Gambling Movies With a Twist
Some gambling films focus on the glamour or the gritty reality of the casino world but others will keep you on the edge of your seat with clever deceptions and shocking reversals of fortune. These are gambling movies with a twist, where the game isn't just about cards or dice, but about outwitting the dealers, the casino operator and your fellow gamers.
The SlotoCash online slots real money casino invites you to explore some of the greatest gambling movies whose twists and turns were so unexpected that they left your mind swirling.
The Sting
The granddaddy of gambling movies that had movie-goers walking out of theatres with their mouths hanging open was the 1973 The Sting. The Sting featured Robert Redford and Paul Newman who starred as a pair of Depression-era huskers who team up with their shyster buddies to overcome crooked cops and a mafia boss while collecting a massive payout.
The two grifters, Johnny Hooker and Henry Gondorff, set an elaborate scam in motion where they set up a fake off-track betting parlor and convince the mafioso to place a massive bet based on what he believes to be an infallible tip. A FBI "raid" is conducted, which forces the mafia boss to abandon his money and run, believing that the conmen have been killed.
Hooker and Gondorff end the movie with the bet money in their pockets, having convinced their enemies that they're dead.
Ocean's Eleven
Ocean's Eleven follows master thief Danny Ocean (George Clooney), who, fresh out of prison, immediately starts to plan his next.
The target is the vault beneath the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas. The supposedly impenetrable facility holds the cash for three of the city's largest casinos—the Bellagio, the Mirage, and the MGM Grand. All three are owned by Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), a ruthless casino mogul.
Danny assembles a crew of eleven, highly specialized criminals, each with his or her own unique skill set. There's a pickpocket, an explosives expert, a surveillance technician, a former con man, an acrobat, and 2 mechanics. The crew intends to overcome the vault's cameras, laser grids, and armed guards via misdirections, fake-outs, and double-crosses. The film keeps audiences on the edge of their seats till the very end.
The Cooler
The Cooler is a dark comedy that follows Bernie Lootz, a down-on-his-luck gambler who was forced to pay off a massive gambling debt by working as a "cooler" in a Vegas casino. His job is to stand near winning gamblers and transfer his bad luck to them and "cool off" their hot streaks. Bernie believes that his bad luck is a defining part of his life and that he will always be indebted to the casino's ruthless owner, Shelly.
When he meets Natalie, a new cocktail waitress at the casino, his life begins to change and as his life becomes more positive, the bad luck that he exudes begins to disappear. In fact, his presence now brings casino gamblers good luck.
The final, high-stakes showdown with Shelly is a cliffhanger and gives viewers much food for thought.
Hard 8
Hard 8 is set in Reno Nevada, when Sydney, a well-dressed older man, approaches John in a diner. John is down on his luck -- broke and desperate. Sydney offers to take John to Reno and teach him how to succeed in the casino world.
As Sydney acts as a father figure to John, John learns how to play and win. Sydney gives John money and a sense of purpose. When John meets a jaded cocktail waitress and part-time prostitute, Clementine, he falls for her, and the two start a tumultuous relationship. Sydney watches with a quiet disapproval.
John and Clementine get entangled in a dangerous situation and Sydney uses his old, violent connections to resolve the problem which forces him to reveal the secrets of his own past. The film builds to a powerful climax as the true, tragic nature of Sydney's motivations and the debt that ties him to John is uncovered.
21
21 is based on the true story of the MIT Blackjack Team. The scheme to turn blackjack card-counting into a lucrative enterprise originated with a secret blackjack team that was composed of several of MIT's most intelligent students and run by a MIT math professor.
The students learned how to use a complex system of signals and card-counting to consistently beat the casinos in blackjack. They are tracked by casino security that finds it hard to catch them but continues to try to do so nevertheless.
As the team goes from one success to the next, tension increases as the team members try to keep outwitting casino security even while they are suspicious of each other.
Casino
Even people who don't visit casinos have heard the stories of how Las Vegas has long been run by "the mob." Casino, released in 1995, looks at mafia influence in Vegas of the '70s and '80s.
The film follows Sam "Ace" Rothstein (Robert De Niro), a mob-connected sports handicapper who is sent by the Chicago Outfit to Las Vegas to oversee the day-to-day operations of the Tangiers Casino. Ace succeeds in turning the casino into a highly profitable enterprise for the mob which is "skimming" money from the top.
Ace's relationships, both with the mob enforcer who is sent to protect him, his ex-prostitute wife and his bosses back in Chicago, propel him to the inevitable conclusion where rage, hubris, betrayal and violence create a milieu that allows corporate America to take over the city.
If you enjoy casino gambling, you can expand your gaming entertainment with any of these and other gambling movies. Casinos are, by definition, places that attract people who are ready for anything! Join them for some fun-filled casino-themed movie action.
