As the group were driving toward Las Vegas earlier in the movie Alan could be seen reading a book on blackjack and card counting. Against everything else that Alan manages to do in the movie he actually pulls this off and he wins hand after hand to recoup the money for Chow. Gambling has been around since the dawn of time it seems with ancient scrolls talking of dice games in India as far back as 2000BC and China in 1900BC. Man has always liked to gamble and whether it is legalised or criminalised as it has been in the past and in some regions and countries today people will always find ways to play games for money.
Casino Movies Seen on Netflix that Might Return
If you’re interested in classic casino films, you should try watching Rain Man, which stars Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. The plot revolves around an autistic man with a million-dollar trust fund. His estranged brother is an autistic savant, and he uses his talents to help his younger brother count cards. The film explores family ties and the murky limits of legality in Vegas.
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Those who used to visit the land-based casinos changed gears and enrolled in online gambling platforms. Well, William H. Macy plays a loser who is so good at losing that a casino highers him to sit at a craps table and ruin everyone else’s luck. It won two of its nine nominations at the 34th Academy Awards, and has since been selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry. And as Fast Eddie seeks to test his pool hustling aptitude against the professional player “Minnesota Flats”, the stars of this sports show in Newman and George C. Scott lead the project to utter greatness.
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Suspenseful movies about gambling are a unique blend of excitement and drama. From the glitzy charm of Las Vegas to nerve-racking poker games, these films transport us to a universe where luck can change in the blink of an eye. Matt Damon stars as the poker-playing Mike McDermott, who falls in love with a Russian gambling baron and must beat him at high-stakes games to pay his college fees. If you are a fan of old classics and gambling movies, then you were waiting for this film’s name to appear on the list. In Robert Altman’s nightmarish drama-comedy, the great Elliott Gould and George Segal invite us to a world of night casinos, booze, and loose relationships. California Spirit is a full-fledged close-up not only of gaming as a way of life but also of the American culture of money and luck.
- And all the performers delivered Sorkin’s world-famous dialogue to a critically acclaimed degree.
- There was a glorious point in the ‘90s when Matt Damon seemed only to play unassuming boy genius to his degenerate friends, and Rounders is arguably his finest portrayal of the golden boy archetype.
- 1995’s Casino is still recognized as one of Martin Scorsese’s best films, as well as one of the best films set in Las Vegas since it captures the essence of the city and the soul of the casino business.
- A friendship between the two blossoms after a fellow gambler gets angry at them for beating him and taking their money.
- Today, the legalization of gambling has become a Hail Mary last-ditch effort for many financially eroding urban areas like Detroit, St. Louis, and others — but Atlantic City did this first.
‘Hard Eight’ (
The vibrancy of emotion and improvisation seems to be unsurpassed in Altman’s production as well. In the purest sense this isn’t a gambling film at all, but it contains more lessons about how to win at sports betting than all all the other films on this list combined. Moneyball is the mostly-true tale of the Oakland A’s rise from zeroes to heroes in Major League Baseball in the US thanks to a radical shift in how they recruited their players.
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He suspects his newly discovered older brother, who has autism and lives in a mental institution. Cruise’s character breaks his brother out and uses his savant-level math skills to win big in Las Vegas. Go watch some movies in the meantime.For more information see /r/ModCoord. A 25-year gap between two films in the same franchise usually means it’s a cash-grab, but Paul Newman’s return as Fast Eddie is anything but.
The Gambler (
It also included the Strip and its numerous eye-catching features, which are nonetheless magnificent despite being viewed through the warped eyes of heavily drugged individuals. Five years after Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese returned to the subject of organised crime with this virtuosic chronicle of Las Vegas’s formative years. Starring Robert De Niro and an Oscar®-nominated Sharon Stone, Casino is a technically-dazzling epic from one of America’s greatest living filmmakers. The year 2007 was not exactly easy for the NBA, and the Donaghy scandal made it even less so. Even Donaghy appears in the series to tell his story and admits that he acted foolishly, costing him a lot over the years.
Category:Films about gambling
Thanks to Martin Scorsese’s direction, plus an award-winning turn from Tom Cruise, The Color of Money is proof that not all sequels have to be scams, even when they are, in fact, about scams. Paul Schrader makes stern, austere and existential movies about stern, austere and existential people. The Card Counter is less about cards and more about grief, trauma and faith, and it delivers those themes through the dark dazzling eyes of Oscar Isaac. You take a risk every time you buy a ticket at the theater, or queue up a movie from your couch. There’s always a risk when it comes to picking a movie, but there are ways of limiting that risk; like, say, reading a list of the best movies in the genre.
Two for the money
- Charlie hatches a plan to take Raymond (who is an autistic savant) away from the hospital to try and force them to split the money with him.
- Bugsy is a biographical crime thriller that centers on the life and times of the infamous titular criminal and New York gangster, Ben “Bugsy” Siegel (played by Warren Beatty), as well as the origins of Las Vegas.
- The movie then goes on to trace how he continues to stack up gambling debt until he has his lucky break and even wins $400 more than was in the bag.
- The Sting won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Director, and many more in 1974, as the smart but tense comedy keeps the audience guessing who will come out the better grifter.
- There was a time that Mel Gibson was considered such a light and lively leading man that a big-budget studio movie could coast on his charm as a card shark and con man.
- In the film, the Los Angeles-based protagonist has made the decision to relocate to Las Vegas and drink himself to death after losing his family and his job recently.
- It’s almost a road film of sorts, as Mendelsohn’s character — a gambling addict named Gerry — befriends Gosling’s character Curtis, and deems him a good luck charm.
Gambling hasn’t lost its cultural vitality over decades, and the same is true for great gambling films like 1974’s The Gambler. James Cann as gambling addict Axel Freed is obsessed with the thrill of gambling, even if it ends in self-destructive losses, and director Karel Reisz depicts the downward spiral of addiction with depressing accuracy. Freed gambles with more than his and other people’s money; he gambles with his life, putting himself in dangerous situations for his sadistic enjoyment. Besides a stellar cast including The Goodfellas’ Paul Sorvino and American Gigolo’s Lauren Hutton, The Gambler is a psychological thriller masked as a gambling movie. Ocean’s Eleven isn’t just one of the greatest gambling movies, it could appear on lists for the best heist movies, best George Clooney movies, best movies from Las Vegas, and even best movies snubbed by the Academy Awards.
A trailer might not convince you that the cast is stellar throughout
The group faces many obstacles and challenges which they, quite naturally, manage to get out of cleverly. Because they succeed in their exceptionally complex mission and deliver an unexpected twist in the end, this movie deserves its spot on the list of the best casino movies in the history of cinema. What makes Casino Royale so popular is the 007-style mixture of secret missions and high-class gambling.
That’s enough to put Rounders on the shortest of shortlists of best gambling movies ever. Geniuses from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) can usually go on to do anything, yet a group of them decided to use their gifts to count cards. He gets robbed at gunpoint, loses friends, and has very little to show for it besides a cool story. Watching the smartest people do the dumbest things could be enough to scare anyone away from gambling because winning is always enough until you want more. Gamers watch gambling movies to get an idea of how celebrities play and win.
Best Casino Movies on Netflix Right Now
An origin story of Las Vegas, Bugsy is principally a study of Bugsy Siegel, a gangster who travels to the desert, convinced he’s seen the mob’s future. Bugsy is less about gambling — although Siegel surely takes some big chances — than it is about Sin City’s messy birth, which proves fascinating, even if the movie’s glitzy, prestige-picture trappings are a bit limiting. The duality of gambling movies reflects the multifaceted nature of casino culture itself—where the thrill of the game meets the reality of the risks involved.
The Cincinnati Kid is a gambling story in all it’s glory and I won’t even tell you who wins. The poker is almost an aside to what is more of a meditation on the role of luck in life and what gambling for a living can do to a man’s soul. But aside from anything else it’s just hands-down one of the all-time great films with two of the all-time great actors in lead roles. The film features the career-best work by Elisabeth Shue and Cage while director Mike Figgis’ artistic direction maintains it realistic and stoic style. Moreover, Leaving Las Vegas is a dark and joyful film that brings viewers to dreamy realms no other film about alcoholism has gone to before. Ocean’s Eleven is the first movie in the Ocean trilogy and a remake of the 1960 movie of the same name.
Molly’s Game
They set out to sharpen their skills, with Vincent eventually out-hustling the original hustler. Bolstered by an Academy Award-winning, tour-de-force performance by Newman, this Martin Scorsese film deftly navigates the dank pool halls with ease, ensuring the audience is racking up right beside his layered characters. Rosa himself is banned from entering casinos as his card counting skills are known to the establishments and they are not happy to be losing that much money to a trick. This gambling movie on Netflix is probably one of the most realistic ones as well, as card-counting systems in blackjack do exist and casinos need to be extra careful not to allow a player to take advantage of a weakness in their security.
- Watching movies on dangerous websites can cause all sorts of problems for your device, and they are often littered with malware (malicious software), spyware, adware, and other digital nasties.
- The characters are great, especially the just about believable villain Teddy KGB, and the poker is the right side of plausible while also being ridiculous enough to be entertaining.
- Owing a local loan shark as well, Professor Bennett has a week to pay it off or it will cost him his life.
- The audience is along for the ride as they watch Howard succeed in his risks when they pay off and his failures when his gambling addiction overtakes him.
- The journey takes Bond to Macao where he finds a Portuguese gun expert who leads him to Macau Palace, a floating casino in the Inner Harbour area.
- That same year, Sam narrowly survives a car bomb, suspecting Nicky to be the culprit.
It featured The Godfather star, James Caan, and directed by Karel Reisz. The most tragic story in My Hero Academia comes to a close in one of the most spectacular episodes of the series in years. From the Safdie Brothers, Uncut Gems follows fast-talking jeweler Howard as he tries to juggle family obligations, his mistress, angry collectors, and mounting debts on top of his insatiable thirst for gambling.
Breaking Vegas
Paul Newman won his only Oscar for The Color of Money, revisiting the character of Fast Eddie Felson, whom he played in 1961’s The Hustler. “He had to stop gambling,” Scorsese said in Conversations With Scorsese. This isn’t one of Scorsese’s best movies — and as we said earlier, The Hustler is the better overall film — but it’s solid and despairing. Like with Scorsese’s mobsters, these are people who are magnetic but not ones you’d want to spend time with in real life.
This summer, Macao is set to continue its long-running tradition as a popular film destination when the Netflix adaptation of the 2014 novel The Ballad of a Small Player begins shooting across the city’s various casinos. And a large part of that was due to its cast — aside from Newman, it also featured the likes of Tom Cruise, John Turturro, and Forest Whitaker. But it also had an intriguing premise, with Newman’s character now a retired pool hustler who takes a new gambler (Tom Cruise’s character, Vincent Lauria) under his wing. The result was an absolute pleasure of a plot that fully realizes its main players. “Mississippi Grind” tells the story of two gamblers on a road trip, playing risky games in the American South. This film delves into the psychological aspect of gambling, portraying the superstitions, fallacies, and the thrill of the game that keeps players coming back for more.
As Jack becomes increasingly embroiled in the world of high-stakes gambling, he finds himself drawn into a web of deceit, danger, and betrayal. If you have not watched some of these yet, roll under your blanket and get ready for a thrilling ride full of gambling, betting, and drama. Blackjack remains one of the few “skill” games at the casino and one where given the right conditions and the ability to fly under the radar of the watching staff a skilled team can still beat the house. But as you will find out from the film this doesn’t come without some serious consequences. The shady world of professional tipsters is pretty well laid bare here, but it also conveys the tension, adrenaline rush and mentally bruising nature of sports betting with real heart.
With the owner coming to retrieve the ticket, Tepper realizes that he needs to win the game not just for the sake of the owner, but also for the chance to get his Finder’s Fee for securing the ticket and the lottery ticket. In fact, the better a student is at gambling (or the more they have won at the very least) the higher up the food chain they rank. Everything is going well at the academy until the day Yumeko https://true-fortune.us/mobile/ Jabami, the main character transfers to the academy. The girl is ignored and put down by her peers but that quickly ends when everyone realizes that she is the best gambler they have seen. Craig’s character, the charismatic daredevil double-oh-seven, appears in the movie to play a game of cat and mouse against Le Chiffre, portrayed by Mads Mikkelsen, who is a criminal genius with a soft spot for poker.
The plot centers on buddies Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt), who scheme to steal $160 million from Terry Benedict (Andy García), the owner of a casino, and Ocean’s ex-wife’s lover. Hard Eight follows a professional gambler named Sydney (Philip Baker Hall) who teaches a homeless man, John Finnegan (John C. Reilly) how to win his money in Vegas. However, John is doing well until he develops feelings for cocktail waiter Clementine (Gwyneth Paltrow).
The film follows Hall’s character Sydney as he takes Reilly’s character John under his wing and shows him the ropes of professional gambling in Las Vegas. If this list were ranking the most underrated gambling movies ever made, Hard Eight (1996) by Paul Thomas Anderson would undoubtedly come out on top. It stars Phillip Baker Hall along with a star-studded supporting cast of John C. Reilly, Gwyneth Paltrow, Samuel L. Jackson, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and they all play a meaningful role in the wide-ranging plot. Except for Hoffman, that is — although, his one scene in the film almost managed to steal the entire show. As far as true gambling addiction goes, James Caan’s titular character in The Gambler (1974) portrays the mental illness better than perhaps anyone in the history of the silver screen. He’ll bet good money on a poker game in Las Vegas, on a professional football championship with his friends, or on a pickup game of basketball he stumbled upon during his afternoon stroll through the park.
Written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, this is The Social Network (2010) of gambling films — which makes sense, as the biographical drama about the founder of Facebook was also written by Sorkin. Here with Molly’s Game (2017), though, the screenwriter took his directorial debut and chronicled the life of Molly Bloom, a former Olympic skier. Whether it’s a gritty depiction of a gambler’s descent into obsession or an exhilarating ride with card-counting geniuses, each film on this list offers a unique perspective on the alluring yet dangerous world of gambling. Directed by Robert Altman, “California Split” follows the friendship between two gamblers played by George Segal and Elliott Gould. The film is an insightful exploration of the gambling lifestyle and the different forms it can take. This film is one of our top movies about poker because the world of gambling can serve as both a refuge and a battlefield for personal demons.
- The tale of small-time pool hustler Eddie taking on the big time is one any gambler can empathise with and it features the same mix of hope, hubris, heroics and heartbreak we’ve all experienced.
- Part II is the best example of a sequel outperforming its predecessor, making it one of the best films of all time.
- No, you can have the same fun when you try the Polish online casino sites that offer a variety of games.
- We at GamblingCollective take betting seriously, and as fun as it is we understand that it can cause a lot of problems.
The series focuses on the Shelby family who built their empire through gambling. Although Peaky Blinders would not be the first TV show or movie to show gambling in all its complicated glory, it has been lauded as one of the best. With Netflix’s extensive catalog, cinephiles have access to an array of riveting casino-themed films right at their fingertips. The reality is probably not as glamorous, but the reason why these films have been selected is also because of their deep psychological backdrops.
Part II is the best example of a sequel outperforming its predecessor, making it one of the best films of all time. The film also depicts America’s corruption accurately while providing a glimpse into New York City’s underground. Furthermore, the film’s usage of Vegas as a plot device is clever, standing out from other places in the film. In 1970s Las Vegas, Sam “Ace” Rothstein is riding high as front man for the mob’s multibillion-dollar casino operation. It’s a winning hand—Ace’s brains and Nicky’s muscle—until wild card hustler Ginger McKenna gets between them.
As the British secret services seem to be out of their depth, they cannot outright go and arrest Le Chiffre, but what they can do is get close, play with the man’s hand, and beat him at a game of poker. Of course, there is no better-qualified agent to embark on this task than 007 himself. Raymond who has never been to a casino before looks confused and befuddled. Charlie, who has realised that Raymond is literally a walking calculator, leads him to the blackjack table where, you guessed it, they win big.
The movie offers plenty of excitement and drama as one of the top casino heist movies. Based on a true story, “Molly’s Game” has a fantastic cast and a captivating script. Jessica Chastain plays Molly Bloom, an Olympic-class skier who runs an exclusive poker game for the wealthy and famous. One night, she gets arrested by the FBI and wrapped up in a high-stakes investigation into her players, some of whom are members of the Russian mob.
The scene is gutting as Ratner is stripped naked and locked up in the trunk of the Mafiosi’s car. He then has to call Dinah, his girlfriend, who comes to his rescue, but that’s hardly all. Ratner tries a few ways to secure the money he owes – mostly by gambling more, going deeper into debt, and ultimately relying on his wife, with whom they are about to get a divorce.
His obsession with danger and the excitement that gambling brings leaves him prey to all sorts of misfortunes. Thus, grab some popcorn, get comfy on your couch, and get ready to have a blast watching these exciting casino movies on Netflix. It’s like a big treasure chest full of entertainment waiting for you to get in and have a great time.