Mark Burnett Gambles on ‘The Casino’

Putting together a new reality TV show is always a gamble. That is especially the case with Fox’s new show The Casino, which debuts on Monday, June 14th, at 9:00/8:00 central. But Fox may have the odds in its favor: the executive producer of the show is none other than Mark Burnett, the producer behind such hit shows as Survivor, The Apprentice, and The Restaurant.

The Casino is a 24/7 look at the world of the Golden Nugget Las Vegas Hotel and Casino. A look inside a Vegas casino is an intriguing idea. "Las Vegas is like a magnet," said Burnett in a press release. "The city attracts people from all over the world with two things on their mind – getting rich quick and having as much fun as possible in a short period of time. It is the magnetism of Las Vegas that we will try to capture on camera.”

The Golden Nugget should create an especially compelling story. The casino is owned by entrepreneurs Timothy Poster and Thomas Breitling. The two friends were the co-founders of Travelscape.com, a start-up Internet company that they sold to Expedia in 2000. With the money they earned, they decided to pursue their dream of taking an old-school Las Vegas casino and restoring it to its Rat Pack era heyday. The Golden Nugget gave Tim and Tom that opportunity.

Co-executive producer Conrad Riggs thinks Tim and Tom make the show a winner. "We researched the Vegas landscape and found Tim and Tom to be very charismatic characters and their journeys to be the most personal and dramatic story," Riggs said. "They will be walking in the casino floor every night like in old Vegas. That doesn't happen in today's large, corporate casinos."

The Golden Nugget, built in 1946, is a AAA Four Diamond hotel and has the most guestrooms of any hotel in downtown Las Vegas (1,907). In the last two years, The Golden Nugget has undergone $30 million worth of renovations. Its owners believe they have restored the casino to its old glory. "Our goal is to provide customers with the type of service that they cannot find anywhere else in Las Vegas," said Poster. "Vegas casinos used to be a fantasyland for gamblers and this is what we intend to provide."

The Casino will not only follow the daily routines of Tim and Tom, but also the hotel guests and employees from pit bosses to cocktail waitresses to blackjack dealers, not to mention the hotel’s showgirls and bikini bowling team. It will run for a lucky thirteen episodes. I’ll be your lady luck, here every week to recap each episode of The Casino.

Betsy is the Associate Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached with any comments at betsyw42@hotmail.com.

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