Great movies introduce us to many new things in life. Growing up, it is often via movies that we get to learn about the things our parents might try to keep from us, such as the world of casinos.
It might have been your first Bond movie, or it could have been a more sinister gangster film, but if you grew up watching films then the chances are you experienced a casino on the big screen before you ever got the chance to visit one in real life.
Here, we take a look at some of the very best movies to have taken us on our formative casino adventures and inspired generations to contemplate the possibility that they might one day have crowds swarm around them as they win big at the roulette wheel.
Of course, the rapid growth of online gambling options has made it easy to find a rewarding casino in the UK and around the world without ever having to leave your own home.
Sites like the brand new Get Lucky casino are constantly raising the bar for casinos in the real world by offering an ever-expanding range of games and gambling options that deliver an experience to rival any night out in the big city.
Perhaps one or two of the movies in this list will tempt you to get suited and booted and try your hand – from the comfort of your armchair!
Casablanca
One of the most quoted, most memorable love stories of all time, Casablanca transported its audience to a world of gambling and nightclubs back in 1942.
The film, which was adapted from a stage play, was never expected to be a huge hit when in production, but Humphrey Bogart’s portrayal of Rick Blaine, an American expatriate who oversees an atmospheric gambling den in the Moroccan city of Casablanca, captured the imagination of the world during its wartime release.
Rain Man
Not a casino movie, strictly speaking, but Rain Man gave the world one of its most memorable casino scenes ever committed to celluloid when Dustin Hoffman played an autistic savant named Raymond Babbitt.
Raymond’s brother Charlie, played by Tom Cruise, is struggling to pay off loans he took out for his Lamborghini import business, but when he discovers he has an autistic brother with a talent for counting cards, the casinos of Las Vegas are his first port of call.
They are asked to leave the casino when security suspect something is awry, but Hoffman’s moving portrayal of a unique character in one of the most unlikely casino scenes you’ll ever see, is unforgettable.
Ocean’s 11
It might have been followed up by two frankly terrible sequels, but Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s 11 brought the casino movie genre right back in vogue when it was released in 2001.
A remake of a 1960 Rat Pack movie, Soderbergh’s Ocean’s 11 brought together George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Don Cheadle, and Bernie Mac, gave them a fast-paced script full of wit and humor, added a stylish soundtrack by David Holmes, and the result was a gripping heist movie that grossed $183 million at the box office.
