Casino (Movie Review)

A casino is a place where customers gamble by playing games of chance or skill, with the goal of winning money. These establishments are licensed and regulated by government agencies. They offer a variety of gambling games, including poker, blackjack, and roulette. Many casinos also feature sports betting and other non-gambling activities. They may be located on or off the strip and are typically open around the clock. Many casinos offer complimentary drinks and food to attract customers.

While Goodfellas and Mean Streets looked at mob gangsters from the ground-level, Casino examines their controllers – the men who ran Vegas, controlled the flow of money, and ultimately fell due to lust, greed, and hubris. Martin Scorsese’s harsh yet delicately balanced masterpiece is a true testament to the power and grandeur of organized crime.

The film opens with a slow-motion, zoom-out shot of a twinkly, crowded casino. Then, a voice-over narrator describes how the Vegas machine worked like Disneyland. It took in people like Ace and Ginger, churned them out as profits, and spit them back out.

The movie stars Robert De Niro as Sam “Ace” Rothstein, a Stardust casino owner who’s forced to move to Tangiers because of mob money laundering charges back East. He’s aided by his wife, the feisty Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone). Mob strong-arm Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) heads out to Vegas to protect Rothstein, but he quickly becomes addicted to gambling and loses his moral compass.