I am sure we all grew up with action movies that were set in a casino. One example is the famous James Bond movie Casino Royale (2006). Well, in the year 2025 gambling casinos are still being affected by films, series and media content.
Melco Resorts is a gambling company, one of the biggest in Asia and is based in Hong Kong. They have numerous properties all over Asia and some in Europe. They are predicting that with the release of the new season of the series
The White Lotus, set at the Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui in Thailand, that Thailand will be visited by more gamblers. Melco Resorts is looking at Thailand to further expand their casino empire and believes that a popular show can invite and entice tourists into visiting Thailand and its casinos and resorts.
Thailand is just finishing up their casino law and if approved, 5 casinos will be allowed to operate in the country one being owned by Melco Resorts. Do you think that a show can influence not only the tourists but as well as the government's perception and decisions about gambling and casinos? Or do you think the impact of a film or a show isn't enough to sway people?
In the country where I live I have never seen a show about casinos or gambling. Only feature films, like James Bond or Ocean's Friends. But it is clear that these films romanticize and embellish the image of a casino: nice ladies in expensive dresses, success and luck, big money. I am sure that many people in real life went to a casino because they wanted to get the same thing. But the film is written according to a script and everything is good there, which I cannot say about gambling in most cases in our real life. Here, not everyone gets huge winnings and becomes a winner.