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It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that “Runner, Runner” which will be in movie theatres worldwide in a month staring Justin Timberlake and Ben Affleck won’t bring good news for the off-shore gambling business. The movie, which was produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, and written by Brian Koppelman and David Levien purports to show the insides of Costa Rica and the online gambling business.
Brian Koppelman approached me a number of years ago and asked me to assist him in gaining access to some of the executives I know in Costa Rica. It took me exactly one lunch to determine that even though I loved his movie Rounders, I wouldn’t have anything to do with helping him harm the people who work in online gambling. In fact, the movie purports to show a college student who is cheated out of his tuition money by playing online poker.
Indeed, very, very few in online gambling cheat – these are big businesses, run by old-school, hard-working executives who go to work to earn a living for their families. Nearly every off-shore operator is honest, reliable and hard working.
A close friend of mine who is a senior executive at a major Costa Rican gaming company spends his evenings playing video games with his kids, weekends golfing and driving his kids around to soccer, and wife around so she can shop. He works very long hours, and has the same pressures as anyone who is successful. I have some friends who are day traders, others in hedge funds, and he is in offshore gambling. Each of us have our own pressures, and stresses – there aint no such thing as easy money. I did indeed recently visit his house – there wasn’t money growing from the trees.
The bottom line is that while naturally many of us will watch Runner, Runner and be entertained, there’s little doubt that it will be harmful to the offshore gambling industry – and undoubtedly far from realistic. Just from watching a number of trailers, I can say that surely these movie makers don’t know just how gross a city San Jose, Costa Rica is which is where most of the Costa Rica gambling companies are located. I have never seen anything remotely resembling the scenery they show in movie trailers. (Further reading informs me that the movie was shot in Puerto Rico – surely not Costa Rica.).
Press can be very harmful, and it’s not always a good thing. This attention can bring shine to this industry which won’t help.
Ronn Torossian is CEO of 5WPR, a top 25 U.S. PR Firm, which was named as 2013 PR Agency of the Year by the American Business Awards. His best-selling PR book, "For Immediate Release: Shape Minds, Build Brands, and Deliver Results with Game-Changing Public Relations" is available at bookstores worldwide. Doyle Brunson, the legendary ten-time World Series of Poker Champion endorsed his book and said “Knowing Ronn Torossian for many years, I find him to be a man of his word and someone to "ride the river with" because he is 100% dependable.”
