A casino is a place where champagne glasses clink, money changes hands and people try their luck at games of chance. The crowd varies from the affluent who walk around in their designer suits to your grandmother taking the weekend bus trips with her friends, but they all have one thing in common; they’re having a great time! With music blaring and coins clinking it’s hard not to get caught up in the excitement.
But what makes a casino truly special is the fact that it offers much more than just a place to gamble. Casinos offer a unique experience of social interaction and are a cultural icon that is deeply rooted in our society. They are the ultimate symbiosis of confidence and uncertainty, a juggernaut that taps into a deep seated human need for risk and reward.
Casinos are an extremely competitive business. They operate in a market where they compete not only with other casinos, but also non-gambling resorts, on-line gaming and private gambling. Because of the virtual assurance of gross profit on every game they offer, they can afford to lavish big bettors with extravagant inducements like free spectacular entertainment, transportation and luxury living quarters.
With a strong cast led by the dynamite duo of Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, and a story that is at once utterly compelling and uncomfortably familiar, Casino is one of Martin Scorsese’s best movies. Featuring a host of captivating themes and some truly hellacious violence (including a torture-by-vice sequence with a popped eyeball that had to be trimmed to avoid an NC-17 rating) it’s an epic in its scale and scope, and the ultimate gangster film.