Casinos are exciting places where players can be just moments away from a huge win or a big loss. They’re also often shrouded in mystery and associated with card counting, cheating, and heists. As a result, casinos make excellent settings for thrilling movies, and over the years, there have been hundreds of films that tell the story of casinos, the people that work in them, and the gamblers themselves.
If you’re a big movie buff, you can probably name a few of the most popular casino actors and movies, but can you name them all? Our movie buff and casino expert, Victoria Oliveira (find more info about her here), has made this list for you.
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro is a legendary actor who has been in the movie business since 1963. His work includes major hits such as Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Casino, and the Godfather, and he’s won multiple Academy Awards and Golden Globes over the course of his career.
Casino is his most famous casino-related movie and saw him step into the lead role of Sam Ace Rothstein, a casino operator who works for the mob. De Niro is well known for his performances over the years, especially when appearing in films about the mafia.
Casino
Casino is an obvious choice for popular casino movies. It’s almost certainly the most famous casino-themed movie of all time, and it’s interesting because it tells a true story of the growth of casinos in Las Vegas during the 70s.
The film was released in 1996 and is one of the most popular films about gambling in the world. No matter, if you visit Casino portugal websites or poker portals from Asia, the chance of them mentioning this movie is rocket-high.
Robert De Niro stars alongside Joe Pesci and Al Pacino as the actors in Casino, and the action is directed by Martin Scorsese. Although the film is long, it’s definitely worth a watch.
Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt is another world-renowned actor, and while he might not have been acting for as long as De Niro, he’s still performed in his fair share of major hits. Brad Pitt is perhaps best known for his looks, but it would be unfair to overlook his acting ability, and he’s won several awards throughout his career, including Golden Globes and Academy Awards.
The most famous casino movies Brad Pitt appeared in were the enormously successful Ocean’s Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen. More recently, he starred in Killing Them Softly, a film about a robbery of a mafia-owned gambling operation.
The Gambler
Released in 2014, the Gambler tells the tale of a down on his luck compulsive gambler who gets himself into a situation he can’t get out of. To pay off his gambling debts, the main character who is played by Mark Wahlberg, must do business for a loan shark. This film tells the dangers of casinos and gambling, and it’s quite a sobering tale even if it’s not as good as some of the other films on this list.
Ray Liotta
Ray Liotta is an American actor who’s starred in movies such as Goodfellas, Phoenix, Revolver, and Killing Them Softly. He was also the voice of Tommy Vercetti in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. The film Phoenix is about a superstitious cop who gets into debt by gambling.
He’s offered the choice of killing an informant or facing the penalties if he wants to get out of it. Instead, he decides to pay off his obligation by robbing a loan shark. The plot of Revolver centers around a mafia leader named Dorothy Macha, who was humiliated in a casino game. His plan for retaliation is to track down and kill the individual who humiliated him.
21
21 is the famous story of the MIT professor who trained a bunch of students to count cards in order to take on the casinos of Las Vegas. It’s loosely based on a real story, and although many of the events are dramatized, the students really did manage to get away with beating the casinos and coming away with millions of dollars. This is definitely one of the best casino movies ever made, and the fact that it’s a real story makes it even better. The book about this story is known in Portugal as Bringing Down the House.
Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey has starred in two films set in casinos, Casino Jack and 21. Casino Jack discusses the perils of privilege, power, and wealth. During the movie, Kevin Spacey plays a hotshot lawyer who gets himself into a lot of trouble devising a get-rich-quick scheme. The plot fails badly, and in the end, a lot of things go wrong for the main character.