Wouldn't the Binions' Saga Make a Great Screen Presentation?

I have been a fan of Las Vegas history for years. That being said, with all the series on Netflix and other services, I think one about the rise and fall of the whole Binions dynasty would be a great show. Their lives seem perfect made for TV series. What do you think?

We concur: The Binion-clan saga would make a great TV series or movie. In fact, you and we aren't the only ones who've ever thought so.

In 2015, the exhaustive biography of patriarch Benny Binion, Blood Aces: The Wild Ride of Benny Binion, written by Dallas Morning News reporter Doug J. Swanson, was optioned by Relativity Media, a film-finance and production company involved in scores of big-time movies. But the company went bankrupt that year, which killed the project.

Then, in May 2019, it was announced that Blood Aces was optioned by Ley Line Entertainment to be turned into a TV series. Ley Line produced the movies Argo, with Ben Affleck, Alan Arkin, and John Goodman, and World War Z, starring Brad Pitt. The TV show was supposed to be overseen by a Ley Line executive who'd worked at Lionsgate (of Rambo, John Wick, Saw, and Hunger Games franchise fame), brokered by big-time literary and talent agencies.

Alas, we've heard nothing since that single announcement. The pandemic intervened and more than three years later, the project is either dead, in abeyance, or under reorganization.

Of course, we always have our ear to the ground for updates on stories such as these, so if anything does surface about the TV show or further screen plans, we'll be sure to pass it on.

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Comments

Kevin Lewis Aug-26-2022

Bring back the crooks

The Binions have always had two salient qualities: sleaze and the ability to run a casino. These two qualities existed in direct inverse proportion to each other. Benny was a fugitive and a double murderer, but he knew how to run a casino. We need more of his type in the casino industry again. (After all, it's not like the casino corporations aren't criminals as well.)

Gene Brown Aug-26-2022

And Most Politicians

Kevin, you forgot to mention and give the politicians their credit as enablers then and still now!

Andyb Aug-26-2022

I met them

I started card counting in 1968 and actually met and talked to Benny, he gave me a comp for breakfast. Long story. Later I met Ted while he was in the 21 Pit, and had long talks a few times. Many years later I met Jack as he was then running the joint. Never met Becky and as she destroyed it all, wouldn't want too.

Roy Furukawa Aug-26-2022

Crowd Fund

Time to do a crowd funding to buy the rights and produce a series with AC overseeing the gambling sequences. I'm sure the reality of producing a series is expensive because it would have to span so many decades.

Hoppy Aug-26-2022

Re: Roy Thru the Decades

Save on building sets, by using different casinos/restaurants for different decades/eras. I rode up the elevator with I believe it was Jack.

David Sabo Aug-27-2022

About half of 50 cent

I remember looking for a buddy that had went off the mapon a Vegas trip shortly after returning from the original Gulf War. Cell phones were out there but I didn't have one then. I finally found him at Binions playing on a 25 cent craps table completely trashed at 6AM. I started scooping up his huge stack of chips and told him he had plenty of now to go to Sherry's in Pahrump Nevada which was his goal. He was good looking but he was a huge dude and gentle as a giant. I probably dropped some chips on the ground on the way to escorting him back to our downtown room. All he said when he saw me was," Binions a legendary dice house. He said he wouldn't leave until he lost a roll. Little did I know he made 8 straight pass points or come out winners. When we finally got back to the room he fanned out another 4 thousand in Benjamin's and within seconds started snoring like a chain saw. Not the next day but the following day he took my rental car West on the Blue Diamond HWY. Came back happy!!

Question of the Day - 26 August 2022

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