The Casino

I Tivo'd this cause it had a cool title, and I heard it was a reality show, but knew nothing else about it. Hoped it would be something about rich people gambling and blowing lots of money.. when I realized it was about a couple of .COMers starting up a casino.. I wondered where it could go. I had good cause to wonder. It didn't go anywhere.

First off, why should I care about a couple of guys worth $100M+ between them buying a casino in downtown vegas? I mean, they spend 15 mins of the show watching them apply in front of the NGC for their license. It's obvious they're going to get it, or else, no series. And they're like "we have $50M on the line, we need to get a license." Sure, like they were stupid enough to pony up the money before even knowing if they had a gaming license.

There are a couple of sub-plots. Some of their college buddies throw a party for their shy friend. With hookers. Exciting, especially on non-Premium TV. There's another subplot about this 6'8" professional gamer guy.. they're like "we're throwing up the alert, he's a card counter!" and following his every move on the security cameras, watching to see if he'll go to the blackjack tables. LIKE THE STUPID REALITY TV CAMERA TWO FEET AWAY FROM HIM WATCHING HIS EVERY MOVE ISN'T A HINT! ..obviously staged. The three chicks from the party above, you see again, at supposedly the same time, hitting on the rich professional gamer guy. It's obvious the whole thing was staged.. it's stupid, boring, and not at all interesting.

Shame on you, Mark Burnett. To come up with this turkey.

0/10, nothing at all redeemable about this series. Hope it gets canceled soon so something not-as-dreadful comes out of the FOX network.

I've been watching this show for the first few episodes and I've had very strong feelings that the show was fake and/or staged. Those feelings were confirmed with one of the story lines in the third episode.

One of the story lines of the episode involved this young blonde woman who is moving to Las Vegas from Oregon. The first time you see the woman she is driving to Las Vegas because she is planning on moving there from Oregon. If this were REAL then she must have called the producers of the show to let them know she was moving there or the whole scene must have been staged. How else would they have filmed her driving to Las Vegas. Plus, she is apparently moving to Las Vegas but she's not bringing anything with her. There doesn't even appear to be a suitcase in the car she's driving. Instead of finding a motel or apartment she checks into a fairly expensive hotel (the Golden Nugget - the main hotel in the TV series) to LIVE IN while she's in Las Vegas. Then she starts looking for a job at the hotel she's staying at. She doesn't look like a regular job hunter though, even for Las Vegas. Not matter what she's doing she's always got makeup on and she's always wearing outfits that look like she's headed out to a dance club, even when she's filling out a job application. Hopefully, she'll get a job at the hotel to make enough money so she can continue living at the hotel. During one interview the person says they'll mail her some information. They don't need to mail it to her they could just bring it up to her room.

The story goes on from there but by this time I've had enough. The whole storyline looked completely staged. Just like some other previous story lines of the show seemed. There is no way that this is real life Las Vegas. If you want to see what seems to be more like real life Las Vegas then watch "American Casino" on the Discovery Channel.

OK, the show has been off for about 4-5 months now but I am still ticked off that I was sucked into this lame show. I guess I had a soft spot for "Vegas" based shows since I am a huge fan of American Casino. I just *assumed* that The Casino would be of the same high caliber as AC. Boy, I was so wrong. From the moment the viewer is introduced to this wreck, you have an uneasy feeling. You just get a feeling that this is NOT going to be pretty. You watch one episode with hopes that the next one will finally show some redeeming qualities about The Golden Nugget and all the colorful characters. Once again, you are let down and all you see is a horribly scripted show with bad acting, scummy people and a soft-core porn undertone to it.

First of all, if Poster and Breitling are smart enough to be internet gurus, they should have been smart enough to get a better reality show deal. I am assuming that neither guy did any research on Burnett and his shows. Yes, he has had lots of success BUT he has also had a HUGE failure with Mr Rocco DiSpirito. The first thing that Poster and Breitling should have done was make sure that they had COMPLETE CONTROL over what was shown. Due to MB's use of scripts, bad actors and soft-core porn undertones, the show made The Nugget look sleazy and low class. Also, add the fact that Poster and Breitling need to learn that in order to bring The Nugget back to its rat-pack day, the use of Trashy Lingerie and Bikini Bowling does not help them achieve it.

That sums it up....Stupid show.....Bad acting and who the hell cares to see this garbage....A huge 6'8" guy takes a 'guy' up to his room and all he can do is smile when he finds out????? And says, "don't tell anyone....what happens in vegas, stays in vegas. Uh duh, there is a camera on you dumbass. First off, do you actually think that blonde would have just sat there and waited for him? or the other guy? Uh that would be a no. And once they find find a 'flagged' gamer, that gamer is tossed out..Its not like 'oh lets go up and watch the security camera's'..... And the party up stairs, what the hell was that? high school? Whats the story here, what are we supposed to watch out for? And wasn't that Gaming Commission hearing intense, oh boy.....what about that lounge singer guy....and his 'boss'...."You don't tell me what to do, I hired you" oooooohhhhhhhh scary stuff. This show should be cancelled ASAP to avoid any further humiliation.

Mark Burnett scored a hit with the Apprentice, but in that show we began to see elements that he would soon use much more in his other projects: scripted drama and actors planted in (Such as Omarossa). We saw even MORE of this, and more scripting and reenactments in his failure The Restaurant (2nd season especially). At least the viewers reacted and the show was just plain dropped from the NBC schedule.

Now he brings us "The Casino", on FOX. Maybe Burnett's trying to get some revenge on Fox by sending them a huge dud. This show is awful. Full of actors and scripted drama. It's all fake. All of it. And not even good actors. It's just so obvious, that it is insulting to watch. On top of that, the drama isn't even interesting. At least cover some of the business side or something.

Overall -2/10. Yes negative because it's doing harm to all television, and harm to the reality genre.

Hopefully this string of failures will cause Burnett's garbage to drop off the map of network television.