Spending some time away from the casino gaming floors and sitting down to watch a great gambling movie is one thing many gamblers enjoy doing. With this in mind we have taken a look at some of the very best gambling and casino related movies that have been released over the last few decades.
Below you will find out handpicked collection of the top 10 gambling and casino related movies and films, please do have a look through this list, for there may just come a time when you fancy watching one of these films!
All of the films we have listed are still available and as such you should not have any difficulties getting hold of a DVD of any of them. We have included a very wide spectrum of films within this category of movie and are more than confident several of them should appeal to you.
Some of the films are based on true events and real people which do make them rather interesting films, more so if you enjoy watching real life casino cheats and robber plying their trade.
Four women are drinking champagne at a couple of tables. A man comes into their midst and sings the title song in this sound-film from Deutsch Bioskop. Casino is an absolutely riveting entertainment with rock-solid performances by DeNiro, Pesci and Stone, to say nothing of the formidable supporting cast. Scorsese directs with his usual grit and offers up one of the most compelling movies from the 1990's. Universal has seen fit to remaster the movie in true 4K and the results are absolutely. For personal and non-commercial use only. Live TV is available in the 50 United States and the District of Columbia only. Compatible device and high-speed, broadband Internet connection required. Multiple concurrent streams and HD content may require higher bandwidth. Streaming content may count against your data usage.
Probably the all time classic casino related movie was Casino. This blockbusting film went live across the world back in 1995 and told an unfolding story of two Las Vegas based mobster, one trying to build a respectable career and name in the gambling industry and the other obsessed with greed.
Casino was directed by Martin Scorsese and the leading actors in Casino were Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, James Woods and the film lasts a total of 178 minutes.
The second best gambling related movie is Rounders.
This film premiered in 1998, and tells a story of a man who having gave up gambling opts to return to playing poker in an attempt to help his very dear friend pay off money owed to loan sharks.
Rounders was directed by John Dahl and the leading actors include Matt Damon, Edward Norton, Gretchen Mol, John Malkovich and the film lasts 121 minutes.
The third best gambling related movie is The Sting. This film premiered in 1973, and tells the story of a very young conman based in Chicago who is out to seek revenge of the death of his recently murdered partner.
The Sting was directed by George Roy Hill and the leading actors include Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning and the film lasts 129 minutes.
The fourth best gambling related movie is Ocean’s eleven. This film premiered in 2001, and tells the story of how a team of robbers plan and then execute three casinos based in Las Vegas all at the same time!
Ocean’s Eleven was directed by Steven Soderbergh and the leading actors include George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon and the film lasts 116 minutes.
The fifth best gambling related movie is High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story. This film premiered in 2003, and tells the true story of the life of a poker player, that being Stu Ungar.
High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story was directed by A.W. Vidmer and the leading actors include Al Bernstein, Andrew N.S. Glazer, Michael Imperioli, Brian Kaplan and the film lasts 120 minutes.
The sixth best gambling related movie is The Cincinnati Kid. This film premiered in 1965, and tells the story of young poker player out to make a name for in poker circles and take on and win a poker playing legend!
The Cincinnati Kid was directed by Norman Jewison and the leading actors include Steve McQueen, Ann-Margret, Edward G. Robinson, Karl Malden and the film lasts 102 minutes.
The seventh best gambling related movie is Maverick. This film premiered in 1994, and tells the story of a poker player who is trying to amass the bankroll needed for an up and coming major poker tournament!
Maverick was directed by Richard Donner and the leading actors include Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, James Garner, Graham Greene and the film lasts 127 minutes.
The eight best gambling related movie is 21. This film premiered in 2008, and tells the story of six MIT students who have mastered the art of card counting then set off to Vegas to ply their newly found trade!
The film 21 was directed by Robert Luketic and the leading actors include Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, Aaron Yoo and the film lasts 123 minutes.
The ninth best gambling related movie is Owning Mahowny. This film premiered in 2003, and tells the story of a bank manager who being something of a gambling addict gets access to a customers’ a high valued bank account and then goes wild with the contents of that account!
Owning Mahowny was directed by Richard Kwietniowski and the leading actors include Philip Seymour Hoffman, Minnie Driver, John Hurt, and Maury Chaykin.
The tenth best gambling related movie is A Big Hand for a Little Lady. This film premiered in 1966, and tells the story of a gambler who places wagers he cannot afford to pay and a comical set of situations then arise!
A Big Hand for the Little Lady was directed by Fielder Cook and the leading actors include Henry Fonda, Joanne Woodward, Jason Robards, Paul Ford and the film lasts 95 minutes.
We hope you enjoyed this listing of gambling related films and movies, and if you fancy watching any of them then you will find plenty of places online where you will be able to either buy a copy of the films named above, or you may be able to watch them via You Tube or one of the many different subscription film streaming websites.
Who doesn’t love a good casino movie? There’s something about the charm, glitz and glamour of the gambling world that makes for great cinema… not to mention the darkness that lies beneath some of the high roller’s lifestyles, the genius of card counting and the general excess that goes hand in hand with Las Vegas!
From Ocean’s Eleven to Rounders, Hollywood has long been fascinated with casinos. Here are some of our favourite Casino movies for you to check out, if you don’t already have them in your collection!
The first outing for the ‘blonde Bond’ himself, Mr. Daniel Craig, Casino Royale was a massive hit, and a vast improvement on the dodgy 1967 original retelling of Ian Fleming’s timeless spy novel. It has since become a favourite with Bond fans and casino lovers alike, thanks to its slick depiction of the high-rolling world.
One of the world’s most notorious terrorists – Le Chiffre – is in Montenegro, where he’s playing a high stakes poker tournament, hoping to win back enough money to appease his dangerous acquaintances. MI6’s finest agent is sent out by M to play against the bad guys, and stop Le Chiffre from taking the money and getting away. The stakes are higher than ever, the women are ravishingly gorgeous, and Bond has to keep his cool in order to avoid an international catastrophe.
Captivating and edge-of-your-seat exciting, Casino Royale is a classic casino film that will stand the test of time.
There aren’t many casino films which have a cult following quite as astounding as that of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a movie based on Hunter S. Thompson’s popular collection of writings about a far-out, psychedelic and at-times terrifying road trip across the west of the USA.
Thomson has been given a large advance of cash to cover a major sporting event in the desert. What better way to spend it than dragging his deranged Samoan lawyer along for the ride, with a vast amount of narcotics and the intention to hunt out the American dream?
Hunter and his partner might not find the meaning of life, but they soon discover gamblers, corrupt cops, drug takers and dealers, strange hitchhikers…oh, and some imaginary bats and giant lizards, too…
This isn’t the side of Vegas the adverts necessarily want you to see. It’s dangerous, deranged and devilish, and holds a dark mirror up to western society in general.
It seems there’s a whole genre of casino movies on the subject of ‘what happens in Vegas…’ but this is arguably the best of them all.
Three friends – Phil, Stu and Alan head out to Las Vegas for their best friend Doug’s big bachelor party blow-out… but they wake up the next day with no memory of the night before. So far, so normal… until they realise the bridegroom has vanished, there’s a tiger in the bedroom, and one of them has mysteriously lost a tooth and gained a wedding ring. With only a few hours to put together all the pieces of the increasingly bizarre puzzle, find Doug, and get to the wedding, it’s a thrill ride packed with laughs at every turn.
All in all, ‘The Hangover’ is a hilarious depiction of Vegas’ casinos, and more or less everything that could possibly go wrong there.
In one of Martin Scorsese’s finest hours, he depicts the juxtaposition at the heart of Las Vegas: the beauty, glamour and success on the strip, and the nasty, underhand dealings that go on behind the scenes.
Robert De Niro plays Sam ‘Ace’ Rothstein, a casino manager in Las Vegas who has connections to the mafia but who now lives a normal, quiet life with his wife. That is, until his old friend Nicky Santoro – played brutally by Joe Pesci – turns up, fully grown and now a key player in the mafia. His ambition and plans will wreck Ace’s own plans for peace and quiet, and expose an ugliness at the heart of the business.
This is a film which brings out the darkness from between the cracks of Vegas’ great casinos. Murder, greed and power reign… but what a movie!
George Clooney’s Danny Ocean has a plan. He wants to pull of a historic heist, but needs a crack team of high-flying, risk-taking and talented men and women in order to get the job done. They want to rob not one, but three of the most famous casinos in Las Vegas, and have their eyes set on a $150 million prize.
Of course, things don’t run completely smoothly, and the team come across plenty of dangers, twists and turns along the way. But will they succeed? This great movie will keep you guessing until the end.
Ben Campbell is an ambitious medical student, who needs a scholarship to transfer to the prestigious Harvard School of Medicine due his lack of funds. However, his maths professor, brilliantly played by Kevin Spacey, picks him out on the basis of his talent for numbers, and invites him to join his elite team of gifted individuals.
From that point on, Ben’s free time is taken up by trips to Vegas, where he makes huge winnings from card counting at the Blackjack table. But with so much money at hand, greed and corruption are never far away… and before long, disaster and hatred beckon their call.
Matt Damon’s character in Rounders, Mike McDermott, may have a talent for poker, but he soon discovers you can’t win them all. After a disastrous game against a Russian gangster, he decides to focus solely on his studies, and leave his gambling lifestyle behind him. However, his childhood friend has just been released from prison… and he owes somebody a lot of money.
Mike is spurred back into the world of poker, in a desperate bid to help out his friend before it’s too late. A classic movie for poker fans, and great performances from the leading actors.
Axel Freed is a man with a complex double life. To his friends and family, he’s a mild-mannered teacher and writer, but secretly, he’s a gambling addict whose habits and expenses are spiralling out of control. He steals a wad of money from his mother, and heads to Vegas in a last-ditch attempt to win his money (and his life) back.
The Gambler is a powerful moral story about the horrors of addiction, and just what some people will do when it comes to the crunch.
For many people, Rain Man is the quintessential Vegas movie. It’s a fascinating tale of worlds colliding, and when Tom Cruise’s greedy and petulant character Charlie Babbit finds out about his autistic savant older brother (played in a legendary performance by Dustin Hoffman) his first thought it to take him to Vegas and let him count cards at the Blackjack tables.
All in all, it’s a film about mental prowess, family connections, and that grey area between ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’ that certain talented individuals can exploit in the casino.
One of the few big British casino movies, Croupier quickly became a cult classic. Clive Owen plays Jack Manfred, a struggling writer desperate for cash. He gets a new job as a casino croupier, but gets sucked into the lifestyle of the casino, and in particular, a set of underhand deals that take over his life as they spiral out of control.
A long way from Las Vegas, Croupier is a colder, harder look at the casinos on the other side of the Atlantic.
So, these are our top 10 casino movies! Do you think we’ve missed any off the list? Should some of our selections not have made the cut? Let us know in the comments!