Gambling and poker have been shown on the big screen since the dawn of cinema. These movies are popular and frequently depict casinos as alluring settings for meetings between spies and villains. The excitement of high-stakes wagering has been recreated in action, thriller, drama, and comedy movies. After watching the films, you can also enjoy the thrill of gambling with a game of poker, baccarat, slots, and more on https://verdecasino.com/en.
Below, we share some of the best and top-rated movies with gambling themes that we think everyone should watch at least once.
- Croupier (1998)
- Owning Mahowny (2003)
- Casino Royale (2006)
- God of Gamblers (1989)
- Molly’s Game (2017)
Croupier (1998)
Moving away from the typical gambler movies set from the players’ point of view, Croupier is the story from a dealer’s perspective. A Croupier is a dealer in a casino, the person in charge of a gaming table. This bleak neo-noir film drags you into its romantic, tantalizing, and immoral world.
Clive Owen plays Jack Manfred, a struggling author who takes a job in a casino as a croupier to make ends meet. He also believes that this job will be good for researching the book he is writing. The casino world devours him, and the lines between him and the main character of his book blur. Contrary to the casino’s rules against interacting with customers outside work, Manfred befriends Jani, a female customer. Jani is unlucky at the casino and asks Jack to be the inside man for a robbery.
Directed by Mike Hodges, Croupier is a tense and dark crime drama that is both entertaining and intriguing. It is a cleverly organized and suspenseful movie that is a must-watch with realistic depictions of a casino put onscreen.
Owning Mahowny (2003)
A fascinating real-life story set in the early 1980s of a compulsive gambler whose life falls apart when he begins to embezzle funds from the bank where he works to feed his obsession. Phillip Seymour Hoffman plays Dan Mahowny, a bank manager who abused his position to gamble with the bank clients’ money, amounting to over $10 million. To everyone in his life, he presents an ordinary facade. Little does anyone know that he suffers from a gambling addiction. He lost all the funds in Atlantic City and Las Vegas and was eventually arrested and convicted on charges of bank theft.
This movie is splendidly written, directed, and acted, opening to us a fascinating world. It also is a detailed exposition of gambling addiction and its effect on the gambler and the people around him. The protagonist’s day-to-day activities leading to his inevitable collapse are most beautifully revealed.
Casino Royale (2006)
Daniel Craig’s first outing as the legendary British spy 007 made a powerful impression. After several goofy James Bond installments, Casino Royale was a grittier movie with a sense of realism previously not present.
James Bond gains his status as a 00 agent and goes on his first mission. The villain, Le Chiffre, played by Mads Mikkelsen, is a banker supplying funds to the world’s terrorists. To protect himself against terrorists, Le Chiffre participates in a no-limit showdown poker game at the titular “Casino Royale” in Montenegro to win back his losses. M, the boss of M16, played by Dame Judi Dench, sends Bond to participate in this game and stop Le Chiffre from winning.
Much of the suspense comes from the lengthy card game, the highlight of the film, which plays out in several beautifully shot scenes. The plot is compelling and fascinating, with several moments of espionage spread throughout the movie. The characters in Casino Royale have depth and are interesting while being relatable.
God of Gamblers (1989)
An oddball movie directed by Wong Jing is a mix of the traditional Hong Kong comedy while the other part is a slick gangster thriller. Starring Hong Kong Cinema heavy weights Chow Yun Fat and Andy Lau as Ko Chun and Michael Chan, respectively acting as a pair of unmatched gamblers.
Ko Chun (the god of gamblers) is an unmatched gambler with superhuman abilities. An accident leaves him with memory loss, and he has regressed to a child’s mental state. Michael Chan, a small-time hustler, is responsible for the accident and takes responsibility for caring for Ko Chun, who is incapable of caring for himself. Chan realizes that Ko Chun has not lost all his abilities, and, with his hustler mindset, they go to the gambling houses and dive back into high-stakes gambling.
Molly’s Game (2017)
Molly’s Game is an adapted screenplay based on the autobiography by Molly Bloom. It was the first directorial effort of Aaron Sorkin, one of Hollywood’s prominent screenwriters.
Molly Bloom (played by Jessica Chastain) is a young Olympic-class skier who suffers from a career-ending injury. Unsatisfied with her life after recovering from her injury, she gets involved in Hollywood’s underground poker world. She runs an exclusive high-stakes poker game where her clients include celebrities, sports personalities, business titans, and Russian mobsters. Running the game for a decade, the law eventually catches up to her when the FBI cracks down on illegal games and gambling.
The true-crime movie serves the audience with many poker and legal technicalities while being fast-paced and captivating. It lends itself well to cinema with great acting, exposing politics in our society at diverse levels.
Gambling-themed movies provide an exciting film experience with entertaining and intense scenes. These movies both serve lovers of suspense and passionate gamblers by taking them into the high-stakes environment of wagering and risk-taking. Take a weekend off, grab your popcorn, and let the movies suggested take you on an adventure.
