3 Must-see Movies About Gambling and Casinos

3 Must-see Movies About Gambling and Casinos Gambling can be as entertaining as it is addictive. The thrill of being the winner at a poker table, the excitement of seeing money pour out from a machine, can be so tempting that even filmmakers find in casinos a perfect setting for their productions. Rain Man (1988) Directed by Barry Levinson and written by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass, Rain Man is an American movie starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. In the movie, a selfish yuppie, Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise), discovers that his father has died and bequeathed all of his multimillion-dollar estate to his other son, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), an autistic savant, of whose existence Charlie was unaware. On their adventure, the pair spends a night in Las Vegas where they make money in a casino thanks to the ability of Raymond to count cards. The film won four Oscars at the 61st Academy Awards (March 1989), including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Actor in a Leading Role for Hoffman.

Casino (1995) Directed by Academy Award winner Martin Scorsese, and starring Robert De Niro and Sharon Stone, this movie tells the story of Sam "Ace" Rothstein, a top gambler called by the Italian mob to oversee the day-to-day operations of a casino in Las Vegas. His character is based on Frank Rosenthal, who ran the Stardust, Fremont and Hacienda casinos in Las Vegas for the Chicago Outfit from the 1970s until the early 1980s. Sharon Stone won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture and a Best Actress nomination at the Academy Award. 21 (2008) Directed by Robert Luketic and starring Kevin Spacey, the movie is inspired by the true story of the MIT Blackjack Team as told in Bringing Down the House, the best-selling book by Ben Mezrich. Despite its largely mixed reviews and the controversy over the film's casting, 21 was a box office success, and was the number one film in the United States and Canada during its first and second weekends of release. Return to Demons