Lucky Stripes

How to play Lucky Stripes

Philip Pietras, 52, admitted to stealing from more than 170 people, many of whom are senior citizens who sought to limit the emotional and financial burdens placed on their loved ones by prepaying for their funerals. But instead of placing those funds, meant for caskets and burial services, in escrow accounts, Pietras pocketed the money to gamble.

Pietras accepted a plea deal from the state, and prosecutors expect him to enter a guilty plea on Oct. 23 and be formally sentenced on Jan. 22, 2027.

Under the terms of the state’s offer, Pietras will admit to stealing his clients’ money for his personal use. In exchange for his admission, the state has recommended a prison sentence of 7.5 years instead of 15 years, followed by five years of probation.

How to play Lucky Stripes

The Queens-born mogul (real name: Curtis Jackson) has partnered with U.K.-based gaming manufacturer TCSJOHNHUXLEY to develop 50 Cent Headcrack, a licensed casino table game built on the mechanics of Cee-lo.

50 Cent previewed the project on Instagram on Sept. 17, 2026, framing the venture as the long-overdue legitimization of a game that always played by its own rules.

“For a hundred years this game lived on the corner,” he said in TCS/JOHNHUXLEY’s press release. “Now it’s got a dealer, a pay table and a seat at the table in a real casino. Same dice, new floor.”

How to play Lucky Stripes

For anyone who watched David Letterman or listened to Howard Stern in the last millennium, there was no reason to judge his material firsthand—the pop-culture verdict was already in: Carrot Top was an unfunny prop comic.

For the better part of two decades, both the king of late night and the self‑proclaimed King of All Media leaned heavily into Carrot Top as a recurring punching bag.

Because he relied on props, sported a wild look, and established a dominant Las Vegas presence, he fit perfectly into the “anti-showbiz” persona cultivated by both arbiters of Gen-X cool. Across the 1990s and early 2000s, “Carrot Top” became universal shorthand for lazy, cringeworthy comedy.