Mark Wahlberg is doing the unlikely — making absolute bank in Las Vegas — but rather than gambling his fortune away, a source exclusively tells In Touch he’s been making savvy casino and resort investments to add to his booming business empire and it’s all thanks to a 20-year-old chip on the actor’s shoulder.

“Mark is playing the long game when it comes to his residency in Nevada and his relationships with a number of casinos and resorts there,” says a friend of the actor-turned-businessman. “He is earning these companies’ trust, day by day, and not by accident.” 

The Departed star, 53, officially moved his family from Los Angeles to the City of Sin in 2022 for what he told People at the time was a call ultimately made for his children. “It’s a place where my kids can thrive and do their thing and pursue their interests,” he told the outlet in March 2024.

“Every free moment that I have, I’m at home. I want to be able to work from home,” he told an interviewer from The Talk later that year. “I moved to California many years ago to pursue acting and I’ve only made a couple of movies in the entire time that I was there.”

“So, to be able to give my kids a better life and follow and pursue their dreams, whether it be my daughter as an equestrian, my son as a basketball player, my younger son as a golfer. This made a lot more sense for us.”

But the source says there were other benefits to the relocation, namely, “Mark saw an opportunity to pay lower taxes by relocating there, and he dove into it head-first, moving his businesses to Vegas, making movies there, and putting his family fast food chain Wahlburgers into loads of casinos where they continue to thrive.” 

Marky Mark was once the highest paid actor in Hollywood and has been smart with his money, preferring to invest in the leisure industry, which has been incredibly lucrative, the source notes. “Mark is a savvy businessman but the next step is to become a true mogul, and he has chosen to launch that effort in Vegas and Atlantic City, not L.A. or New York.”

“Becoming a mogul in this space — big hotels, casinos and restaurants — has always been a goal for Mark, and he has a vast array of contacts in that world who are dying to partner up with him,” the insider explains. “It’s pretty crazy how Mark’s patience and genius for long-term planning is actually playing out. Every single time he bets on himself he comes out a winner.”

But the Ted star may be motivated by more than just money. The insider says that back in 2001, when the top action actors of their day assembled on screen for Ocean’s 11, Mark was conspicuously left out of the fun.

“Frankly, at least some of Mark’s fascination with the casino world has to stem from him being left out of the George Clooney–Brad Pitt Ocean’s movies twenty-plus years ago. Instead of holding a grudge about not being invited to play pretend with those guys, he’s on his way to becoming a real life casino mogul instead!”