A casino is a gambling establishment where players can place bets on various games of chance. They can also enjoy shows, dining and other amenities. The casino industry is booming, and casinos are often a part of large complexes featuring hotels, entertainment venues and shopping centers. However, the vast majority of a casino’s profits come from gambling. Slot machines, blackjack, roulette and other games provide the billions of dollars in revenue that casinos generate every year.
This movie is an amazing look at the history of Las Vegas and its ties to organized crime. Many movies gloss over this aspect, but Casino digs deep into the muck and mire that is Vegas. This is not a movie for the faint of heart; it’s a dark and gritty tale of corruption, deception and death.
The film is a tense thriller that doesn’t slack in the middle or run out of steam at the end. With masterful editing and taut narration, Scorsese keeps the action tight from start to finish. This is a rare achievement for a movie that has to cover so much ground in three hours.
Although Casino takes its share of violent and lurid scenes, it avoids showing gratuitous gore or bloodshed. This reflects Scorsese’s ambivalence about the world of casino gambling and his dislike of the mob. In the end, we see how big business antiseptically supplanted organized crime and organized labor, which were both seen as messy and corrupt.