When you’re into gambling, it’s great to find movies that focus on a gambler’s story.
The story of the gambler has interested filmmakers for over a century now, with a limitless variety of tales to be told.
As you sit playing online blackjack or poker, it’s nice to dream about having one of those wins that could change your life forever – which happens so often in gambling movies.
Here are five of our favourites…
Rounders (1998)
One film that depicts the highs and lows of gambling well is the Matt Damon and Ed Norton movie Rounders which follows the story of Mike McDermott (Damon) and his friend Lester ‘Worm’ Murphy who are caught up in the underground poker scene of rounding. Rounding is where players move from city to city joining high stakes poker games as they go.
The plot follows the two main characters as they play poker to pay off Worm’s debt to a Russian gangster ‘KGB’, who McDermott had lost his entire $30,000 bankroll to at the start of the film. And just at the point when they’ve almost cleared Worm’s debt – which they only have five days to do – Worm is caught cheating and they lose everything. Worm disappears and McDermott then is left to shoulder the debt alone and finds himself back at the table with KGB (John Malkovich) who took his bankroll in the first place.
Although the movie wasn’t a smash box office hit, it has become a bit of a must-see view for poker fans. Did you know that Matt Damon is actually a keen poker player in real life and is known to enjoy playing Texas Hold’em with his friends? Unlike his long-time friend and fellow actor Ben Affleck though, he hasn’t taken part in any World Series of Poker Events…
21 (2008)
Another ripping yarn featuring gambling is 21 – although this one is all about the game of blackjack and card counting. There are plenty of online resources where you can learn to play casino games such as blackjack. Most online casinos have demos and other software to increase your comfort level with the game. For example, you can learn blackjack with bgo.com, where there’s a wide choice of blackjack games available. However, it goes without saying that it’s impossible to cheat an online casino – card counting would never work!
The 2008 movie starred Kevin Spacey as MIT professor Mickey Rosa who trains a group of students up to help him fleece the casinos through card counting. This movie is made all the more interesting as it’s based on a true story. In the 1980s a group of students at MIT did actually do this. They trained for hours on end to perfect their card counting system so that they could cheat the casinos. They had a series of strategies to win the most hands, but also to defy casino security systems – ie to avoid getting caught card counting. The MIT blackjack team made more than $400,000 in their first weekend and became so well-known in US casinos that they ended up having to only play abroad. Over the years the MIT blackjack team has evolved and recruited new members including blackjack celebrities like the Blackjack Babe, Erica Schoenberg, a former model and pro basketball player.
And did you know that the first person who proved that card counting could work was actually an MIT professor? In the 1970s, Edward Thorp used an IBM computer to analyse probabilities of blackjack and once he was ready to test this theory, he went on a road trip to casinos in Reno and Vegas with an assistant called Manny Kimmel. They made over $11,000 in their first weekend. Thorp could have gone on to cream more money off the casinos this way, but instead wrote a best-selling book called Beat the Dealer (1996).
Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
Featuring all the three major Las Vegas casinos; the Bellagio, The Mirage and the MGM Grand, this American comedy-crime film directed by Steven Soderberg has an ensemble cast of well-known actors including Brat Pitt, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle and Andy García.
Watching this film makes you want to put on a smart looking suit and a pair of expensive sunglasses to go with it and hit the casino table in Vegas. However, Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and his team aren’t planning gamble change money on the roulette table, but they’re planning of robbing one of the three biggest casinos in Vegas owned by Terry Benedict (Andy García). Because the casinos are required by the Nevada Gaming Commission to have enough cash on hand to cover all their patrons’ bets, on the night of the highly anticipated boxing match, Bellagio’s money vault will contain more than $150 million! This is Ocean’s target, but he knows this is not a one man’s job.
Ocean gathers a team that consists of eight former colleagues and criminal specialists: Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt) his partner-in-crime; Linus (Matt Damon), a talented thief; Frank (Bernie Mac), works at a casino and a con man; Virgil and Turk (Casey Affleck and Scott Caan), a pair of very talented mechanics; Livingston Dell (Eddie Jemison) who specialises in electronics and surveillance; Basher (Don Cheadle) an expert in explosives; Saul (Carl Reiner) an elderly con man; and “The Amazing” Yen (Shaobo Qin), an accomplished acrobat.
Croupier (1998)
Croupier is another must-see casino film, starring Clive Owen as a croupier. Jack Manfred (Clive Owen) is an aspiring writer but going nowhere fast. To make ends meet he takes a job as a croupier at the Golden Lion Casino, a casino in London. Not so surprisingly, Jack finds himself drawn into the world of casino and this gradually takes over his life. He doesn’t particular like being a croupier, but he is good at it and he enjoys watching gamblers lose.
One gambler in particular catches his attention, Jani, whom he starts to see outside his casino hours, this is of course a against casino employee policy. Jani is down on her luck and under pressure from her creditors she asks Jack to be the inside man for a planned heist at the casino. Jack carefully thinks this through and considers the odds – it seems like an easy inside job…But is it?
Croupier drew a steady audience at box office, attracting a strong critical following in North America and this helped launch Clive Owen’s acting career. Seven years later he wins a Golden Globe and a BAFTA and was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the drama Closer.
Casino Royale (2006)
If you’re a big poker fan – especially ‘No Limit Texas Hold’em’– this is THE poker film for you. Daniel Craig plays the role of James Bond and not only does he have a licence to kill, he also possesses the ultimate poker face.
On the poker table, Bond meets Le Chiffre, banker to the world’s terrorists. Along with a Treasury agent, Bond takes part in a high stakes poker game set up by Le Chiffre in order to recover a huge sum of his clients’ money he lost in a failed plot that the British spy took down, resulting in some of the tensest gambling scenes in movie history.
What’s your favourite casino movie? Let us know below…