There are quite a few movies that involve casinos to some degree. This should come as no surprise. After all, casinos are places of thrills, excitement and unpredictability. Here, the stakes can be extremely high and people can win – or indeed lose – life-changing sums of money. Real-life casino action can be full of tension and no one can guess what’s going to happen next. This makes the casino a great setting for movies.
On this page, you’ll find our casino movie list. It gives brief summaries of each movie (without spoiling too much!), so you can decide whether it’s right for you. You’re sure to find a movie or two that sounds good. Now let’s move on to our list of the best movies with casino themes and see what’s on it.
Kicking off the list is one of the most popular casino movies. Casino Royale came out in 2006 and is the twenty-first instalment in the James Bond series. It features Daniel Craig as Bond himself, in his first of five outings as Britain’s most famous spy. Though there were some concerns about Craig’s casting, the movie was a critical and commercial success. Critics mostly loved it and the general public did too. It made roughly $616 million in total, making it a big success for its production company, Eon Productions.
The movie’s most important scene is the game of Texas hold’em. It takes place in the Casino Royale in Monte Carlo. Bond is up against Le Chiffre, a man who funds a number of terrorist organisations. The mission Bond has is simple: beat Le Chiffre so he can’t carry on sending money to terrorists. You can almost feel the tension during the movie’s casino scene because the risk couldn’t be any greater.
This casino movie draws inspiration from real-life events. It’s about a group of MIT students whose professor teaches them about card counting. This is a blackjack strategy that involves mentally tracking which cards have come up. The aim is to determine whether the player or dealer has an advantage. If the advantage lies with the player, counters will bet more. If it lies with the dealer, they’ll bet less. Though card counting isn’t illegal, casinos don’t like people doing it. In fact, many casinos will ban people they think have been practising card counting.
The movie follows Ben Campbell, a student who wants to get into Harvard Medical School but can’t afford the fees. He starts card counting with the group so he can afford his tuition. The group makes regular trips to Vegas casinos so they can put their skills to the test. During their trips they manage to make some big wins. However, things don’t always go according to plan.
If you have an interest in different aspects of gambling, 21 should appeal to you. Though it differs from what actually happened a bit, it still has a basis in real-life events. It’s an interesting watch since it shows a controversial casino game strategy and the consequences it can have.
This is similar to 21 in that it’s all about card counting. However, it’s got nothing to do with any real-life events; the plot is completely fictional. The movie came out in 2021 and stars Oscar Isaac with Paul Schrader as its director. It’s a crime drama piece about William Tell, a gambler who teaches himself to count cards for blackjack while serving a stint in military prison. Once he’s out, he puts his learning into practice. Unlike other gamblers, he doesn’t place big stakes. Instead, he prefers to place small bets and win modestly so he doesn’t attract attention.
Eventually though, he does attract attention. His past catches up with him when he meets someone who recognises him and things spiral downward from there. He ends up becoming part of a revenge plot and you’ll have to watch the movie and see if things turn out well for him or not. The Card Counter only made about $5 million worldwide but it did really well with the critics. In fact, it ended up on several best-films-of-the-year lists. Oscar Isaac received several award nominations for his performance. While the movie earned quite a few nominations, it only won one award. This was the Top 10 Independent Films award from the National Board of Review.
The focus of this movie is on the Mafia’s control over Las Vegas. It came out in 2005 and its director is Martin Scorsese. Robert de Niro plays the main character, Sam ‘Ace’ Rothstein, who the Chicago Mafia sends to Vegas to manage the Tangiers Casino. The movie follows Rothstein and all the troubles he encounters as he runs the casino. It also shows his relationships and how his job affects them. Of course, there’s a fair amount of crime and violence in the movie too.
The movie’s inspiration was the book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas by Nicholas Pileggi. It’s all about how two mobsters working for the Mafia – Tony Spilotro and Lefty Rosenthal – form an alliance and manage some of Vegas’ casinos. Pileggi, a crime reporter, co-wrote the Casino screenplay along with Scorsese. The Casino movie plot closely mirrors what happened in real life and what Pileggi covers in his book.
If you want to watch the Casino movie online, Prime Video from Amazon is your best bet. If the movie’s not available in your country for some reason, another streaming service should have it. Watch the full movie Casino and learn more about the Mafia and how it managed to control some of Las Vegas’ casinos.
This neo-noir crime thriller came out in 1994. It follows Jack Manfred, a struggling novelist who takes a job as a croupier to make ends meet. He does this because he thinks being a croupier would be the inspiration for a new novel. Though it’s just a job at first, it ends up taking over his life. As the movie progresses, it affects his relationships and his well-being. He even ends up becoming the inside man for a robbery at the casino he works at. The movie is great at showing just how much a job can take over your life and have negative effects on it.
Though Croupier was only a moderate success (it made just over $7 million worldwide), critics rated it well. The movie’s characterisation and atmosphere have impressed critics more than its plot. It stars Clive Owen as Jack Manfred and is a British movie with Mike Hodges as its director.
In this casino movie, John, an unlucky gambler who’s lost all his money, meets Sydney, a gambler with lots of experience. Feeling generous, Sydney decides to help John out. He teaches John the tricks of the trade and he ends up winning the money he needs for his mother’s funeral. A few years later, John is now Sydney’s apprentice. The movie focuses on what happens when John meets Clementine, a waitress secretly working as a prostitute.
The movie stars Philip Baker Hall as Sydney Brown, John C. Reilly as John Finnegan and Gwyneth Paltrow as Clementine. It wasn’t a financial success. It had a rather modest budget of $3 million, though it only made around $220,000 at the box office. Even though it didn’t make money, critics have been favourable towards it.
Discover the Casino Experience Yourself
The movies we’ve listed are great because they showcase the casino experience. They do this in different ways, of course, but they all feature casino settings and games to a degree. If you want to play these games for yourself, it’s a good idea to play games for free first.
The advantage of free play is that you can practise as much as you want with no risk. If you’re looking for some free online pokies, head to https://smartpokies.com/free-pokies/. Here you can play top pokie games without having to pay or even register. If you want to learn more about this site, check out the page about its founder, Huxley Harris. Have fun playing free pokies. When you’ve finished, consider joining an online casino so you can play with real money. Or better yet, head to your nearest real-life casino and play some games there.
Watch These Films and Immerse Yourself in Casino Stories
If these casino films sound appealing, go ahead and watch them. Do a quick online search to find out where you can watch each one. The movies we’ve listed are sure to be on some of the big streaming platforms. If not, you’ll probably catch them on TV at some point. Or if you’re really keen, buy the DVD and add it to your collection. Whichever casino movies you end up watching, you’re sure to enjoy them. They feature plenty of tension and suspense, along with some brilliant scenes and, of course, lots of action in casinos.
