Movies about casinos and gambling are enjoyable because they frequently
have high stakes, dramatic settings, and likable individuals who must
overcome obstacles and make difficult choices. The story is made more
exciting and dramatic by the uncertainty of the result and the thrill of
the consequences. Casinos and the act of gambling also offer a backdrop
for examining concepts like the results of one's actions.
There have been some superb casino or gambling movies and Hollywood has
long been enthralled by putting it all on the line.
All in
Movies about casinos and gambling have been produced for many years and
come in a variety of forms. More recent gambling and casino movies have
looked to open people’s eyes to the inside world of gambling and explain
terms such as the
RTP of a
casino game, blinds, whales, bluffing, and the house edge among others.
Previously, movies simply used casinos as a glamorous backdrop and there
was little focus on the actual games being played and the tactics being
employed. Several documentaries have also lifted the lid on gambling and
the casino industry, providing people with a glimpse inside what used to
be a sector cloaked in secrecy.
While many movies include gambling and casinos, they do tend to fall into
a few distinct categories.
Las Vegas
origin movies focus on the notorious characters that formed Sin City and
their demise in the mid-1980s.
Movies on casino games frequently center on poker or blackjack. In a
high-stakes poker tournament or cash game, tension increases as players
compete with one another. Blackjack typically requires using a
"fool-proof" strategy to defeat the house.
While there might be movies that don’t exactly fall into one of these
categories, these are the types of movies we tend to frequently see. Other
games such as roulette or craps will feature in movies, but rarely form a
basis of the feature and can simply be a plot device or interesting
backdrop for character development.
Over the years
Movies and casinos have a strong relationship that has been explored in
various films over the years. Starting with the silent movie The Cheat in
1915 starring Fannie Ward, there is a rich history of casino and gambling
movies. The success of that movies paved the way for Lights of New York in
1928 as the first all-talkie casino film and kicked off a string of
popular gambling-themed films in the early 1930s.
Though the genre saw a dip in popularity during the 1940s due to World
War II, it made a comeback in the 1950s with classics like the film noir
The Man with the Golden Arm starring Frank Sinatra and musical comedy Pal
Joey with Rita Hayworth and Sinatra again.
The 1960s and 1970s were the heydays of casino and gambling movies with
iconic titles such as the original Ocean's 11 with Sinatra, Dean Martin,
and Sammy Davis Jr. and The Sting with professional grifters Paul Newman
and Robert Redford.
In the
80s, Tom Cruise taught us the art of pool hustling with Newman in The Color
of Money.
Maverick, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Croupier, and Rounders made
the 90s something of a golden age of gambling movies and the emergence of
online casinos may have been a contributing factor in this.
This century, we’ve had the remake of Ocean’s 11 and the resulting
sequels or reboots, while Casino Royale gave us James Bond truly engaged
in an unbelievable game of poker and Uncut Gems was a surprise hit. A few
movies like Molly’s Game with Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba were
inspired by true stories, and have futher revealed the world of gambling
to viewers.
Hopefully, we’ll see another resurgence of the casino gambling movie
genre and some more classics will join the amazing titles that have come
before. Some of these movies have become so iconic that fans often visit
the real locations to experience the thrill of the casino for
themselves.