
The poster that is original ‘The Gambler’ starring James Caan and Lauren Hutton; Mark Wahlberg will be playing this role 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 more youthful generation of Internet-raised intelligentsia, and you gets nothing but a stare that is blank and the 1974 film variation, loosely based on the prolific author’s novella, may not resonate far more either. But that film’s initial cult success has now spurred movie giant Paramount Pictures to attempt a remake of this flick that is classicwhich in addition is not related in every method to the Kenny Rogers classic country song of myfreepokies.com the identical title) by having an all-star cast that can hold its own against the initial.
Too much to Real Time Up To
The remake has some iconic performances to complement up to, that’s for certain; 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 (whom from 2003-2007 played the casino magnate lead in the hit TV series ‘Las Vegas’), was reportedly grappling with his very own real-life cocaine addiction during filming; he was also selected for the Golden Globe for his role as Axel Freed, an English professor in nyc whose gambling addiction overtakes his life. In some sort of art-imitates-life-imitates-art affect, within the film, Freed is teaching his students Dostoevsky, but in his life that is personal massive gambling addiction has, needless to say, 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 the debt paid by his own mother, and heads off together with girlfriend Billie (played within the film that is original gap-toothed model Lauren Hutton) to Sin City, where he pulls an Archie Karas-style rise and autumn of gambling fortunes move. Billie has to bear the brunt of his wrath at losing his fortune that is amassed back, when she expresses her displeasure at loan sharks showing up at all hours of the night and day to gather their due. And while Axel believes his own grandfather will pull him out of hot water this time, he is sadly disappointed when the man will not have anything related to him.
Debt Repayment Arrange
Up against a wall surface with no way to pay back their debts and bookies hounding him, Axel recruits one of is own students who’s a black colored basketball star to take a bribe from a single of his bookies to shave points in an upcoming game. When that stunt is taken off, Axel goes confidently into the ghetto with his student friend, ignoring warnings from their main bookie that it’s an area that is dangerous.
Of course, he eventually ends up fighting a pimp as he will not pay a hooker, and Axel gets the best of that match, and then be slashed over the face by the prostitute that is unhappy. In the last scene, he stares at their bloody face in a mirror, and smiles as if understanding that this is when life has brought him.
The version that is original Paul Sorvino as Hips, Caan’s ingratiating bookie, among an all-star cast that included a young James Woods; while the remake promises no less in its recasting of this classic. Mark Wahlberg is taking on the part of Axel Freed, with an aging Jessica Lange most commonly known to current audiences for her starring role in United states Horror Story on TV as Axel’s wealthy and over-the-top mother. Brie Larson is reportedly cast in the Lauren Hutton/girlfriend role of Billie this go-round.
No word yet on when manufacturing 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 United states Gaming Association has taken five new seasoned veterans on board (Image: AFP/Robert Sullivan)
It’s a new 12 months, while the winds of change continue to blow, in Washington, D.C. especially. And the casino industry’s most prominent trade relationship which really is a low-key means of saying ‘lobbying group’ is arming for battle, it seems, by bringing in a few new senior staff to make their case to lawmakers, an instance which includes continuing to hound Congress for federal oversight of online gaming.
Not that Congress was particularly receptive to that bid yet, but wish springs eternal.
Prepared for Battle
The American Gaming Association (AGA) announced the newest staff members early this week, noting that their primary functions is to amp up the team’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 ought to be; while most members heartily endorse or at minimum are using a wait-and-see approach to online gaming and its legalization, one prominent and long-time user Las Vegas Sands Corporation’s Sheldon Adelson continues to be vehemently opposed, and is spending millions of his own bankroll into anti-Internet gambling campaigns and his or her own military of lobbyists to promote that agenda.
Nonetheless, AGA president Geoff Freeman who thus far has pretty diplomatically skirted the interior wars among their casino industry constituents issued a generically worded statement on the hirings that hinted at a lobbying agenda that is strongly pro-internet.
‘Through groundbreaking research, aggressive outreach and on-the-ground activities, this group of specialists will position the AGA to champion gaming’s value being a motorist of innovation and growth that is economic’ Freeman’s media quote reads. One could only assume that ‘innovation and economic development’ refer mainly to the expansion of legalized online poker and gambling throughout the United States; as everyone surely knows by now, Nevada, Delaware and nj are usually up and running, and California is looking like maybe it’s next.
If the Golden State does legalize at least internet poker, it’ll 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 potential players.
Bringing Plenty of Ammo to the Fight
Freeman says this new hires all have gaming industry backgrounds, as well as experience both in the sector that is private with other trade associations. Translation: they understand how to schmooze, no matter the setting or agenda. After all, that’s basically what lobbyists do, besides delivering implied promises of financial support to people who promise to back their organizations’ agendas.
The new group has pretty impressive resumes: i.e., connections garnered over many years of previous schmoozing. They incorporate a former vice president of public affairs, Sara Rayme, whom helped push through MGM Resorts’ move into the Maryland land casino market; a former vice president of federal government relations, Chaka Burgess, who brings 20 years of coalition building, lobbying and ally development experience with him: that ability should really be tested using the AGA’s factional membership base. Burgess previously worked with Amgen, Inc. a biotech manufacturing firm as a director within their global government affairs division.
Then there’s a previous senior director of communications for the U.S. Travel Association (Freeman’s previous workplace before joining AGA in 2013), Allie Barth; Overseas Game Technology (IGT) former manager of video gaming policy Elizabeth Cronan, and lastly a brand new general counsel, Virginia Hurt Johnson, whom will come in with 30 years of private and general public sector background.
Freeman himself has only seven months using the group under his gear; he took over from the lobbying organization’s first and only CEO that is previous and Frank Fahrenkopf, Jr. when the latter retired in June 2013.
The new hires mirror a renewed momentum for the AGA: industry giants 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 in them thar hills or at least, a brand new line of cryptocurrency called CoinYe West hopes there is when it launches January 11.
Branding your name onto an endless array of items is absolutely nothing new for major celebrities, but some new digital currency creators have surely pressed the envelope this time. Because a new knockoff of Bitcoins that is set to launch on January 11 aided by the cringe-worthy name of CoinYe western hasn’t also received Kanye West’s papal blessing for the play on words.
CoinYe Oh CoinYe
Obviously, Kanye isn’t the mastermind behind the technology here either, and no body is revealing whom is. But in an interview that is recent Vice.com an online pub that encompasses all thinks hipster artsy-fartsy the secretive creators said that ‘Coinye West is a cryptocurrency for the masses. Bitcoin is for hardcore money-hoarders, and Dogecoin was more for the Internet-meme crowds … Our objective with Coinye West is to make it easier for people to use cryptocurrency.’
In the event you’ve been residing in a cave and are still not really acquainted with cryptocurrencies, they are essentially decentralized, unregulated, difficult-to-trace systems that are financial values are based solely on peer-to-peer market perceptions. These currencies’ appeal has been the privacy that accompanies their use; and while they may involve some genuine online locations, they’ve become infamous as the sole deal currency for sites like Silk Road a site that specializes in every things nefarious and illegal, from medications to weapons to illegal services for hire. Although turn off and seized a few months back by the Feds, Silk Road quickly reemerged ‘under new management,’ and was back again to business as usual, apparently with tighter encryptions and more secrecy than ever.
Because of their perception-only-based values, there happen wild swings for other existing cryptocurrencies; especially the market leader Bitcoins, which has seen values veer from because low as $60 spring that is last over $1,000 in November, so that as with this writing, rests at about US$953 but that may change at any second.
A pronouncement that is recent the Chinese government that their banks would no longer be allowed to carry down transactions aided by the digital money saw U.S. exchange prices fall into the $600s, and then mysteriously bounce back up again perhaps not long after.
Plenty of Competition
There now appear to be someplace in the neighborhood of 60 Bitcoin knockoffs, therefore CoinYe would hardly be Bitcoins’ first competitor, if it will take down. Brands with names like Peercoin, Namecoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin and Ripple all want to ride the gravy that is digital, which for Bitcoin has turned out to be largely based on sales of the gear utilized to ‘mine’ the money an ironic nod to the original silver miners in California, where those that sold miners’ supplies typically made the fortunes that eluded most of the miners themselves.
