Metacritic—but that hasn’t slowed her down one bit.

The same can be said for what she went through prior to the record’s release. The three singles preceding her monster smash, the Charli XCX-assisted “Fancy,” didn’t do so hot on the charts and left everyone wondering if she would live up to her potential. Well, it’s safe to say that “Fancy” proved just that, and it looks like follow-up single “Black Widow,” which features Rita Ora, will continue her hot streak.

So far, “Black Widow” has worked its way into the top five in both the U.K. and U.S. while going platinum in the States and earning gold status in New Zealand and her native Australia. As for the album itself, The New Classic is inching its way toward a gold plaque in the U.S. with more than 360,000 copies sold, according to HipHopDX.

But it’s not just on the charts and record stores (both physical and digital) where Azalea is finding success. She has also been touring her butt off. As you can see on her website, the rapper has traveled across the globe to perform during huge festivals and throw down in more intimate music halls. More recently, she has done a lot of the former, which included stops in both Atlanta and Las Vegas this past weekend.

In Atlanta, she was one of the main performers for the city’s 2014 Music Midtown Festival, which ran Sept. 19 and 20. She took the stage on the first day that also featured performances by New Zealand alt-pop artist Lorde and hip-hop legends Run-DMC. And the next day (Sept. 20), Vegas Master reported that Azalea posted a photo of her hand holding a wad of cash ($10,000!). The only thing is, she removed the photo almost instantly from her Instagram, perhaps realizing that sharing an image like that isn’t exactly safe.

In addition to reporting on that photo and her standout Music Midtown set, Vegas Master noted that she won the money in Atlanta. However, that simply cannot be right—there are no casinos in the ATL. That’s what brings us to her show the next night in Sin City as part of the iHeartRadio Music Festival, which also featured Taylor Swift, Usher, and Nicki Minaj.

Where else but Vegas could Azalea have won that money? It only seems obvious that she must have hit the slots or tables to take home those spoils. However, it’s clear that doing so in a live setting isn’t the best idea, though she obviously has a knack for gambling. She’d be better off trying her luck online, where she can have anonymity or go public if she so chooses. Online gaming site Betfair allows gamers to play anonymously in addition to a wide variety of options. This seems best for someone like Azalea considering the following: 1) It’s not clear just how she won that money—was it slots? Poker? Roulette? and 2) If she did want to go public with her winnings, she could dip into the tournaments section of the site and get the chance to play in a big-time event. That is, of course, if poker is her game.

Azalea wouldn’t be the only rapper in the gaming circuit, either. Big names like Ja Rule and Nelly are well-known for their poker endeavors while a French MC by the name of Kool Shen has done well for himself at tournaments, too. Who knows, maybe Azalea, too, will take her talents to the poker circuit in the coming years.