Investor Place – The gambling industry is preparing for fallout from an upcoming Ben Affleck film that focuses on online gambling.
The movie, Runner Runner, stars Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake. In the film, Affleck plays the role of a rich online gambling entrepreneur. Affleck’s character is chased down by Timberlake’s character, a grad student that believes he has been cheated by Affleck’s site. Gambling industry groups are preparing for the film by readying advertising and special screenings to inform people that regulated online gambling isn’t how the movie portrays it. The gambling industry is pushing to protect the image of online gambling due to the potential growth of the market from $4 billion in 2011 to $10 billion in the next few years, reports PRNewser.
“People very well could get the wrong idea,” John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, told The Washington Post. “Not all offshore operators are unregulated bad guys. This is a dramatization, let’s be clear about that. It shows what could be happening in a worst-case scenario.”
