Gambling Reality TV Idea

What would you guys/gals think of this idea?? You could have 4 or 5 contestants try to live for a year or season by just gambling. They could be given a starting bankroll that would have to cover their gambling and living expenses. They then are let loose to gamble as they seem fit. The one at the end that has the most money left wins some amount. I had first put this idea in another thread but I think it deserves its own. As I said in that thread, this idea cant be any worse than watching people sell their stuff at a pawn shop. Include other suggestions that would make it better.

The smart one wouldn't gamble at all, so you'd have to build some kind of mandatory gambling activity into it somehow. Something like you have to gamble x amount of time per day/week(whatever) or you have to gamble x amount of dollars per day/week(whatever) or some other stipulation(s). But I agree that it couldn't be any worse than the pawnshop shows, unless you have to watch them drop coins in a slot machine for an hour(or however long the tv show is)..ugh!!

And then you'd have the problem of live / delay broadcasting. Do you tape the whole show up front, in anonymity, or do you do an American Idol-style popularity contest? If the latter, what's to prevent someone else from going to Vegas and playing poker with one of the contestants in an effort to bolster their bankroll? That'd be my strategy: set up a website with dates/locations of where I'd be "playing" and offer a fee to play against me. If the other contestants are out playing roulette or slots, I'd win in a landslide. And then split the prize money with my "investors"...

I think it would have to be a taped show with rules preventing that.

Quote: Alan

The smart one wouldn't gamble at all, so you'd have to build some kind of mandatory gambling activity into it somehow.

Just change the starting conditions:

Participants will receive $500 per month. They can't take a job, invet, day-trade, take loans, etc etc. All they can do to generate income is gamble. They ahve to pay all their expenses such as food, housing, transportation, clothes, etc. $500 a month just doesn't cover much.

Now get a large number of volunteers. Let them play individually, in teams, pool their money, count, hole card, dice set, etc etc.

Not that I'd ever watch it.

I figured it would work based on a playthrough requirement. Players would have to provide a certain amount of playthrough before being allowed to cash out any money the show gave them as bankroll -- like an online casino bonus.

But there's the question of what games to permit. If you gave players $50,000 to play with, at least one of them will think to sit there dumping it into slot machines until they jackpot. A successful run at that could score more money in the short term than a similar amount of time at the tables, but make for far less interesting television.

Where to draw the line? Would racehorse and sports handicapping be okay? What about futures arbitrage, or investments in general? Can I spend the $50,000 on lottery tickets? Can I buy my own racehorse and take odds on it? Or buy and operate my own slot machine? If the rules specify that I can play craps, would it be a problem it I decided to operate the game out of the trunk of my car?

I'd watch it if it were produced well. Perhaps they could each be put up in an apartment or condo rent-free for the required period of time, and other than that, their money would have to get them food, transportation, etc.

In order to avoid someone just camping on their money, perhaps you could require each contestant to participate in at least 3 different games per week for a minimum amount of time per game. It might be interesting to have a mix of seasoned gamblers, recreational gamblers, and members of the American public (i.e., the idiots). Maybe 4 of each. I think throwing in the recreational gamblers and random idiots would add the rollercoaster effect and drama required of reality TV viewing. Obviously, seasoned/professional gamblers are unlikely to get drunk and place a $10k bet or do anything too crazy, so the other two categories of contestant would make up for their calculated attack.

Maybe you could even make it a contest for just 1 month at a time: Start with 12 and the top 4 at the end of the month move on to the next phase, where the winner gets $X (+ their winnings), 2nd place gets $X (+ winnings) etc. There are plenty of formats that would work. I think for a year it may get difficult to keep all the ponies in the race, especially if you're requiring a certain number of hours per week.

You avoid the campers possibly by giving a bonus each week to the player who increases their bank roll the most. This bonus would be banked (as in it's there's whatever but they can't use it in the show).

Gives an incentive to play or bust.

In fact, you could also just ditch the player with the lowest bankroll each week, if no-one busts. But, yeah, some sort of incentive/penalty would be needed to counteract the for the "smart" move of sitting on your bankroll.

where do i sign up to compete?.........

How about the following format:

A group of 10 to 12 contestants live in the same huge suite/villa in Las Vegas for a month. To make it more "reality t.v." friendly, I am sure that they would have to be young and good looking, with a chance of hooking up with one another. Personally, however, I would think it would be more interesting if they have a wide range of contestants so everyone can relate to the "gamblers". From grandparents, to businessmen, to hot, young sexy 20-somethings. The loser of the episode (every 3 or 4 days) would get booted from the show.

Each are given $100,000 in special (fake) casino chips or casino credit that can not be taken out and spent elsewhere.

They are required to play a certain number of hours per day, and during the first week or two would be required to play different games. This would allow the casino to "teach" the players about the game. The last two weeks, the contestants can play any game that they want.

There would be "challenges" every episode, where the winner of the challenge would get some type of Vegas prize, like a trip to the spa, show, fancy dinner, strip club, night club etc. The loser of the challenge would go home.

After every challenge, everyone still around gets a boost to their bankroll, though the challenge winner would get the biggest boost. This will give the appearance that after a month, people have made money gambling.

There would be a cash grand prize for the top three winners at the end of the show.

Main title sponsor would be a large casino resort (MGM or Ceasars comes to mind). I could see a station like the Travel Channel picking this up. Or MTV. It would show off Vegas in all its glory, and give people an idea about how to play all of the games that you could find in the casino.