THE MOST REALISTIC CASINO MOVIES: AN EXPLORATION OF TRUTH, FICTION, AND CINEMATIC MYSTERY

Hollywood has always been famous for blurring the lines between fact and fiction. This is especially true when it comes to depicting gambling. For instance, even though the main poker scene in Casino Royale is very tense and entertaining, even an amateur poker player would agree that the way it plays out is exceedingly far-fetched. Of course, the casino games that Clark Griswold plays in National Lampoon’s Vegas Vacation are intentionally ludicrous. Pick a number? Rock, paper, scissors? It does get the laughs.

On the flip side, some movies depict gambling in a very realistic way. The directors pay attention to the smallest details making the scenes entertaining and believable. Let’s examine the cinematic mastery of three of the most realistic-looking casino movies ever made. It just might inspire you to discover cashback bonuses with BSTCasinos and enjoy a less stressful casino gaming experience than the characters mentioned below.

Owning Mahowny  – Truth

A lot of movies that are based on true stories go a little overboard with artistic license. Owning Mahowny is not one of them. The story revolves around Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Dan Mahowny who embezzles millions of dollars from the bank he works at to fund his high-rolling casino gambling excursions. The movie is rather dark and illustrates one of the worst cases of gambling addiction you will ever see.

However, it isn’t just the realistic depiction of Mahowny’s extreme gambling addiction that hits home. Casino manager Victor Foss, played by John Hurt, does his best to ensure that Mahowny drops every last dime at the tables. Foss serves up the VIP treatment and does everything he can to ensure that Mahowny comes back and drops even more large sums of cash. Who can blame him? After all, it’s his job and he does it well. He can spot a pure degenerate action junkie from a mile away and he doesn’t hesitate to take advantage.

Casino – Truth With a Dash of Fiction

While there were a few creative liberties taken, the movie Casino is pretty spot on. This Martin Scorsese epic focuses on a mobbed-up Ace Rothstein as he operates the fictional Tangiers casino from behind the scenes. Based on the figure of Frank Rosenthal, a professional gambler, Las Vegas casino executive, and organized crime associate, Ace Rothstein made boatloads of money for the mafia. Ace was the ideal guy for the job as very few people have such deep insight into the business side of gambling as he did. Not even Jack Hamilton from https://bstcasinos.com/author/jack-hamilton, and he’s very knowledgeable.

One particular storyline in the film has high-rolling Japanese tycoon K.K. Ichikawa fly to Vegas on the casino’s dime. He proceeds to lay a beating on the house to the tune of about $2 million. When it comes time for Ichikawa to leave on the casino’s private jet, Rothstein instructs the pilot to tell him that there’s a problem with the jet and it can’t fly. This results in the whale returning to the casino where he proceeds to lose his winnings and a substantial amount more. K.K. Ichikawa is based on a real person named Akio Kashiwagi.

While this particular story didn’t play out exactly as the movie has it, the point was that high rollers like Kashiwagi make casino operators very nervous. He nearly put an Australian casino out of business in 1990. He then visited two of Donald Trump’s Atlantic City casinos which rightfully had the Don on edge. Kashiwagi, playing $250,000 baccarat hands, took the two casinos for a total of $6.2 million which caused Trump great financial harm. Looking to recover those hefty losses, Trump talked Kashiwagi into a deal in which Kashiwagi would return and only leave if he doubled his money or lost it all. Well, the math and Kashiwagi’s luck finally balanced out as the Japanese whale lost $10 million in 6 days. Few modern casinos would accept that type of action these days.

The Cooler – Fiction

The Cooler serves up an interesting plot. However, the idea of a casino bringing in a cooler to reverse the fortunes of hot players is entirely fictional. In reality, casino operators already have a couple of coolers. They are called the law of large numbers and the house edge. Casinos understand that some players will go on hot streaks, but they also know that the odds are always in their favor and that those hot streaks eventually devolve into losing streaks. Still, it’s a fun story with some wonderful casino scenes.

Conclusion

Hollywood will always add fictional elements to its films even if the movies are so-called true stories. It makes things more exciting. However, some films do better than others when it comes to credibility and believability. Then again, it’s not like the above-mentioned cinematic masterpieces were documentaries.