Martin Scorsese's fascinating new film 'Casino' knows a lot about the Mafia's relationship with Las Vegas. It's based on a book by Nicholas Pileggi, who had full access to a man who once ran four casinos for the mob, and whose true story inspires the movie's plot.
The guys who floated those might be the inspiration for 'Casino II.' 'The big corporations took over,' the narrator observes, almost sadly. 'Today, it works like Disneyland.' Which brings us back to our opening insight. In a sense, people need to believe a town like Vegas is run by guys like Ace and Nicky. Casino was released on November 22, 1995, to mostly positive critical reception, and was a worldwide box office success. Stone's performance was singled out for acclaim, earning her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Like 'The Godfather,' it makes us feel like eavesdroppers in a secret place.
The movie opens with a car bombing, and the figure of Sam 'Ace' Rothstein floating through the air. The movie explains how such a thing came to happen to him. The first hour plays like a documentary; there's a narration, by Rothstein (Robert De Niro) and others, explaining how the mob skimmed millions out of the casinos.
Casino 1995 Opening Game
It's an interesting process. Assuming you could steal 25 percent of the slot-machine take - what would you do with tons of coins? How would you convert them into bills that could be stuffed into the weekly suitcase for delivery to the mob in Kansas City? 'Casino' knows. Super slots casino free play. It also knows how to skim from the other games, and from food service and the gift shops. And it knows about how casinos don't like to be stolen from.
Casino 1995 Opening Scene
There's an incident where a man is cheating at blackjack, and a couple of security guys sidle up to him and jab him with a stun gun.
Casino 1995 Opening
It's an interesting process. Assuming you could steal 25 percent of the slot-machine take - what would you do with tons of coins? How would you convert them into bills that could be stuffed into the weekly suitcase for delivery to the mob in Kansas City? 'Casino' knows. Super slots casino free play. It also knows how to skim from the other games, and from food service and the gift shops. And it knows about how casinos don't like to be stolen from.
Casino 1995 Opening Scene
There's an incident where a man is cheating at blackjack, and a couple of security guys sidle up to him and jab him with a stun gun.
Casino 1995 Opening
He collapses, the security guys call for medical attention, and hurry him away to a little room where they pound on his fingers with a mallet and he agrees that he made a very bad mistake.
Rothstein, based on the real-life figure of Frank (Lefty) Rosenthal, starts life as a sports oddsmaker in Chicago, attracts the attention of the mob because of his genius with numbers and is assigned to run casinos because he looks like an efficient businessman who will encourage the Vegas goose to continue laying its golden eggs. He is a man who detests unnecessary trouble. One day, however, trouble finds him, in the person of Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone), a high-priced call girl.
