Classic Casino Movies That’ll Inspire You to Play

Before online casinos and their limitless games, only movies and books could inspire us to dream of adrenaline-fueled gameplay in a busy casino. Sure, you had land-based casinos on offer, but the hassle of travelling took out the fun of such endeavors.

In this article here, we have five classic casino movies which every casino enthusiast should know. And who knows, they might even inspire you to play and try your hand at numerous games of luck online.

Casino

We start our list with a banger, a classic Scorsese movie from 1995. Although its year of release doesn’t really push the ‘classic’ status, we live in 2020, and 25 years is more than enough for a movie to earn its status.

The Casino has more than once proved its worth as one of the biggest and best movies for casino fun. Moreover, the movie displays a wide diapason of themes, including life in the mafia, crime, and how power changes a man.

Starring Robert DeNiro, Sharon Stone, and Joe Pesci, the movie was a smashing success, even earning Stone a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance.

The movie has some of the most memorable casino scenes and has influenced many subsequent works. Scorsese is known for his mobster movies, and DeNiro and Pesci are the best tandem to deliver the story.

Any Number Can Play

Clark Gable is the definition of classic. So, when you get Clark Gable as the troubled owner of a gambling joint, you sit and watch that movie without pauses.

Any Number Can Play is a 1949 drama movie about the dangerous world of gambling. However, our protagonist Charlie, played by Gable, has a bigger problem – he is a good man. Gable’s world revolved around his fair gaming club. Riddled with numerous personal problems, Gable is looking for a way out to spend more time with his family. However, the people around him did not really get the memo, which leads to a string of problems for Charlie.

In the end, everything is fine and dandy. We won’t spoil it for you, but there is a happy ending for everyone involved.

The Cincinnati Kid

Long before internet slots became a thing, players had to wait for their chance to defeat masters in private clubs and exclusive matches. The Cincinnati Kid is a casino movie from 1965 that reflects that. It follows Eric “The Kid” Stoner, a talented poker player from New Orleans. During the 1930s, the world was plunged deep into Depression. The Kid was desperately trying to improve his financial situation, but he had a dream even bigger than that. He wanted to beat “The Man”, one of the best poker players around. Luckily for him, he was about to get his chance to play with him.

When Lancey “The Man” Howard arrives in New Orleans, The Kid arranges a match with him. But the match doesn’t go smoothly as one would expect. The Kid runs into numerous problems, including cheating, back-stabbing, and betrayal. Will he have what it takes to defeat the champion and take over his throne?

Well, watch and see! The movie made Steve McQueen a movie superstar after its release. Not without reason, if you ask us.

The Big Town

Twenty years after The Cincinnati Kid became a hit, Ransohoff, the producer behind The Cincinnati Kid, decided to make another casino film. The new movie titled The Big Town was intended as a part of the producer’s trilogy. The Hustler, the third part of the trilogy, was about pool, while The Cincinnati Kid dived into poker matters. The Big Town, it was decided, should cover dice games, an important part of the table game entertainment.

Moreover, Ransohoff hired Matt Dillon as the main character for his new movie. Dillon portrays Cullen, a crapshooter who embarks on an adventure in Chicago. Once there, gets embroiled in scandal, romance, and revenge schemes.

The plot is a never-ending string of adrenaline-fueled scenes at craps tables. Always keeping you on the edge of your seat, The Big Town is a movie casino movie buff should not miss.

Rounders

Matt Damon, John Malkovich, and Edward Norton starred in 1998 in a film called Rounders. The award-winning movie follows Mike, portrayed by Damon, is a former poker player living his peaceful life with his girlfriend. He gets a call that his friend Worm (portrayed by Norton) was released from jail. The Worm is desperate to earn some money and enlists Mike’s help to hook him up with some poker matches.

Worm ends up getting Mike in trouble, which sets off the story in the movie. Mike is then faced with a challenge – should he play against the underground boss named KGB (Malkovich) or lose his peaceful life with his girlfriend?

Rounders is perhaps the last movie on our list, but it has the most famous casino scene in the world. Not even Casino Royale’s poker scene with Craig and Mikkelsen can top the epic battle between Malkovich and Matt Damon. If this movie doesn’t inspire you to play casino games, nothing will!