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Gambling in the movies…

September 20th, 2015 by Irwin Fletcher Comments

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Greetings fellow Nerds and Nerdettes.  You may have recently heard on the news that a local person was made a Millionaire by winning a scratch-card (lucky bugger).  Whilst the odds on that are truly incredible, it did get me thinking about gambling and, in particular, casino movies.

There have been a number of films that have had casinos as their centralised plot, and the one that immediately springs to mind is of course Casino, directed by Martin Scorsese. This 1995 classic was based on a true story and starred Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Sharon Stone and was set in the 1970s. It showed the audience the glitz, the glamour and more importantly, the various games ran by casinos. Oh, and who could forget Sharon Stone grabbing that box of chips and just throwing them into the air…that’s every casino player’s dream!

The glitz and glam is just one of the attractions that audiences  love about casinos, but let’s face it…we all want to win that massive payout on the tables. Craps games (that’s the dice one) have had some memorable movie moments in it. One that springs to mind is Snake Eyes starring Nicholas Cage. There is a brilliant Steadicam shot of him walking through the casino, round the tables and not to mention him throwing those bones and winning big.

Of course, if Dice games aren’t your thing, you can always try your hand at Blackjack. One of the best Blackjack/Casino scenes ever filmed was the 1988 movie Rain Man, starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. The particular scene I am referring to is the “card counting” scene where Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) is displaying his skills at remembering the sequence of numbers and winning a lot of money for his pretty unscrupulous brother Charlie (Tom Cruise). Ok… so he was cheating, but it was still great fun watching.

Cheating may be one way of getting the casinos money, but if you like heist movies, then there is really only one choice of movie… Ocean’s 11. Choose either the original 1960 caper movie starring The Rat Pack (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jnr. Et al) or the more recent version’s George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon. Either film is great fun as the audience watches the characters scam and work their way through to taking the casino for every penny they have. Of course it stands to reason that we at FTN would always discourage any unlawful behaviour… keep it for the movies, folks!

Though when thinking of casinos and movies, there is one series of movies that everyone thinks of. A tall man dressed in a tuxedo, sometimes smoking a cigarette, takes a seat at either a Baccarat or Texas Hold ‘Em and plays against fellow patrons… though in most cases it’s usually the film’s main villain. I am referring to “Bond… James Bond.” No one movie character has done more to promote casinos and gambling than James Bond. In fact, nearly all of his films have a central scene revolving around a casino in one form or another. Whilst James Bond was a fan of the card game Baccarat both in the novels and earlier films, the Daniel Craig movies have updated his game choice to Texas Hold ‘Em; a fast paced poker game which can be played with either a house limit or no limits. With the recent trailer for SPECTRE playing all over the internet and Royal Premier just announced, cinema goers will once again hopefully see Bond flash his poker skills in some casino scenario or other.

But if you can’t wait for the film on the big screen, you can always dress in your finest and head to your nearest casino, take a seat at your favourite table, order your favourite drink (you may need it to steady any nerves you have) and hope you get that winning card. Or better yet, from the comfort of your own armchair, try out your luck at vipclubcasino for casino games… you just never know.

I'm an LA journalist who really lives for his profession. I have also published work as Jane Doe in various mags and newspapers across the globe. I normally write articles that can cause trouble but now I write for FTN because Nerds are never angry, so I feel safe.