Casinos are designed to be fun, exciting places that rely on chance for success. They’re flashy, have plenty of places to eat and drink and are usually full of music and people betting on their luck at games like poker or roulette.
While there may be a few tuts here and there when someone loses big, the vast majority of people in casinos are having a great time. Champagne glasses clink and coins clatter, creating an atmosphere of excitement that can’t be replicated in any other environment.
It’s no wonder that so many people get addicted to gambling. Even though the games are based on chance, the sunk cost fallacy causes many to believe that they can beat the odds. This is why casinos often offer free meals and rooms to “good” players who spend a lot of money in their establishments.
The violence in Casino might be some of the most brutal scenes in any film, but Scorsese doesn’t rely on it just for shock value. He uses it as a way to illustrate how the system of corruption in Las Vegas operates. The torture-by-vice scene, the exploding car and the baseball bat beating are all based on real events that occurred in Sin City and they serve to underscore how pervasive the corruption was at the time of the film’s release.
Casinos are slick, extravagant and exciting, but they’re also a place where people are forced to confront their own demons, whether it’s addiction or greed. Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci are at the top of their respective game in this riveting thriller, making it impossible not to be drawn in to Casino’s world.