After the acclaim and healthy return on investment for Goodfellas, Universal Pictures signed Martin Scorsese to direct Casino, a fact-based tale of mob faction control of Las Vegas casinos. Adapted from the book written by Nicholas Pileggi, the movie stars Robert De Niro as Sam “Ace” Rothstein, the Tangiers Casino’s reigning bookie and gambling champ. Ace is a complex character, not a heavy but someone who wields power due to his respect from mob bosses back home. He also has a drug-addicted trophy wife played by Sharon Stone and an uneasy friendship with loose-cannon mobster Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci).

The movie’s depiction of organized crime in Sin City is layered, both lamenting the past and looking forward to what may replace it. It features seedy backroom gambling parlors that could be ripe for crime but also shows the opulence of modern casino floors and their manufactured blissful experience of playing cards and slot machines.

Casino has lots of great moments, like a prowling Steadicam zooming through the Tangiers’ money counting room to reveal its illicit inner circle and the art of skimming off the top. Its final scene, with images of the destroyed casino and a voice-over by Ace lamenting how “the town will never be the same,” is a powerful and moving coda to the film.