The synopsis looked great. It tells the story of a casino owner from youth till present day. We have seen many other dramas on mafia and gangsters, but none about a casino owner so that's a fresh angle. Are there mafia, gambling, prostitution, drinking. and crooked cops? Of course, it's inevitable that such vices would be entangled with the casino scene. These unsavoury elements become the backdrop for the drama but are not the main plot. Interestingly, the main character (Hoon) only appears around episode 5 or 6. That's very late in the show.

The production value was also very high as it's set (and filmed) in the Philippines with local actors. The Korean cast too are top notch stalwarts. Honestly, this show seemed to have everything going for it.

So where did it all go wrong? The first mistake was creating two parts, which seems to be the new trend in cable TV Kdramaland. That only works if the story is so enticing (like Glory) that you'd want to wait for the next instalment. Firstly, if this show wasn't on Disney, which I'm already subscribed to, and secondly, both parts had already dropped by the time I decided to watch it, I would NEVER have bothered. It seemed like the only reason why it had 16 episodes was to make its Philippine sojourn worthwhile. There was a lot of exposition and side characters, but I wonder if they really added to the plot. In fact, a faster-paced 8 to 12 episodes would probably have been enough.

At the end of the day, he was a likeable rogue. So the main question was - did he really commit all those crimes? Should we sympathise with him? I don't think I had a clear answer at the end.