The 10 best casino movies
From Scorsese's Las Vegas epic to the Safdie brothers' panic attack of a thriller, these are the films that best capture casinos, card rooms and the people drawn to them.
The best casino movies are rarely about winning. They are about what the casino does to people: the mobsters who ran Las Vegas, the card players who live by their nerve, and the gamblers who cannot stop. Our list ranks ten films, from 1965 to 2019, that do that best.
How we chose the films
Every film here is set largely around a casino, a card room or a gambler's life, and each is ranked on the quality of the filmmaking and how well it captures that world, not on box office alone. Heists, poker duels and character studies all qualify. Films where gambling is a passing scene do not.
Several picks are adapted from real events or memoirs, including Casino, 21 and Molly's Game, though all of them reshape the facts for drama. Treat them as films, not documentaries.
A note on how gambling looks on screen
Cinema tends to show the big hand and the dramatic win. Several films on this list, notably The Gambler and Uncut Gems, are equally clear about the cost: debt, broken relationships and the pull of one more bet. That honesty is a large part of why they have lasted.
If gambling is causing problems for you or someone close to you, national helplines such as 1-800-GAMBLER in the US and the National Gambling Helpline in Great Britain offer free, confidential support.
- 1
Casino
1995 · Directed by Martin Scorsese · Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci
Scorsese's three-hour epic, written with Nicholas Pileggi from his non-fiction book, follows a mob-connected handicapper who runs the fictional Tangiers casino in 1970s Las Vegas. No film explains the machinery of a casino more vividly, from the count room and the skim to the surveillance in the ceiling. De Niro is precise and controlled, Pesci volcanic, and Sharon Stone earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress as the hustler Ginger. It is also a history lesson about how corporate money replaced the mob on the Strip.
- 2
The Cincinnati Kid
1965 · Directed by Norman Jewison · Steve McQueen, Edward G. Robinson, Ann-Margret
Set in Depression-era New Orleans, Norman Jewison's drama pits Steve McQueen's young stud poker player against the veteran Lancey Howard, played with icy authority by Edward G. Robinson. Jewison took over from Sam Peckinpah shortly after filming began, and the result is a lean, stylish film about ambition and pride. The marathon five-card stud showdown, ending in one of cinema's most famous hands, set the template for every poker duel that followed. It remains the classic of the genre.
- 3
Uncut Gems
2019 · Directed by Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie · Adam Sandler, Julia Fox, Kevin Garnett
Adam Sandler gives the performance of his career as Howard Ratner, a New York jeweller who cannot stop placing bets. The Safdie brothers built the plot around Kevin Garnett, playing himself, and the Boston Celtics' real 2012 Eastern Conference semi-final series, with Howard staking everything on the results. The film never lets up: phones ring, debts mount and every scene feels like a gamble. Few films have captured the adrenaline and self-destruction of compulsive betting so precisely, or made audiences quite so anxious.
- 4
Rounders
1998 · Directed by John Dahl · Matt Damon, Edward Norton, John Malkovich
Matt Damon plays a law student and gifted poker player who returns to the underground card rooms of New York to help a friend, played by Edward Norton, pay off a dangerous debt. John Malkovich steals scenes as the Russian club owner Teddy KGB. Rounders treats no-limit Texas hold'em with real respect for its strategy and language, and it became a cult favourite among players in the years before poker exploded on television. Its lines are still quoted at card tables today.
- 5
Casino Royale
2006 · Directed by Martin Campbell · Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen
Daniel Craig's debut as James Bond reinvented the series, and its centrepiece is a high-stakes Texas hold'em tournament at the Casino Royale in Montenegro, swapped in for the baccarat of Ian Fleming's novel. The casino scenes were actually filmed in the Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary. Martin Campbell turns a card game into genuine suspense, with Mads Mikkelsen's banker Le Chiffre as a superb opponent. It is the most glamorous casino on this list, and one of the best Bond films of all.
- 6
The Gambler
1974 · Directed by Karel Reisz · James Caan, Paul Sorvino, Lauren Hutton
James Caan plays a New York literature professor whose gambling debts are spiralling out of control, in a film written by James Toback and drawing loosely on his own experience and on Dostoevsky. Karel Reisz directs without glamour, showing a clever man who seems to crave losing as much as winning. It is one of the most honest portraits of gambling addiction ever filmed. A 2014 remake starring Mark Wahlberg exists, but the original is the version that matters.
- 7
Ocean's Eleven
2001 · Directed by Steven Soderbergh · George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts
Steven Soderbergh's remake of the 1960 Rat Pack caper is the ultimate casino heist film. George Clooney's Danny Ocean assembles a crew to rob the vault beneath the Bellagio, which serves three Las Vegas casinos owned by Andy Garcia's coolly ruthless Terry Benedict. Shot on real Strip locations, it is a showcase of style, wit and ensemble chemistry rather than realism. It spawned two sequels and helped shape how a generation imagined Las Vegas.
- 8
Mississippi Grind
2015 · Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck · Ben Mendelsohn, Ryan Reynolds, Sienna Miller
First shown at Sundance in 2015, this road movie follows a down-on-his-luck gambler played by Ben Mendelsohn and a charming drifter played by Ryan Reynolds as they head south along the Mississippi towards a big poker game in New Orleans. Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck consciously echo 1970s American cinema, and the riverboat casinos and smoky card rooms feel lived in. It is a gentle, melancholy film about luck and friendship, and the most underrated pick here.
- 9
Molly's Game
2017 · Directed by Aaron Sorkin · Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner
Aaron Sorkin's directing debut tells the true story of Molly Bloom, a former competitive skier who ran exclusive high-stakes poker games for celebrities and financiers in Los Angeles and New York until federal agents arrived. Based on Bloom's memoir, it is driven by Sorkin's rapid-fire dialogue and a commanding performance from Jessica Chastain. The film earned an Oscar nomination for its adapted screenplay and offers an unusual view of poker from the host's side of the table.
- 10
21
2008 · Directed by Robert Luketic · Jim Sturgess, Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne
Inspired by Ben Mezrich's book Bringing Down the House, 21 follows a group of MIT students trained to count cards and win at blackjack in Las Vegas. The film takes heavy liberties with the real MIT Blackjack Team, and its heist-style glamour outweighs its accuracy. It still earns a place for bringing card counting, team play and casino countermeasures to a mainstream audience, and for its glossy portrait of the Strip. Laurence Fishburne's security chief represents the casinos' long war against advantage players.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best casino movie of all time?
Martin Scorsese's Casino (1995) is widely regarded as the definitive casino film. It combines a gripping crime story with a detailed portrait of how a mob-era Las Vegas casino operated.
Is the film Casino based on a true story?
Yes, loosely. It was adapted from Nicholas Pileggi's non-fiction book and draws on the career of Frank Rosenthal, who ran casinos in Las Vegas for mob-backed owners, though names and events were changed.
What are the best poker movies?
The Cincinnati Kid (1965), Rounders (1998) and Molly's Game (2017) are the most respected poker films. Casino Royale (2006) also features one of the best-known poker tournaments on screen.
Is the movie 21 a true story?
It is based on the real MIT Blackjack Team, which used card counting and team play in casinos from around 1979 into the 1990s. The film, adapted from Ben Mezrich's book, changes many characters and events.
Sources: AFI Catalog, The Museum of Modern Art, The Ringer, Rolling Stone, The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations, The Tech (MIT), checked and rewritten by the Casino Courant desk. Spotted an error? Tell us.
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