Poker News – In less than a week, PokerNews will be at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas to attend the premiere of Runner Runner, the new film by 20th Century Fox starring Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake. Earlier this week we did an interview with Phil “Unabomber” Laak, who filmed a cameo for the film alongside his friend Antonio Esfandiari. It’s only fitting that we got Esfandiari’s side of the story. For those unfamiliar with the upcoming film, here’s the storyline according to imdb.com: “Princeton grad student Richie (Timberlake), believing he’s been swindled, travels to Costa Rica to confront online…

The new movie “Runner Runner” is set to open soon, and the American Gaming Association looks to use this movie to help spur the US Congress to take legislative action for online gambling. J Todd speaks directly with the President of the AGA, Geoff Freeman, about how the movie will be used, and the thoughts behind using this film as an opportunity. See our related stories about the AGA coming under fire for it’s use of the “Runner Runner” poker movie, and poker pro Antonio Esfandiari speaks on shooting for the film.

The reviews are in for the online gambling thriller “Runner, Runner” and they aren’t very good.  In fact, to date, just 20 percent of critics at movie review aggregator site RottenTomatoes.com have given the film a thumb’s up.  Audience reviews were equally as harsh, though somewhat limited. Richie, a Princeton college student played by Justin Timberlake, travels to Costa Rica to confront the on-line mastermind, Ivan, whom he believes has swindled him out of monies wagered on his Web poker site. Ivan, played by Ben Affleck, sees a kindred spirit in Richie and brings the younger man into his operation….

Casino City Times – Gaming leaders are looking at leveraging the release of a feature film that depicts the seedier side of illegal Internet poker to raise awareness of the need for proper regulation of online wagering. American Gaming Association (AGA) President Geoff Freeman, in an e-mail to the organization’s board of directors last week, said the October 4 release of “Runner Runner” presents the Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group an opportunity to state its case for Congress to pass regulations governing Internet gaming in the U.S. The movie, which stars Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake, centers on illegal offshore Internet…

From Gambling 911 Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake will star in the September 2013 release of Runner, Runner, a film about an offshore Internet gambling operator (Affleck) and his student gambler (played by Timberlake). The film is directed by Brad Furman with Leonardo DiCaprio as producer. Gambling911.com had alerted its readers last summer that filming was taking place throughout San Juan, Puerto Rico with the stars regularly frequenting the Marriott Resort. Affleck runs the online gambling site, Timberlake’s character looses his Princeton tuition to the online gambling site, and the rest is history… FULL STORY