Casinos and the gambling industry make for excellent backdrops for television shows. Whether it’s the drama of high stakes poker.
The glitz, glamor, and bright lights of the Las Vegas strip; or the crime underworld often associated with gambling, casinos are home to some great TV series.
If nowadays you can have all the spectacle online when you open Bovada casino games, for example, a couple of years ago land-based casinos were something not available for everyone. That’s why the casinos were seen as something fancy and related to one’s status quo.
With that in mind, here are five TV series focused on and around casinos similar to bitc casino site that are worth checking out.
Breaking Vegas (2005)
This limited series, which aired on the History Channel, uncovered different casino and gambling-related topics in each episode, shining a light on some famous cheating scandals and beat-the-casino strategies that have long fascinated the gambling industry.
Comprising 13 episodes, Breaking Vegas opens with The Ultimate Cheat episode, a profile on Richard Marcus who perfected how to cheat casinos for more than 20 years and detailed his exploits in the book American Roulette.
Other episodes include Blackjack Man – the story of Ken Uston, one of the first people to master card counting who successfully sued several casinos after getting caught and blacklisted. There is also an episode on Doyne Farmer and Norman Packard, two friends who attempted to deconstruct the physics of roulette table in an attempt to manipulate the outcome (Beat The Wheel).
Speaking to experts and casino historians, Breaking Vegas offers a unique insight into the world of sophisticated cheating and the lengths some people will go to bring down the house.
Las Vegas (2003-2008)
Set in the fictional Montecito Resort and Casino, Las Vegas is a comedy drama which focuses on a group of casino employees as they deal with the goings on inside the resort while dealing with their own lives.
Las Vegas boasts a strong cast, led by James Caan as the ex-CIA officer and casino president Ed Deline, who is eventually succeeded by Josh Duhamel’s Danny McCoy. Other notable cast include James Lesher as Mike Cannon, Vanessa Marcil as Sam Marquez, and Molly Sims as Delinda Deline. Tom Selleck’s AJ Cooper is a recurring character, featuring in 19 episodes.
Las Vegas proved to be a very popular show on NBC for the first two seasons, although ratings started to decline from the third and it was ultimately cancelled after five seasons. However, don’t let that put you off the show – it’s easy-viewing entertainment.
Vegas (2012-2013)
Led by the powerhouse duo of Dennis Quaid and Michael Chiklis, Vegas is set in 1960s Las Vegas and centers on Sheriff Ralph Lamb (Quaid) and Chicago crime boss Vincent Savino (Chiklis), who is sent to the city to run to run The Savoy hotel and casino. Lamb is based on the real-life sheriff of the same name.
Created by Nicholas Pileggi – screenwriter of the Martin Scorsese classics Goodfellas and Casino – and co-staring The Matrix star Carrie-Anne Moss, Vegas was a slick and well-produced period drama.
It only lasted one 21-episode season, but the show is definitely worth watching for the excellent cast and Las Vegas as its spectacular backdrop.
Poker After Dark (2007-present)
For intimate and no-holds-barred insight into professional poker tournaments, no TV show does it better than Poker After Dark.
First aired on NBC in 2007 before getting canceled in 2011 due to the ‘Black Friday’ criminal case involving major sponsor Full Tilt Poker, Poker After Dark returned in 2017 on the PokerGO streaming service where it continues to be broadcast.
The series was originally structured in five-episode blocks that saw a group of professional poker players play week-long No Texas Hold ‘em vying for the $120,000 winner-takes-all prize, with each player staking a $20,000 buy-in. Each player is mic’d up so viewers can an intimate view into each game is it unfolds over the week. The sixth episode was then a director’s cut.
Poker After Dark started to experiment with different formats and poker games as the show grew and developed over the years, and it remains one of the most popular shows on PokerGo.
High Stakes Poker (2006-present)
Another extremely successful poker TV show is High Stakes Poker, with the first four seasons airing on GSN before getting revived with a move to PokerGo in 2020.
High Stakes Poker separates itself from other televised poker tournament television shows in that it is not staged in a tournament setting. Instead, it is a high-stakes cash game, with players staking a minimum buy-in of $100,000, although some players – including the legendary Daniel Negreanu – have bought in for as much as $1,000,000.
The players who compete in the High Stakes Poker show include well-known professionals and top-level amateurs, and has seen several memorable moments take place, including in Season 5 when Tom Dwan won the biggest pot in the show’s history ($919,600) with three Queens.
For avid poker players and fans, as well as those fascinated by the high-stakes world, High Stakes Poker should be essential viewing.
