Latest Casino Movie Releases: Films for Gambling Enthusiasts

Through her charismatic personality, she attracts higher caliber players and eventually starts running her own games, which gained her a lot of money. The Ocean’s Trilogy is one of the most iconic casino heist movie series and includes Ocean’s Eleven, Ocean’s Twelve, and Ocean’s Thirteen. All movies star George Clooney as Danny Ocean, an aspiring criminal who wants to complete the largest heist in history. The movie is a great watch both alone and with company, but gambling scenes are few and far between, with most of them bunched up during the latter parts of the film. Other gambling-related movies that didn’t make our list include those that we’ve already covered in previous pieces, including poker’s greatest movie, Rounders (1998), and one of the best movies ever, period, Casino (1995). Handicapping is a serious business in Vegas and the high-stakes nature of the world may surprise some but the themes will be achingly familiar to anyone who’s placed a sports bet before.

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However, he does so by taking on the role of a teacher as he leads a young pool player to greatness. That player is Vincent Lauria (played by Tom Cruise), who goes on to learn the in’s and out’s of proper pool playing and scamming. But when Eddie and Vincent’s partnership falls apart, they eventually end up on opposite ends and confront each other in the game they both love so much. Matt Damon stars in this movie all about placing big bets and fighting to escape crippling debt.

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There is action, murder attempts, kidnapping and a few perilous moments that make us all ask ourselves if we will see Mr Bond come out of this alive. If you love poker, can look past the fact that Daniel Craig knows nothing about the game, and enjoy good cinematography, Casino Royale may yet be the best movie about gambling on Netflix today. Gambling hasn’t lost its cultural vitality over decades, and the same is true for great gambling films like 1974’s The Gambler. James Cann as gambling addict Axel Freed is obsessed with the thrill of gambling, even if it ends in self-destructive losses, and director Karel Reisz depicts the downward spiral of addiction with depressing accuracy. Freed gambles with more than his and other people’s money; he gambles with his life, putting himself in dangerous situations for his sadistic enjoyment.

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• It received lukewarm responses from critics upon release, and didn’t even double its $12 million budget when playing in theaters throughout the world.
• The movie was released in October 2010, and it stars Kevin Spacey, Pepper Barry, and Lovitz John.
• The movie follows two fellow conmen that decide to get revenge on a crime boss who’s responsible for the death of their mutual acquaintance.
• Netflix is a cultural phenomenon no matter where you stand on password sharing or cheesy documentaries about Tyson Fury, a heavyweight boxer with a distinct charisma.
• The classic Paul Newman/Jackie Gleason tale takes us back to a time when gambling was conducted in back rooms and in this case, pool halls.
• A down on his luck college professor hatches a get rich quick scheme with the aid of three students of his choosing.

A perennial down-on-his-luck guy works as a gambling jinx, known as a cooler, in an old school casino until his luck changes for the better when he becomes smitten with a cocktail waitress, much to his cutthroat boss’s frustration. Two con men get revenge for a fallen friend in this buddy comedy starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman. The Sting won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Director, and many more in 1974, as the smart but tense comedy keeps the audience guessing who will come out the better grifter.

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There were also a flush and two full houses–all in the same round– which is close to mathematically impossible to achieve in the first place. Such scenarios, though exceptional for creating cinematic suspense, could mislead audiences about the real odds and strategies involved in poker. A deeper look into the mechanics of the games depicted in gambling movies reveals another layer where fiction often diverges from reality.

• He encounters Vincent Lauria, a talented & green player, proposing a partnership.
• Revolver is a 2005 action thriller starring Jason Statham, Ray Liotta, Vincent Pastore & Andre Benjamin, written & directed by Guy Ritchie.
• The film is about a young poker player who challenges an established pro to a high-stakes match.
• There are so many options for watching movies these days, so you may be wondering how to watch A Big Hand for the Little Lady.
• A few of these are in abroad casinos, and others aren’t set in gambling houses at all.
• Acting as a realistic portrayal of gambling addiction, Ben Mendelsohn’s performance as Gerry shows the misery and recklessness that comes with his type of dependency.

The Gambler ( – The Philosophy of High Stakes

Gambling is typically portrayed in films as a boys’ club, but Aaron Sorkin’s Molly’s Game shows how women can be even more adept at navigating the treacherous world of underground gambling. As with the best gambling movies, the poker table is only one arena where the stakes are high in Molly’s Game. She relies on gambling the people’s identities from her poker game to keep her money and avoid prison when the FBI comes knocking. Famously set to an anachronistic ragtime soundtrack of Scott Joplin standards, “The Sting” is irresistible fun — a light and witty caper that has us fully rooting for its con men. Paul Newman won his only Oscar for The Color of Money, revisiting the character of Fast Eddie Felson, whom he played in 1961’s The Hustler. “He had to stop gambling,” Scorsese said in Conversations With Scorsese.

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Ratner tries a few ways to secure the money he owes – mostly by gambling more, going deeper into debt, and ultimately relying on his wife, with whom they are about to get a divorce. The movie runs the gamut of things a viewer would expect to find in any great movie on gambling; greed, deception, money, power, and even murder. The film’s main point revolves around the involvement of the mob in the Vegas casinos of the ’70s and ’80s. The film goes from casino to casino when the World Series of Poker becomes a beacon for the main characters, making poker the poison of the protagonist’s choice. From director Paul Schrader, the writer behind Taxi Driver, The Card Counter is a dark and intense ride through the ideas of redemption and the tight grip of the past.

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A calm and collected early feature from Melville, “Bob le Flambeur” practically oozes cool and anticipated the French New Wave with its innovative use of handheld camerawork and the jump cut. As far as true gambling addiction goes, James Caan’s titular character in The Gambler (1974) portrays the mental illness better than perhaps anyone in the history of the silver screen. He’ll bet good money on a poker game in Las Vegas, on a professional football championship with his friends, or on a pickup game of basketball he stumbled upon during his afternoon stroll through the park. After her career was derailed by a life-changing injury to her spine, Molly was then put in charge of an underground poker game within the Viper Room in Los Angeles. The film stars Jessica Chastain in the titular role, with supporting efforts from guys like Idris Elba and Michael Cera.

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• Croupier is one of the best casino movies of all time, featuring Clive Owen starring Jack Manfred, an unlucky writer.
• A wonderful drama about an English language teacher who gets addicted to gambling; and gets chased by debts and creditors.
• The nuances of human connection, ethical dilemmas, and the subtle yet pervasive impacts of addiction are masterfully woven into a story that is emotionally gripping and morally reflective.
• Bob Montagne, the main character of the film, is known as an extremely lucky gambler who’s a big hit amongst the populace.
• The Big Picture is using Letterboxd to share film reviews and lists with friends.
• God of Gamblers (1989) stars Chow Yun-Fat as a master gambler losing his memory, while Freeze Out (2005) includes Tom Sharpe in an ugly high-stakes poker game.
• A gangster & aspiring blackjack dealer becomes involved in a dangerous scheme.

From owing the mob millions to Elvis impersonators and underground poker parties, movies about gambling include a host of genres and award-winning talent. Below we will explore the best gambling movies of all time (and which made box office history). Maverick is a 1994 Western comedy film starring Mel Gibson, directed by Richard Donner, gaining a 7/10 IMDb rating and 68% Rotten Tomatoes. As in other best casino films about gambling, Maverick explores Bret Maverick, a gambler requiring money to join a poker tournament. Based on a 1950s television series created by Roy Huggins, earning a box office of $183,000,000.

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This scheme soon leads to Charlie taking his autistic brother on the road with him for a life-changing excursion. All the while, Charlie relies on his brother’s amazing mathematical skills to help him win big at every gaming table they come across during a stop in Las Vegas. This moment then leads to a change in character for Charlie https://true-fortune.us/ that makes this film a real tearjerker that’s bound to hit you right in the feels. Ever hear about the underground gambling dens that were visited by multiple A-list celebrities? Writer and director Aaron Sorking tells the tale of Molly Bloom, the queenpin behind the exclusive and illegal underground ring of high-stakes poker games.

The reason you know director Guy Ritchie and Jason Statham traces back to Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, a dark comedy that is one part heist film, one part gambling film, and two parts hijinks. As a gambling film, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels succeeds at finding the humor in people trying to cheat their way into money, only to twist their lives around to wiggle their way out of debt. Geniuses from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) can usually go on to do anything, yet a group of them decided to use their gifts to count cards. He gets robbed at gunpoint, loses friends, and has very little to show for it besides a cool story. Watching the smartest people do the dumbest things could be enough to scare anyone away from gambling because winning is always enough until you want more. Axel Freed, played by James Caan, appears successful with a good job and a generally stable life.

Except for Hoffman, that is — although, his one scene in the film almost managed to steal the entire show. Spacey is particularly checked-out here, and the movie was criticized for “whitewashing” in its casting, turning the mostly Asian-American real-life players into generic white people. But for a brief moment, before Spacey is being kidnapped and beaten in a hotel room, it’s an interesting look at the science behind smart gambling.

GAMBLING CITY (

• It was also a time when elaborate cons seemed like a perfectly acceptable way to earn a living.
• The Texans host the Bills on Sunday where Diggs will face his former team for the first time since the trade.
• If you’re inspired to play a few games yourself after watching it, make sure to find a trusted and reliable online casino.
• Axel Freed, played by James Caan, appears successful with a good job and a generally stable life.
• Sam “Ace” Rothstein (Robert DeNiro) unofficially runs the Tangiers Casino in Las Vegas at the direction of the Chicago Mafia and acts as the viewers’ eyes and ears to the unseen machinations of running a casino in Las Vegas.
• With is faithful representation of the casino vibe and neo-noir style; “Croupier” paints an accurate picture of life on both sides of the table.
• Jessica Chastain plays Molly Bloom, an Olympic-class skier who runs an exclusive poker game for the wealthy and famous.
• It features a range of emotions from the joy of winning to the rage over a series of losses.

He is an unlucky gambler who believes he will soon be able to hit the jackpot. He gathers his team of accomplices, including Hollywood stars Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and Julia Roberts, and attempts to rob some of the biggest casinos in Las Vegas. This thrilling and action-packed movie series showcases some great performances and highly stylized visuals that make it very worthwhile to watch. Rotten Tomatoes has it scored at 77%, which is solid but a travesty considering it’s one of the best sports movies ever.

“The Gambler” (Karel Reisz,

• For those looking to these films for a true depiction of casino life and gambling psychology, it’s crucial to recognize where Hollywood’s representation diverges from real-world gambling.
• Unfortunately, He loses that stone and spends several days chasing after him and at the same time escaping from being chased by angry creditors.
• Tom Cruise appears in his second gambling movie role as car dealer Charlie Babbitt, who doesn’t have the best relationship with his now-deceased father.

The film provides a great opportunity to get to know what Vegas casinos were like during their heyday. It tells the story of the shifting from Florida to Vegas in the early 1990s. At that time the woman got a job with a professional gambler starred by Bruce Willis. It’s a great gambling story with the popular actor who was co-starred by Catherine Zeta-Jones and Vince Vaughn. In order to pay his debt, Howard does precisely what every high-stakes gambler would do; he places an enormous bet that could help pay off his entire debt but could also destroy what’s left of his life if it fails.

The Color of Money

The year 2007 was not exactly easy for the NBA, and the Donaghy scandal made it even less so. Even Donaghy appears in the series to tell his story and admits that he acted foolishly, costing him a lot over the years. However, the documentary needs to be taken with a grain of salt, because it mostly portrays events as told by Donaghy. The most tragic story in My Hero Academia comes to a close in one of the most spectacular episodes of the series in years.

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And those accolades are more indicative of the film’s actual quality than its acclaim from critics or number of tickets sold in theaters. William H. Macy stars as the titular character Bernie Lootz — and as a cooler in a casino, he acts as bad luck for the other gamblers, placed there by the casino themselves as a sort of negative presence. And it actually explores its characters to a meaningful extent while also showcasing the inner workings of Vegas. It’s one of the more modern poker movies, especially since it is based on a true story. In the film, Jessica Chastain narrates the story of Molly Bloom, a champion skier who suffers a career-ending injury on her road to the Winter Olympics. The hilarious movie features a group of friends who decide to spend a night out in Las Vegas at a bachelor’s party.

Besides a stellar cast including The Goodfellas’ Paul Sorvino and American Gigolo’s Lauren Hutton, The Gambler is a psychological thriller masked as a gambling movie. Few gambling movies portray gambling less as a talent and more as a coping mechanism, like Paul Schrader’s 2021 crime drama The Card Counter. Oscar Issac plays card counting wizard William Tell who teaches himself how to count cards in a military prison to practice the patience and restraint from succumbing to the darker impulses that landed him in prison in the first place. Throughout the film, this control of one’s decisions central to gambling is what he tries to instill in a Cirk Baufort (Tye Sheridan) seeking to avenge his father’s death lethally. When films like The Card Counter uncover the psychological connection between being good at gambling and dealing with being a human, they create something truly magical that stands the test of time.

The two leads develop a legitimate friendship, too, one which mirrors the chemistry of the actors themselves. If you haven’t checked this out, it’s worth it for their performances alone. The heist is shown on screen, but things get interesting when Pitt’s character, a hitman named Jackie Cogan comes into play. And although there are some questionable choices of editing with little to write home about in the technical departments of camerawork, the overall project was definitely a success. Most of these are set in Vegas, but that isn’t a qualification to place on the list.

The film embarks on a road trip that metaphorically encapsulates the gambler’s journey, balancing between the pursuit of a dream and the inevitable losses that punctuate it. Gerry and Curtis, bound by their mutual devotion to the gamble, share a journey that is as much about their burgeoning friendship as it is about the bets they place. The magnetic charm of the open road, coupled with the tantalizing possibility of a life-altering win, fuels their journey along the Mississippi River. The movie doesn’t merely portray the destructive path of gambling but also highlights the friendships and connections that can burgeon amidst despair and dream chasing. When Phillip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, Samuel L. Jackson, and Paul Thomas Anderson are on the table, it’s a Royal Flush. Assuming you like your casino movies with a tinge of tragedy, Anderson’s debut feature, about a veteran card player and a lonely orphan, is a riveting exploration of the men who spend their lives in Vegas.

Some had to rewatch their most favorite film about casinos, such as poker movies. All too often women in gambling movies are limited to love interests, or that classic cliché – a prostitute with a heart of gold. Apart from a love of literature, Freed also has a debilitating gambling addiction.

Everyone in Casino performed to a career-defining degree, and it will forever go down as one of Scorsese’s bests. And it was of course a massive success in theaters, raking in $469.3 million on a $35 million budget. It chronicles the tale of Phil, Alan, Stu, and Doug as they travel to Las Vegas for Doug’s bachelor party. And they’re all portrayed by talented thespians, most of whom shine particularly bright within comedic roles — Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, and Heather Graham, for example.

I didn’t do any of my tells.’ To which Maverick replied, ‘You held your breath. Croupier is one of the best casino movies of all time, featuring Clive Owen starring Jack Manfred, an unlucky writer. Manfred’s job is as a croupier at a casino to earn money, giving inspiration for a novel. To further inspire writing, he disobeys a casino’s conduct code, getting caught in a dangerous heist. A popular quote is, ‘Gambling’s not about money… Gambling’s about not facing reality, ignoring the odds.’ Croupier release was two years later & features 3 alternate types, with a 7/10 rating on IMDb and 95% on Rotten Tomatoes.

This just inspires him to push harder and keep it going, and while this might turn out to be a disaster in a movie like, say, Uncut Gems, here, it’s just a wacky ’80s comedy. Let It Ride still gets a lot of comedic mileage out of Dreyfuss’s mania and goes a long way on some very fun supporting performances from Teri Garr, Jennifer Tilly, and David Johansen. But let’s just say they don’t show this one at Gamblers Anonymous meetings.

We wholeheartedly recommend watching Money, Explained in its entirety as it’s a highly educative if somewhat mass culture series. The insights are nevertheless accurate and they will definitely help you not just enjoy the institution of gambling as fiction but look at the hard facts and come back to the green felt a much smarter player. This includes assaulting Ratner at his daughter’s school and kidnapping him. The scene is gutting as Ratner is stripped naked and locked up in the trunk of the Mafiosi’s car. He then has to call Dinah, his girlfriend, who comes to his rescue, but that’s hardly all.

Among his list of creditors is his own brother-in-law, but that’s the least of his worries as he’s also in bed with Arno, a loan shark and a mafiosi-type who is very keen to get his money back by whatever means necessary. There’s nothing the casino can do if someone’s playing hot and winning a lot of money—unless they send in “The Cooler,” anyway. Played with a timid, nervous energy by William H. Macy, “The Cooler” is naturally unlucky, and he works for the casino by jinxing players and spreading his misfortune. Whether you’re in it to learn how to beat the house or just want to hear the soothing sounds of chips stacking and slots spinning, these are the best gambling movies to put you right in the action. If you’re feeling lucky and want to see what that luck can get you, put down the FanDuel app and check out the 20 best gambling movies you can watch to satisfy your hunger for more. “The Cooler,” featuring William H. Macy as Bernie Lootz, steers the audience through a distinctive narrative path within the alluring yet morally complex world of Las Vegas gambling.

Casino Royale often serves as a prime example when discussing the authenticity of gambling scenes. The movie showcases elaborate poker matches where James Bond coolly assesses his opponents amidst the luxury of an exclusive gambling venue. While it captures the tension well, real-life casino operations are vastly more complex and regulated. Casinos are designed with a sharp focus on security and game integrity, aspects that are sometimes glossed over in movies for dramatic effect. If you have not watched some of these yet, roll under your blanket and get ready for a thrilling ride full of gambling, betting, and drama.

Matt’s character (Mike McDermott) ends up losing a ton of money during a poker game against a Russian gangster. After experiencing such a devastating loss, Mike leaves the poker scene behind due to his girlfriend’s pleas to leave the game behind. But the game comes calling once more when Mike finds out his friend Lester “Worm” Murphy needs to pay off a huge debt to the same Russian mobster that Mike took a major loss to. Rounders follows Mike and Lester as they try to work the system to their advantage and find a way to get one over on the man who’s responsible for their financial misfortunes. From a cinematic standpoint, we’ve been treated to a host of films that delve into the inner workings of casinos, bookies, and pool sharks.

Embarking on a hazardous and devastating financial journey, Garrett begins to gamble the money, never really caring about how much is in the bag but taking money out of the bag in increments – usually $500. As you can expect, his gambling habit forces him to repeatedly come to the duffel bag oblivious of the consequences that may befall him and his family once the criminal who tasked him with safekeeping comes out of prison. Although there is nothing illegal in what the students and their professor are going to do, the air is heavy with tension. Campbell quickly finds out that by counting cards he can win hundreds of thousands of dollars – enough to pursue his medical studies and not have to worry about the money coming in. He agrees reluctantly to join the team and displaces the former leader, Fisher, who adds even more tension.

The film is a masterpiece, and it deserves respect for the quality of drama created by such simple materials. But it isn’t long until Vegas’ seductive wiles charm Clark (and his underage son Rusty!) into gambling away the family’s fortune. See our Live Dealer Casinos page for the best places to play and improve your strategy with our guides for Roulette, Craps and Blackjack. Evan, however, comedically feuded with Richie over the money as he believed he deserved of half the jackpot. Matchbook offers unrivalled pre-match and in-play markets for bettors and traders. If you want a light-hearted knockabout with a guys getting dealt quads over quads this isn’t the film for you, but if you want a film about gambling warts and all then check it out.