Casino

PLOT

In 1968, sports handicapper and Mafia associate Sam "Ace" Rothstein is sent by the Chicago Mafia to Las Vegas to run the Tangiers Casino. Front man Philip Green serves as the casino and hotel CEO, but Sam unofficially runs everything. Sam quickly doubles the casino's profits, with cash skimmed directly from the count room and delivered to the Midwest Mafia bosses. Chicago boss Remo Gaggi sends Sam's childhood friend and mob enforcer Nicky Santoro to protect Sam and the casino. Nicky makes sure everyone is kept in line, but his own criminal activities start drawing too much media and law enforcement attention. He recruits his younger brother Dominick and childhood friend Frankie Marino to gather a crew that specializes in shakedowns, burglaries and jewelry heists. Nicky is eventually placed in the Nevada Black Book, banning him from every casino in Nevada.

Sam meets and falls in love with beautiful hustler and former prostitute Ginger McKenna. In 1969 they have a daughter, Amy, and marry, but their marriage is quickly thrown into turmoil due to Ginger's relationship with her longtime boyfriend, con artist Lester Diamond. Sam has Nicky's crew beat Lester when they catch him accepting $25,000 from her. In the mid-1970s, Ginger's problems intensify as she turns to drugs and alcohol.

In 1976, Sam fires slot manager Don Ward for incompetence. When Ward's brother-in-law, Clark County Commission chairman Pat Webb, fails to convince Sam to rehire Don, Webb arranges for Sam's gaming license to be denied, jeopardizing his position. Sam starts hosting a local television talk show from inside the casino, irritating both Nicky and the bosses back home for making himself such a public figure and bringing unneeded attention. Sam blames Nicky's recklessness for ongoing police and Nevada Gaming Board pressure, and the two argue furiously in the Mojave Desert.

When the Midwest bosses discover that people on the inside are stealing from their skim, they install incompetent Kansas City underboss Artie Piscano to oversee the operation. Piscano ends up keeping detailed written records of the operation. Additionally, an FBI bug placed in Piscano's store for a separate crime catches him talking in detail about the skim, prompting a full investigation into the Tangiers Casino.

In 1980 Sam seeks to divorce Ginger, who kidnaps their daughter, planning to flee to Europe with her and Lester. Sam convinces Ginger to return with Amy, then overhears her planning on the phone to kill him. Sam kicks her out of their home but later relents. Ginger approaches Nicky to get her valuables from Sam's safe deposit box, and the two start an affair. Sam confronts and disowns Ginger, and ends his friendship with Nicky. Nicky throws Ginger out when she demands he kill Sam. Drunk and furious, Ginger crashes her car into Sam's in the driveway and retrieves the key to their deposit box. She takes the contents of the box but is arrested by the FBI as a witness.

In 1982, the FBI closes the casino and Green agrees to cooperate. Piscano dies of a heart attack when the feds discover his notebook. The FBI approaches Sam for help by showing him photos of Nicky and Ginger together, but he turns them down. The bosses are arrested and get ready for trial, and start arranging the murders of anyone who might testify against them. Later in the year Ginger dies of a drug overdose, and Sam barely escapes death by a car bomb, suspecting Nicky to be the culprit. In 1986 The bosses, finally fed up with Nicky's recklessness, order Frankie and his crew to kill Nicky and Dominick. Under the impression that they are attending a meetup in an Indiana cornfield, they are beaten with baseball bats, covered in quicklime, and buried alive in a shallow grave.

With the mafia now out of the casino industry, Sam laments the new impersonal, corporate-run resorts of Las Vegas. He is last seen working as a sports handicapper in San Diego, ending up in his own words, "right back where I started".

CAST

Robert De Niro as Sam "Ace" Rothstein

Sharon Stone as Ginger McKenna

Joe Pesci as Nicky Santoro

James Woods as Lester Diamond

Don Rickles as Billy Sherbert

Alan King as Andy Stone

Kevin Pollak as Philip Green

L. Q. Jones as Pat Webb

Dick Smothers as Senator

Frank Vincent as Frank Marino

John Bloom as Don Ward

Pasquale Cajano as Remo Gaggi

Melissa Prophet as Jennifer Santoro

Bill Allison as John Nance

Vinny Vella as Artie Piscano

Oscar Goodman as Himself

Catherine Scorsese as Piscano's mother

Philip Suriano as Dominick Santoro

Erika Von Tagen as Older Amy

Richard Riehle as Charlie Clark

Frankie Avalon as Himself

Steve Allen as Himself

Jayne Meadows as Herself

Jerry Vale as Himself

Joseph Rigano as Vincent Borelli

Gene Ruffini as Vinny Forlano

Paul Herman as Gambler in Phone Booth

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

based on the 1995 nonfiction book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas[3] by Nicholas Pileggi