Casino (Movie Review)

Casino is the Martin Scorsese “dialing up” Goodfellas to 11. It’s a film that’s both intense and opulent, about mafia life and Vegas and a movie that has a lot to say about its main characters and their interactions with each other.

Sam “Ace” Rothstein (Robert De Niro) is a gambling expert hired by mob elders back east to run the Tangiers hotel and casino in Las Vegas. He’s aided by his partner from the big city, Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci). While Sam handles day-to-day business, Nicky deals with people who won’t pay up. They make a pretty decent team, until it all goes sour.

While the film has a few flaws—the pacing is uneven and it’s sometimes difficult to keep track of all the characters, especially when they start swapping partners and running away from each other—it is a sexy movie that lays bare the seedy underbelly of one of America’s most popular tourist destinations. And it shows how the mafia ultimately lost control of a city that’s become synonymous with opulence, neon signs, and high-stakes card and table games.

When a new casino opens, it brings jobs and money into local economies. Besides employing workers, casinos attract tourists and residents who spend their money on food, hotels, and other services. In addition, the casino’s revenue is reinvested into the local economy through the rake, which means that it has a positive impact on the region. However, the number of new casinos coming online has been rising rapidly in recent years, and this is causing a lot of concern among the industry experts.