The Casino

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.

I live in Vegas and I saw an actual scene.I used to go into the casino frequently just to see if they were filming any scenes. They did retake after retake of a conversation between two people in the casino. The director would tell the two people, "Ok, go around the corner, come back and say the line again." Well, I don't think that sounds like a reality series to me. I would even look at the faces of the blackjack dealers on TV and then go into the casino later to see if I could recognize their faces, and never once saw a familiar face. There was one guy on the show who was supposed to be the son of one of the casino hosts. At the beginning of the show, he was a blackjack dealer, but wanted to move up and be a casino host like his father. So he sucked up to whoever he could and ended up being hired as a casino host. I never once seen this person. It's just not a reality series.

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.

I've been to Vegas a bunch of times and love it, and I watch all the Vegas shows on Discovery, Travel Channel, etc., because they're interesting. When I saw this was coming on I figured I'd watch it, and for some reason I got hooked. The thing is- I don't know why! While the two owners are OK, the other featured people from the Nugget wouldn't last 10 minutes in the real world. Matt Dusk sings well, but really sounds more like a Sinatra wannabe. But he has a very inflated idea of his own worth. If he'd have done an end run around his immediate supervisor to the head guy of a company like he did to the entertainment director of the place he'd be out on his ass. Plus, he wants to play the showroom, but can't darw flies to see him in the lounge. Tommy, the host trainee, is just not too bright. I could never see him keeping a job, much less getting promoted, at a job that wasn't a TV show. How these "guests" of the casino all end up with suites at a Vegas casino is beyond me- it's all got to be staged.

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.