A Casino is a gambling facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. There are many different types of gambling activities that can be played in casinos including slots, video poker, table games, and bingo. Casinos also host live shows and closed circuit television broadcasts. While a casino is not completely crime-free they are much safer than backroom gambling parlors and the vast majority of people who visit them do so legally.
Based on the nonfiction book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas by Nicholas Pileggi, Martin Scorsese’s Casino is a turgid mafia epic that makes viewers feel like eavesdroppers in a secret place. But unlike other mob movies, this one is not about the rise and fall of a family or even an entire organization; instead, it details the gradual downfall of the Mob’s relationship with Vegas.
The movie is fascinating to watch for the way it lays bare how mob control of Vegas was stripped away from under them. It is also a lesson in the way a large corporation can take over a desert city and make it into something entirely new. And it is a tale of how the old guard was eventually replaced by young and hungry newcomers who had the money and the ambition to do things their own way.
But the movie really works because of its two leads, Robert De Niro as Sam Rothstein and Joe Pesci as his cousin Nicky Santoro. Both give outstanding performances that are worthy of the attention they received at the time of their release.