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President Donald J. Trump's choice to be U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Steven T. Mnuchin, will be in charge of the nation's money supply.
Mnuchin's duties will include increasing the size of that supply, and coming up with new ways to do it.
Could one of those ways be the national legalization of some forms of gambling, such as sports betting or Internet wagering?
It's a distinct possibility, because Mnuchin, 54, a banker, investor and Hollywood movie producer who is estimated to be worth $500 million, has close ties to the gambling industry.
How close?
Thisclose, Gambling 911 has found.
As part of Gambling 911's continuing series on the Trump administration's appointments and their connections to gambling, Gambling 911 examined Mnuchin's background and discovered that one of his partners in a Hollywood film production company was none other than James D. Packer, the Australian multi-billionaire who owns numerous casinos around the world.
Mnuchin, along with Packer and Brett Ratner, were partners in Relativity Media, a production company that was founded in 2004 and that produced numerous major movies.
Among the company's hits were the films "American Sniper," "Mad Max: Fury Road," "Black Mass," "Get Hard," "The Legend of Tarzan," "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," "Sully," "Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice" and "The Lego Movie."
Mnuchin left the company before it declared bankruptcy in 2015.
The company has since emerged from bankruptcy and continues to produce movies.
Packer, 49, who is estimated to be worth $5 billion, is an investor, financier, film producer, media mogul and casino magnate.
He has numerous business interests, including owning casinos in Australia, England and Macau.
Packer has most recently been in the news, however, for his personal life--he became engaged to singer Mariah Carey but the engagement was called off after only a few months.
Mnuchin's close partnership with Packer could suggest than Mnuchin is comfortable with the gambling industry, or else why would he go into business with a casino magnate, even if it was in a non-gambling-related industry, movies?
If Mnuchin is comfortable with gambling, that will be good news not only for the gambling industry, but potentially for the USA and the economy.
By Tom Somach
Gambling 911 Staff Writer
