Casino
Greed, deception, money, power, and murder occur between two mobster best friends and a trophy wife over a gambling empire.
- Director:Martin Scorsese
- Genre:Crime / Drama
- Runtime:178 minutes
Cast
Robert De Niro : Sam ‘Ace’ Rothstein
Sharon Stone : Ginger McKenna
Joe Pesci : Nicky Santoro
James Woods : Lester Diamond
Frank Vincent : Frank Marino
Casino is the story of Sam “Ace” Rothstein, a shrewd Jewish-American sports handicapper. As is often the case with those engaged in such activity, he is regularly harassed by local law enforcement, but is protected by the mob after proving himself as a top earner. Impressed with his work, Rothstein in 1973 is recruited by Midwest mob bosses to manage the new Tangiers Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The bosses have set up the casino to “skim” profits (stealing a portion of the cash collected from gamers before the income is reported to the authorities), and want someone in charge whom they can trust.
In 1983, as Rothstein gets in his car and turns the ignition, the car explodes. The rest of the story is a flashback, revealing how the mob set up its operation in Las Vegas and chose Rothstein to manage it; how Nicky Santoro came to Vegas and how, eventually, organized crime lost control, never to have a hold on something so valuable again.
The mob’s presence in Vegas stems largely from connections with corrupt representatives of the Teamsters. Their chief contact is Andy Stone. With a loan from the union’s pension fund and a powerless front man named Philip Green acting as chairman of the board, the Tangiers becomes a reality. Rothstein is not licensed by the gaming authorities of Nevada because of his criminal record. But this is largely circumvented by lax rules that allow casino managers to work while their applications are pending—which, for many, can take years.
Ace, with help from an old friend, Billy Sherbert, is so good at his job that he doubles the amount of money sent back home to his bosses. As he builds the Tangiers into one of the biggest casinos in Vegas, he falls in love with Ginger McKenna, one of the most successful hustlers in town. Her only mission in life is taking money from rich men. She also takes care of her old boyfriend, a small-time pimp named Lester Diamond.
The bosses send Nicholas “Nicky” Santoro, a mob enforcer and Sam’s boyhood friend, to Vegas to protect Ace and the casino from rival gangsters and scammers. Nicky, well-known for his violent temper, makes it clear that he intends to set up his own money-making schemes.
Ace and Ginger have a daughter and get married, but only after Ginger is assured that she will be taken care of financially for the rest of her life. As a sign of his trust in her, Ace gives Ginger the only key to a safe deposit box containing 2 million dollars. However, Ginger stays in contact with Lester, which puts a severe strain on her marriage. At one point Ace has Lester beaten up in front of Ginger, which leads to further resentment (and substance abuse) on her part. Read more
Watch full Casino online streaming for free
