Colin Farrell, a professional Irish actor, is set to star in The Ballad of a Small Player, a new Netflix movie that will follow the story of a con artist who becomes a gambler in Macau. Farrell, who is famous for a number of high-profile roles, will now breathe life into the main character of Lawrence Osborne’s book.

Some of Farrell’s previous roles include Bullseye in Daredevil (2003), Alexander the Great in Alexander (2004) and Penguin in Batman (2022). The Irish star is set to once again become Penguin in Max’s original series The Penguin shortly after starring in the Oscar-nominated movie “The Banshees of Inisherin.”

The Ballad of a Small Player will be based on a book that was published in 2014. The original piece became an immediate hit. Rights were secured quickly, setting The Ballad of a Small Player up for a movie adaptation. However, production was stuck in limbo for years.

The new movie will be directed by Edward Berger who also directed Netflix’s Oscar-winning movie All Quiet on the Western Front (2022). In the meantime, Rowan Joffe will be responsible for adapting the original book into a screenplay. The Ballad of a Small Player will be produced by Good Chaos and Nine Hours.

What’s The Ballad of a Small Player About?

In The Ballad of a Small Player, Farrell will become Gerard Woodward, the son of a vacuum cleaner salesman from London who hides in Macau after defrauding a rich old woman.

Presenting himself as “Lord Doyle” in spite of his humble origins, Woodward proceeds to live a life of opulence, sleeping in a hotel and visiting the casino every night. He eventually meets Dao-Ming, a young call girl who helps him out when he needs it the most.

The story combines the natural with the supernatural to create what the official release called the “imaginative tale of two strangers and the unbelievable journey that connects them.”

The post Colin Farrell Becomes a Swindler-Turned-Gambler in Netflix’s “The Ballad of a Small Player” appeared first on Keno Wizard.

MGM Resorts Land Holdings purchased a small piece of land measuring only 1.62 acres (0.0065 square km) south of the iconic Bellagio fountains on May 15, 2023. 

During the same month, MGM Resorts’ LeoVegas announced it would acquire Push Gaming in an attempt to give its global development a push. 

The Space Is Currently a Parking Lot 

The long and slender piece of land between Bellagio and The Cosmopolitan, both operated by MGM, stretches some hundred feet. At the moment, the vacant lot serves the purpose of a parking lot as well as a storage space for garbage. 

The Strip is not visible from MGM’s new piece of land because of the existing trees at the location.

In the past, the small strip of land was under the ownership of Steve Wynn, the real estate developer and art collector responsible for creating some of Sin City’s most popular casinos, including Treasure Island, The Mirage, Wynn Las Vegas, and Bellagio.

Almost two and a half decades ago, Wynn, who, according to Forbes, has a $3.4 billion real-time net worth as of January 12, 2024, sold The Mirage, Bellagio, and Treasure Island to MGM. 

The latter inherited Wynn’s rights to the 1.62 acres it bought last spring. MGM has not yet expressed its plans regarding the small strip of land. 

Why Is the Purchase Important for MGM?

For starters, the casino giant does not own a lot of real estate underneath the gaming venues that it owns. This is mostly because NYSE-listed VICI is the owner of most of the land under casino hotels operated by MGM.

Secondly, the large number of stakeholders involved in the ownership of the real estate belonging to Cosmopolitan and Bellagio makes the land purchase even more interesting. 

Five years ago, in 2019, MGM decided to sell Bellagio’s property assets to NYSE-listed Blackstone’s Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust (BREIT) in 2019. 

Last summer, in August, the same Trust announced it had sold a 21.9% stake in the respective property to NYSE-listed Realty Income in exchange for $950 million.

In September 2021, Blackstone announced the sale of Cosmopolitan for $5.65 billion. Next, BREIT, Stonepeak Partners, and the Cherng Family Trust acquired the real estate of the respective integrated companies for $4 billion.

Blackstone is also the owner of Aria and Vdara’s property assets. The two are operated by MGM.

Given the very limited size of the space, MGM is less likely to build a new integrated resort there or adjoin Bellagio and Cosmopolitan given the existing walkway reuniting the two properties via an escalator. 

One possibility would be for MGM to sell the land to one of the previously mentioned entities that hold interests in the real estate associated with Cosmopolitan and Bellagio.

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Naskila Entertainment is a small, slots-only casino in Polk County, Texas with an outsized impact on the local economy. In fact, it’s really an electronic bingo facility but visitors get the feeling they are playing slots and most people would never know the difference – much like playing at a video lottery terminal (VLT) in a huge New York City casino.

The casino is operated by the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas on its Reservation near Livingston, about 75 miles north of Houston, a city of over two million people.

According to a report that was commissioned by the Texas Forest Country Partnership, the facility, directly and indirectly, pumped some $212 million into the county economy in 2022.

Casino Generates 800+ Permanent Jobs

TXP Inc. of Austin, the economic analysis firm that conducted the study reports that the operation is responsible for more than 800 permanent jobs, half of them at the casino, and a total payroll of $22.5 million a year collectively.

“This economic impact and these jobs would simply not exist without Naskila. Because 95 percent of Naskila’s customers come from outside of Polk County, and more than 80 percent come from outside the region, Naskila is an economic engine that benefits every stakeholder in the region,” the study stated.

According to a report in Blue Bonnet News, the Winter 2023 TXP study was the third one the Texas Forest Country Partnership had commissioned on the casino’s economic impact. The venue opened as a 15,000 sq ft slot parlor in 2016 and has had to fight until fairly recently to defend its operation as legal under the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

Last summer the United States Supreme Court finally put overzealous Texas prosecutors to rest over the issue when the Court confirmed the gaming center’s standing.

Steady Increase in Economic Value

The first study, done in 2018 showed an economic impact of $140 million increasing to $170m in 2020 and continuing to grow to the current $212m arrived at in the current report found here, courtesy of the Liberty County news outlet. Overall direct and indirect jobs have grown from 550 to 700 and finally to 825 found today with nearly half of them part of the casino operation itself.

Chairman of the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas Tribal Council, Ricky Sylestine commented on the study and its findings: “We are grateful that our guests, our employees, and our neighbors in Deep East Texas have allowed the impact of Naskila Casino to continue to grow,” he said. “This facility helps sustain our Tribe and our region.”

The average salary and benefits for a Naskila employee are $50,000 according to the report. The impact includes a variety of quality-of-life improvements for those who are employed directly or not in the area with funding for scholarships and additional housing on the Reservation as well as a retail center, health care clinic, and a daycare center.

“The growth of Naskila’s success is very good for Polk County,” said Polk County Judge Sydney Murphy. “Naskila draws visitors into our region and provides stable income and benefits for its employees. We know that Naskila will continue to play an important role in our county’s future.”

Source: Study finds Naskila Casino injects $212 million into local economy, Bluebonnet News, March 13, 2023

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