The Casino was the toughest episode I had to write that season. Mainly because we were never sure whether we would have permission to film inside a casino! Pretty hard to tell the story of one that way.
![Casino Craps Table](images/casinotable.jpg)
Also, for our lead characters, we had a couple of interesting types, but they weren't all that different from each other. Both of them did card tricks and were wise to all the scams that took place inside a casino. One however, marketed himself as a casino security consultant, while the other was using his skill to win as much money as possible.
![Sal Piacente, Casino security expert](images/casinosal2.jpg)
So, while the two never met in real life, they became adversaries in the show, which made for a nice story. You were always trying to tell a story in these shows, rather than just showing a lot of stuff. That kept viewers tuned in, and not changing the channel when a commercial came on.
Luckily, after all the problems getting access, suddenly everything was open to us, and we got some great stories about the high-tech security systems casinos have in place.