Is Casino Based on a True Story?

Casino is a 1995 American epic crime drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Sharon Stone. The film is based on the nonfiction book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas by Nicholas Pileggi, who also co-wrote the screenplay for the film with Scorsese.

The two had previously collaborated on Goodfellas. In Casino, De Niro stars as Sam “Ace” Rothstein, a Jewish American top gambling handicapper who is called by the Italian Mob to oversee the operations at the Tangiers Casino in Las Vegas. His character is based on Frank Rosenthal, who ran the Stardust, Fremont, and Hacienda casinos in Las Vegas for the Chicago Outfit from the 1970s until the early 1980s. Pesci plays Nicholas “Nicky” Santoro, based on real-life Mob enforcer Anthony Spilotro.

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Nicky is sent to Vegas to make sure that money from the Tangiers is skimmed off the top and the mobsters in Vegas are kept in line. Pesci’s character is loosely based on real-life Mob enforcer Jimmy Miraglia, who was heavily involved in casino operations in Chicago and Las Vegas.

Stone plays Ginger McKenna, Ace’s scheming, self-absorbed wife, based on Geri McGee. Ginger is originally a hustler with a criminal past who becomes Ace’s wife and then gets into trouble with gambling and drugs.

PRO TIP:Casinos are often based on pieces of real life events, but the exact story may differ from the one portrayed in the casino. It’s important to remember that while these stories may be inspired by true events, they are usually dramatized for entertainment purposes and should not be taken as fact.

The major characters are all based on real people: Ace is inspired by Rosenthal; Nicky is based on Spilotro; and Ginger is based on McGee. However, many of the smaller roles are fictionalized versions of real people from Chicago and Las Vegas mob history. .

The film details Sam’s operation of the casino, the difficulties he confronts in his job, Ginger’s relationship with him, and Nicky’s rough-handed methods of maintaining order in the casino. The movie culminates with Sam and Ginger trying to come back together while being chased by federal agents after Sam has been revealed to be skimming money from the Tangiers while he was supposed to be paying it back to the mobsters back home.

Although it received mixed reviews from critics at the time of its release, Casino has since been regarded as one of Scorsese’s greatest films. It was nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, though it did not win any Oscars.

In 1998, Casino was added to the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.