Casino is an establishment that offers a variety of gaming activities, such as playing table games like blackjack and roulette and wagering on various horse races. It also includes a hotel, restaurants, and other entertainment venues such as a theater or concert hall. It is also known for its high-stakes games that involve skill and chance, such as poker, in which players compete against each other for a large sum of money. A casino may also be a place where people go to socialize and enjoy gambling for fun and entertainment, rather than for financial gain.
Unlike other movies that portray Las Vegas as an all-out party city, Casino is a more realistic movie that focuses on the history of organized crime in this famous gambling hotspot. Martin Scorsese’s direction is masterful – as he often is with his best works, such as Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. He uses fast cuts and a stylized, documentary-like approach to introduce the audience to this world of gangsters and their casinos.
Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci both deliver outstanding performances in Casino. Both men are mobster types – Ace Rothstein is smart, tough and fairly honest for a mafioso, while Nicky Santoro is the crazier of the two and allows anger to govern most of his decisions. These characters are the backbone of this movie, and they both eventually meet their downfall. Don Rickles makes a cameo appearance, and he talks about his friendship with the real mobster Lefty Rosenthal and the filming of Casino.