Do Live Casinos Measure up to Movie Casino Scenes

You know the score by now. It’s James Bond, the famous 007, he’s sitting around a roulette wheel, shaken Martini in-hand facing impossible odds and… as the wheel comes to a halt the ball pops one last time and lands on Bond’s number.

It’s a classic trope of a James Bond gambling scene, in fact it’s a classic trope of just about any film that features gambling at all! On the big screen it’s all drama, it’s all intrigue and its 100mph sheer excitement but is it like that in real life?

Is it like that when you log in to a Live casino – the latest craze sweeping the gambling world – and take on the dealer at blackjack or spin the roulette wheel? Read on to find out…

What is Live Casino?

Before we start making comparisons with the world of film, what exactly is live casino? As mentioned above it’s the biggest craze in gambling right now.

Live casino is the facility that allows players to interact in real time with a real life dealer who is being streamed live from their roulette, blackjack or baccarat table directly on to players’ mobile phones, tablets and computers.

Players use the live chat feature to type their messages to the dealer, who has a screen to read them on and replies as if the player were there sat in front of them.

After launching a couple of years ago, it is becoming a more and more common feature of online casino sites. But does it measure up to the gambling action that you see in movies?

Movie Gambling: Is it Realistic?

Directors and script writers always claim that they are trying to make things on the screen as realistic as possible, but there is always a degree of artistic licence and creativity with anything we see in movies.

In sports films for example, we always see the final game being decided in the closing seconds after a superhuman fightback from the protagonist’s team. In real life we know that things like that rarely happen, in fact sports finals have a tendency to descend into a bit of a damp squib.

It is the same when casinos are portrayed in movies, but with the slight difference that it is always shown in the extremes. We either see someone completely outthinking the casino and winning riches beyond their wildest dreams, or a player who loses everything.

Are Live Casinos Like That?

Unfortunately/fortunately not. If you were to ask the average live casino player how much they had lost playing the feature over the last month, the amount would be most likely somewhere between £50 and £100 – roughly the amount you may spend in the pub over the same period.

If you were to ask them for their biggest win, it would most likely be something in the very low three figures. That’s because most people play to unwind and treat their time playing with a live casino in the same way they would treat any other leisure activity.

They don’t bet huge amount, instead they place small bets and play to have fun rather than to beat the dealer, defeat the baddies or become ultra-rich.

Are Live Casinos Boring?

That might well be your next question, and it’s not a silly one bearing in mind the content of the last paragraph. The answer though is no. Just because the live casino experience doesn’t match up to the movies it doesn’t make it boring.

Think about it, almost everything you see in movies is unrealistic and an exaggeration of real life, but that doesn’t make those things any less fun. In real life live casinos are super fun, friendly and social places where hardcore gamblers, casual gamblers and first-time gamblers can go to relax and unwind.

Can we Learn Anything From Casino Movie Scenes?

In short – not really. As discussed casino scenes in movies prioritise excitement and entertainment over realism. Take Casino Royale for example, the noughties remake with Daniel Craig in the lead role.

In the famous poker scene Bond wins a high-stakes hand of poker with a straight flush after three other players push him all-in. The chances of Bond pulling that hand from the cards available is 1 in 72, 192.

That’s not totally unrealistic, but what is unrealistic is the hands that the other players have – Flush (King high), Full House (eights full of aces), Full House (Aces full of sixes). The chances of all of those things happening are 1 in 158,551,976.

Can we learn anything about poker strategy from that almost impossible scenario? Absolutely not. Which isn’t to say that we can’t learn anything at all from casino scenes in movie.

The extremes of casino scenes in movies should teach us to treat our own casino gaming with caution and not mimic the devil may care attitude of movie protagonists.

What are some of your standout memories of casino scenes in movies? Let us know in the comments section below.