
The original poster for ‘The Gambler’ starring James Caan and Lauren Hutton; Mark Wahlberg will be playing this part in the remake.
Modern audiences often capture the classics of literature via their film versions; simply take Victor Hugo’s ‘Les Miserables’ or Charles Dickens ‘A Christmas Carol’. Mention Fyodor Dostoevsky to a younger generation of Internet-raised intelligentsia, and you may get nothing however a stare that is blank and the 1974 movie variation, loosely on the basis of the prolific writer’s novella, may maybe not resonate much more either. But that film’s initial cult success has now spurred movie giant Paramount Pictures to attempt a remake of the classic flick (which by the way is not related in every option to the Kenny Rogers classic country song of the same title) having an all-star cast that can hold its against the initial.
Too much to Real Time Up To
The remake has some iconic shows to match up to, that’s for sure; not forgetting quite a bit of Hollywood lore that went on during the production that is original filming. For instance, a then-very-young James Caan (who from 2003-2007 played the casino magnate lead in the hit TV series ‘Las Las vegas’), was reportedly grappling with his own real-life cocaine addiction during shooting; he was also selected for a Golden Globe for his role as Axel Freed, an English professor in nyc whose gambling addiction overtakes his life. In a kind of art-imitates-life-imitates-art affect, in the film, Freed is teaching his students Dostoevsky, but in his life that is personal massive gambling addiction has, not surprisingly, left him saddled with debt; become specific, $44,000 owed to his bookie Hips that he cannot come up with on his or her own.
Freed gets your debt compensated by his own mother, and heads off with his girlfriend Billie (played within the original movie by gap-toothed model Lauren Hutton) to Sin City, where he pulls an Archie Karas-style rise and fall of gambling fortunes move. Billie has to bear the brunt of his wrath at losing his amassed fortune again, when she expresses her displeasure at loan sharks showing up at all hours of the night and day to collect their due. Even though Axel believes his own grandfather will pull him away from warm water this time, he is sadly disappointed if the guy will not have anything related to him.
Debt Repayment Arrange
Up against a wall surface with not a way to pay his debts back and bookies hounding him, Axel recruits one of is own students who’s a black colored basketball star to take a bribe in one of his bookies to shave points in a upcoming game. When that stunt is taken off, Axel goes confidently in to the ghetto together with his student friend, ignoring warnings from his main bookie that it’s a dangerous area.
Of course, he eventually ends up fighting a pimp when he will not pay a hooker, and Axel gets the very best of that match, simply to be slashed throughout the face by the unhappy prostitute. In the scene that is final he stares at their bloody face in a mirror, and smiles just as if understanding that this is where life has brought him.
The initial version featured Paul Sorvino as Hips, Caan’s ingratiating bookie, among an all-star cast that included a young James Woods; plus the remake promises no less in its recasting of this classic. Mark Wahlberg is taking on the role of Axel Freed, with an aging Jessica Lange most widely known to current audiences for her starring role in United states Horror Story on TV as Axel’s wealthy and mother that is over-the-top. Brie Larson is reportedly cast in the Lauren Hutton/girlfriend role of Billie this go-round.
No word yet on when production shall start, or when the remake is expected to hit theaters.
New Players in American Gaming Association Set to Lobby Congress Hard
Getting ready for a major lobbying push in Congress, the American Gaming Association has taken five new seasoned veterans on board (Image: AFP/Robert Sullivan)
It’s a new year, and also the winds of change continue to blow, in Washington, D.C. especially. And the casino industry’s most prominent trade relationship which is really a low-key way of saying ‘lobbying group’ is arming for battle, it seems, by bringing in a few new senior staff to make their case to lawmakers, a case which includes continuing to hound Congress for federal oversight of online gaming.
Not that Congress happens to be particularly receptive to that bid yet, but hope springs eternal.
Ready for Battle
The American Gaming Association (AGA) announced this new staff members early this week, noting that their main functions will be to amp the group up’s marketing efforts as well as to clarify their policy functions. That should be fun, thinking about the AGA’s very own membership is at major odds since far as what that policy should be; while most members heartily endorse or at minimum are using a wait-and-see approach to online video gaming and its legalization, one prominent and long-time member nevada Sands Corporation’s Sheldon Adelson stays vehemently compared, and it is investing millions of his own bankroll into anti-Internet gambling campaigns and their own military of lobbyists to market that agenda.
Nonetheless, AGA president Geoff Freeman whom thus far has pretty diplomatically skirted the internal wars among his casino industry constituents issued a generically worded statement regarding the hirings that hinted at a lobbying agenda that is strongly pro-internet.
‘Through groundbreaking research, aggressive outreach and on-the-ground activities, this team of experts will position the AGA to champion gaming’s value being a driver of innovation and economic growth,’ Freeman’s media quote reads. One can only assume that ‘innovation and growth that is economic refer mainly towards the expansion of legalized online poker and gambling over the usa; as everyone surely knows by now, Nevada, Delaware and nj happen to be ready to go, and California is searching like it may be next.
In the event that Golden State does legalize at least internet poker, it will likely be a game-changer, given their 38-million-ish in-state population, which dwarfs next-largest currently online, nj-new Jersey, by almost 29 million possible players.
Bringing Plenty of Ammo to the battle
Freeman states this new hires all have gaming industry backgrounds, along with experience both in https://myfreepokies.com/indian-dreaming-slot-review/ the sector that is private along with other trade associations. Interpretation: they understand how to schmooze, no matter the agenda or setting. In the end, that’s basically what lobbyists do, besides delivering implied promises of financial support to those that promise to back their organizations’ agendas.
The group that is new pretty impressive resumes: i.e., connections garnered over many years of previous schmoozing. They add a former vice president of public affairs, Sara Rayme, whom helped push through MGM Resorts’ transfer to the Maryland land casino market; a former vice president of government relations, Chaka Burgess, who brings 20 years of coalition building, lobbying and ally development experience with him: that ability should really be tested with all the AGA’s factional membership base. Burgess previously worked with Amgen, Inc. a biotech manufacturing firm as a director in their international government affairs unit.
Then there’s a previous senior manager of communications for the U.S. Travel Association (Freeman’s former workplace before joining AGA in 2013), Allie Barth; Global Game Technology (IGT) former manager of video gaming policy Elizabeth Cronan, and lastly a brand new basic counsel, Virginia Hurt Johnson, whom comes in with three decades of private and general public sector background.
Freeman himself has only seven months with the group under his gear; he took over from the lobbying organization’s first and just previous CEO and founder Frank Fahrenkopf, Jr. when the latter retired in June 2013.
The new hires reflect a momentum that is renewed the AGA: industry leaders Steve Wynn of Wynn Resorts Ltd. and Frank Fertitta III of Stations Casinos, along with Kentucky’s Churchill Downs racetrack and casino, all recently signed up as well. Wynn and Fertitta will be on the AGA’s Board of Directors to boot.
CoinYe West Enters Cryptocurrency Market with New Brand of Coins
There is gold it launches January 11 in them thar hills or at least, a new line of cryptocurrency called CoinYe West hopes there is when.
Branding your name onto an endless selection of services and products is nothing new for major celebrities, but some new currency that is digital have definitely pushed the envelope this time. Because a new knockoff of Bitcoins that is set to launch on January 11 utilizing the cringe-worthy name of CoinYe West hasn’t even gotten Kanye West’s papal blessing for the play on words.
CoinYe Oh CoinYe
Obviously, Kanye is not the mastermind behind the technology here either, and nobody is revealing whom is. But in a recent interview with Vice.com an online pub that encompasses all thinks hipster artsy-fartsy the secretive creators said that ‘Coinye West is just a cryptocurrency for the masses. Bitcoin is for hardcore money-hoarders, and Dogecoin was more for the Internet-meme crowds … Coinye West to our goal is making it easier for people to use cryptocurrency.’
In case you’ve been living in a cave and are nevertheless not really acquainted with cryptocurrencies, they are essentially decentralized, unregulated, difficult-to-trace financial systems whose values are based solely on peer-to-peer market perceptions. These currencies’ appeal has been the privacy that accompanies their use; and as they may possess some legitimate online destinations, they will have become infamous as the only deal currency for sites like Silk path a site that specializes in every things nefarious and illegal, from drugs to weapons to illegal services for hire. Although power down and seized a months that are few by the Feds, Silk Road quickly reemerged ‘under brand new management,’ and was back to business as always, apparently with tighter encryptions and more secrecy than ever.
Because of their perception-only-based values, there are wild swings for other existing cryptocurrencies; such as the market leader Bitcoins, which has seen values veer from as low as $60 spring that is last over $1,000 in November, so that as with this writing, rests at about US$953 but which could change at any second.
A pronouncement that is recent the Chinese government that their banks would no longer be allowed to carry away transactions using the digital currency saw U.S. trade rates drop to the $600s, only to mysteriously bounce right back up again not long after.
Plenty of Competition
There now appear to be someplace in the neighborhood of 60 Bitcoin knockoffs, so CoinYe would hardly be Bitcoins’ first competitor, if it will take off. Brands with names like Peercoin, Namecoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin and Ripple all are attempting to ride the digital gravy train, which for Bitcoin has turned out to be largely based on sales of the equipment used to ‘mine’ the money an ironic nod to the initial gold miners in California, where people who sold miners’ materials typically made the fortunes that eluded most of the miners themselves.
