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Roulette Movies – From The Classics To The Contemporary /

Roulette Movies – From The Classics To The Contemporary

If you've ever stood at the roulette table in a real land-based casino, then you'll know just how exciting and immersive the game can be. With big money bets and the anticipation of the spinning wheel and ivory ball, everyone is thrilled and enthusiastic about their chances of winning. Movie directors have taken this passion and used it to create some of the most memorable films in the history of cinema. Along with excellent scripts, these all make for a great Saturday night movie experience.

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Roulette Movies – Tales From Around the Roulette Tables

If you’re into roulette and enjoy watching roulette movies, then with this article you won’t be short of choices. They’re literally hundreds of roulette movies and you’d need months of binge-watching to be able to watch them all. That’s why here at Jackpotfinder.com, we have done all the heavy lifting for you to find the best roulette movies for your viewing pleasure.

Roulette Movies: Casablanca

Casablanca is one of the most loved classic roulette movies that was first released in 1942. Directed by Michael Curtiz, the movie was an immediate hit. It’s set in Casablanca during the period when that part of Morocco was a French colony. It tells the story of Rick, who meets Lisa and her husband at the roulette table.

Once upon a time Lisa and Rick were lovers. But now she and her husband are trying to find the means of taking a plane to America in order to escape from the hands of a corrupt investigator. After some consideration, Rick realises that he can help them by rigging the game. He helps the couple win a bet which they placed on the number 22. But we shouldn’t be giving away any spoilers. Though we should point out that the ending of Casablanca is considered to be one of the most poignant scenes in movie history.

Movie: Casablanca
Year: 1942
Genre: Drama, Romance, War
Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
Awards: 10 Awards (Including 3 Oscars) & 9 Nominations
IMDB Rate: 8.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 99% & 95%
Metacritic Metascore: 100 & User Score 8.9
Gross Worldwide: $4,376,287

Rigging The Game

We should point out that by watching Casablanca you’re not going to be learning how to play roulette or any jackpot winning tips and tricks. It does give a great example of how easy it was to rig the roulette tables in the past. Today such actions would be impossible with so many security measures, along with gambling licences in place to ensure that the game if you let your playing is absolutely fair and safe. We find, of the best casinos to win the jackpot, without a doubt, King Billy Casino is at the top of any list. They have a huge number of gaming options, including live dealer roulette games that feel just like a real land-based casino.

An Absolute Classic Movie

Not only Is Casablanca a classic love story from a by-gone era, but it contains so many memorable scenes. The script is fantastic and you’ll find that it contains many popular quotes that have since gone on to be used and many other movies. Probably the most famous of this is when Rick looks up and says “Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine.” Casablanca was the winner of numerous film awards and ended up taking home three Oscars.

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The Sting (1973)

Though probably not as well known as other roulette movies to the newer generation of gamblers, the movie The Sting is still a great film for those who love the game of roulette. It tells the story of Johnny who’s played by Robert Redford. he’s a small-time grifter, operating in the 1920s. Unfortunately, he makes the mistake of stealing from Doyle Lonnegan, who happens to be a big-time crime boss. Tony’s partner Luther is killed, though Johnny manages to escape. Driven by the desire to get revenge, and wanting to murder Lonnegan, he decides on an even better idea.

It’s at this point that Johnny meets Henry, who’s played by Paul Newman. Henry is also a conman and together they devise a complicated scheme to set up and operate an underground gambling den. The plan is to steal the crime boss’s money. And to do so they put together a group of talented con artists. In the roulette gaming room, they have rigged all the tables. Unfortunately at this point, we cannot discuss the movie any further without giving away spoilers. So we suggest you watch the movie yourself to see whether or not they manage to get the money.

Movie: The Sting (1973)
Year: 1973
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Director: George Roy Hill
Cast: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning
Awards: 18 Wins (Including 7 Oscar Awards) & 6 Nominations
IMDB Rate: 8.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 94% & 95%
Metacritic Metascore: 83 & User Score 8.2
Gross Worldwide: $156,000,000

A Brilliant Script

Not just are all the actors top-notch, but the words they’re given by the scriptwriters create memorable dialogues. At one point Johnny says, “Can you get some up together?” to which Henry responds, “After what happened to Luther, I don’t think I can get more than 200, 300 guys.” In many ways, the film makes you think about the meaning of friendships and how important they are.

What’s interesting about the film is that it subtly pays homage to Casablanca. It does this by having the roulette ball land on the number 22. It’s this sort of attention to detail that fans really enjoy. With an excellent script, huge movie stars, on-point direction, and all with the aid of a brilliant production team, then it’s not surprising that the movie was up for 18 awards and six nominations. It ended up with Seven Oscar Awards.

Roulette Movies: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)

If you have an interest in the historic scams that took place in Las Vegas, then this movie is tailor-made for you. It falls into the unofficial genre of criminal-comedy roulette movies, which happened to feature roulette as the main game. The film by Frank Oz, came out in 1988. It’s a story set on the French Riviera in the pretty town of Beaumont-sur-Mer. It tells the story of Lawrence, who’s played by Michael Kane, and another con artist called Freddy, who’s played by Steve Martin. Lawrence makes a very good living by conning rich women. In this, he’s assisted by a corrupt police chief and his butler.

Freddy lives a much more modest lifestyle, as he tends to not be chasing money, but rather be after free meals and rides. One day while travelling on a train, the two happened to meet. And very soon they decide to become partners in crime.

Movie: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Year: 1998
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Director Frank Oz
Cast: Michael Kane, Steve Martin
Awards: 1 Nomination
IMDB Rate: 7.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 88% & 84%
Metacritic Metascore: 68 & User Score 8
Gross Worldwide: $42,039,085

Roulette Movies: Croupier (1998)

This is one of the very few roulette movies that shows the inner workings of a casino through the eyes of the dealer. It was also the movie that put the actor Clive Owen firmly on the map. The story takes us to a London casino where we see the life of Jack Manfred, who’s a budding writer who takes a job in an exclusive and sophisticated casino in order to help pay the bills. This 1998 movie, directed by Mike Hodges, really shows the highs and lows that come from gambling at the casino. We should point out the film doesn’t solely concentrate on the game of roulette in spite of its title.

A Tour Around The Casino

During the course of the movie, Jack takes us to experience many of the casino table games, including blackjack, craps and jackpot poker. The story of the film is much more low key than the previous two mentioned efforts. In some ways, it’s more of a character study. We see how Jack Manfred’s professional life overlaps his personal one. Things are far from perfect in both and soon we have a story of new relationships, separations and fun with friends.

Movie: Croupier
Year: 1998
Genre: Crime, Drama
Director: Mike Hodge
Cast: Clive Owen, Nick Reding, Nicholas Ball, Alexander Morton, Gina McKee
Awards: 1 Win & 2 Nominations
IMDB Rate: 7.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 95% & 79%
Metacritic Metascore: 75 & User Score 6.6
Gross Worldwide: $7,120,568

During the film, Jack often repeats his mantra, which is really advice for any casino gambler, “Hang on tightly, Let’s go lightly.” Though the ratings for this movie are exceptionally high, we don’t think this movie is going to be for everyone. It’s certainly not an action movie, but much more of a character study. Interestingly enough, the dealer gives many tips for all casino gamblers throughout the film. Remember that most of these will apply to London casinos, as opposed to those situated in Macau or Las Vegas. By the way, these tips are not really going to help you to win the jackpot online, as they’re more about the inside workings of the casino itself. To learn about the ins and outs of online casinos, we suggest that you head over to King Billy Casino.

Movie Critics vs The Public

Although the movie never picked up any movie awards, it still has tons of fans. Of course, when it first came out Clive Owen was an unknown quantity. This movie pretty much was responsible for putting him firmly in front of the public eye. What’s interesting is that critics who write about these roulette movies appear to often have a very different opinion from the public who go and watch them. You can see this in the discrepancies between the critic’s votes and the viewer scores that are running on Rotten Tomatoes. To that end, we often suggest that you should really be looking at just the viewer scores, for a better understanding of how enjoyable a movie will be.