One of the largest legal decisions to come out of the USA this year was to allow each state to decide if they wished to legalise sports betting or not. Now, Nevada, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Rhode Island have all legalised the activity, which is sure to have a knock-on effect on American media. Already, Fox Sports has announced a sports gambling show by the name of Lock It In, so the craze could spill over into the fictitious arena of television series soon.
In years past, some rather good gambling-themed series have come and gone, while Netflix made the bold move to renew its animated gambling series, proving that there is an audience for the theme.
The classic gambling-themed series
There are many great gambling movies – from 1995’s Casino starring Robert De Niro, to Molly’s Game starring Jessica Chastain, in 2018 – but there are far more elements to take into account for a series based on gambling. It needs to be able to hold its ground over a whole season and into the next one.
A recent example that failed to hold onto its spot was The Player. Starring Phillip Winchester and Wesley Snipes, the 2015 release now available on Amazon ventured into high-stakes gambling and crime. However, if you read Bustle, you’ll know it’s not being renewed for a second season.
One show centred around the occurrences of a top-class casino that did manage to hold its high entertainment value was Las Vegas (from 2003 to 2008) . It is now being hailed as one of the best series in the theme. Available on Lightbox, the series starred James Caan, Josh Duhamel, Nikki Cox and Tom Selleck and, while the focus was on the characters, gambling and the casino offered a prominent background.
There hasn’t been a true gambling-themed series run as successfully as Las Vegas since its abrupt end in 2008, but with a reinvigorated love of gambling sweeping the United States, the niche is there.
The gambling-theme still has its place
Just because gambling-themed series from America haven’t been finding success, that doesn’t mean that others made elsewhere are not. Created by the Japanese publisher Square Enix and available on Netflix, Kakegurui – Compulsive Gambler was renewed for a second season in the summer of 2018 and will be released in January 2019.
Kakegurui is unique to other gambling-themed shows in that it takes place in a school of wealthy students who decide their social status by their wins in gambling games. It seems as though it’s a much more narrative-driven version of the preferred modern method of gambling, which is online.
Some online casinos create ways in which players can climb up rankings and reach milestones in order to reach greater heights on the website and get better rewards for playing. Programmes such as the Club Royale at Mr Green create an exclusive experience for players seeking the VIP treatment via gambling. That is very much what the characters in Kakegurui strive to achieve – higher standing among their peers – and perhaps its similarities with these increasingly popular online casinos are why it has gained such a viewership.
With themes pertaining to the gambling trends of modern gamers, it makes sense for the Japanese anime series to have success and subsequently get a second season. But, if we combine the changes in the law in America, the fact that the top-rated series originate there and the growing popularity of gambling online around the world, it may not be too long before a show from the USA that’s based on gambling establishes itself as the number one once again.