FOX has announced that The Casino, its previously announced new unscripted drama created by reality titan Mark Burnett, will premiere on Tuesday, June 8 at 8 PM PM ET/PT.

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Production began in early February on the 13-episode series that will provide a 24/7, behind-the-scenes look at the real-life dramas unfolding at the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, as its new owners, Tim Poster and Tom Breitling, take over the business and attempt to bring back the glory of its "Rat Pack" heyday.

At the center of the series will be entrepreneurs and long-time friends Poster and Breitling, whose Travelscape.com start-up revolutionized the travel industry and made the pair multimillionaires with its sale to Expedia in 2000. Poster and Breitling recently used part of their fortunes to fulfill their lifelong dream by purchasing the Golden Nugget and are now betting that they can create the same sort of classic Las Vegas experience that was so prevalent in Vegas' glory days.

Conceived by Burnett and production partner Conrad Riggs, The Casino will go beyond the challenges facing Poster and Breitling to explore the personal dramas unfolding among some of the 3,000 employees inside this world -- from cocktail waitresses, to pit bosses, to security, management and entertainers. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, this real-life cast of characters runs an elaborate high-stakes operation that caters to visitors from around the world seeking the thrill of Las Vegas.

"Las Vegas is like a magnet," stated Burnett in the program's initial December announcement. "The city attracts people from all over the world with two things on their mind -- getting rich quick and having as much fun as possible in a short period of time. It is the magnetism of Las Vegas that we will try to capture on camera, as we tell the story of two young entrepreneurs who found remarkable success during the Internet boom and are now living out their dreams of owning a Las Vegas casino. We will watch them take a seat at the table of the world's most exciting business as they take over one of the most legendary of all Las Vegas casinos, the Golden Nugget."

The onsite filming of the series -- which will be the first network reality series to be filmed in HDTV format -- is expected to conclude on March 16.

Riggs serves as Co-Executive Producer for Mark Burnett Productions with Jamie Bruce (The Restaurant), along with the company's Kevin Harris (The Apprentice), who is Supervising Producer. On behalf of Poster and Breitling, Trent Othick of Las Vegas-based Insomnia Entertainment and Rob Lieberman will executive-produce, and Perry Rogers of Alliance Sports Management will produce and coordinate the production for Poster and Breitling.

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