Posted on: February 3, 2026, 05:34h.
Last updated on: February 3, 2026, 05:34h.
- Yellowstone star Cole Hauser (Rip Wheeler) is set to portray Benny Binion in a new Sylvester Stallone‑produced TV series
- The project explores Binion’s violent Texas past and subsequent reinvention as a Las Vegas casino pioneer
- The adaptation draws from the bestselling book Blood Aces and includes Binion’s creation of the World Series of Poker
Yellowstone star Cole Hauser is set to portray Las Vegas casino legend Benny Binion in a new television series executive-produced by Sylvester Stallone.
The project, currently in development through a partnership between Stallone’s Balboa Productions, Hauser’s American Outlaw Entertainment, and MGM Television, is based on Doug J. Swanson’s nonfiction book Blood Aces: The Wild Ride of Benny Binion.
Producers say the series aims to fuse cinematic grit with meticulous historical detail, drawing on government records — including some that were once classified — to depict the violent origins of modern Las Vegas gambling.
Who Was Benny Binion?
A Texas‑born outlaw, casino innovator, and the eventual architect of the World Series of Poker, Benny Binion remains one of the most consequential — and polarizing — figures in of American gambling history.
Starting as a Fort Worth horse trader and small‑time hustler, he rose to power in Dallas’s underworld, where he built a lucrative illegal gambling empire backed by protection rackets and a reputation for decisive, often brutal enforcement. Historical accounts and Swanson’s book depict Binion as a charismatic yet ruthless figure who outmaneuvered rivals with a mix of business smarts and raw force.
Binion faced mounting legal pressure in Texas, including tax issues and murder allegations. In 1931, Binion was convicted of shooting and killing rumrunner Frank Bolding. He received a two-year suspended sentence. Five years later, he was acquitted in the shooting of rival Ben Frieden, which was ruled self-defense after Binion claimed the victim fired first and inflicted a wound on himself.
Binion was widely rumored or alleged to have been involved in additional violent acts and deaths during his Dallas years, including a long feud with Herbert “The Cat” Noble that involved multiple failed assassination attempts on Noble and the 1949 car-bomb murder of Noble’s wife Mildred — though Binion was never charged or convicted in those cases.
Fresh Start
Binion relocated to Las Vegas in the late 1940s. Here, he reinvented himself as a casino visionary. He opened Binion’s Horseshoe in 1951, pioneering player-friendly innovations like high (and eventually no-limit) betting, generous comps, good food, and the famous “good whiskey, good gamble” ethos.
Binion’s most enduring legacy is the World Series of Poker (WSOP), which he started in 1970 at the Horseshoe. It elevated poker from backroom games to a major competitive spectacle that helped popularize the sport globally.
In 2004, Caesars Entertainment (then called Harrah’s Entertainment) acquired the Horseshoe brand and WSOP rights from Binion’s heirs in a deal valued at around $44-50 million. In 2022, Caesars rebranded Bally’s Las Vegas as Horseshoe Las Vegas.
The upcoming series will chronicle Binion’s violent feuds, legal battles, and lasting influence on gambling and poker culture.
In statements reported by Deadline, Hauser — who played the steadfastly moral Rip Wheeler in Yellowstone — described Binion as “one of the great Western American characters and success stories of the 20th century, loaded with ambition, vision, balls and, like all controversial characters, many flaws.”
Stallone added that Binion was “a New West icon who was a conduit connecting many worlds, some glamorous, some dangerous, some shady, but all intriguing.”
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