The 20 Best Gambling Movies to Watch if You’re Feeling Lucky

A wonderful drama about an English language teacher who gets addicted to gambling; and gets chased by debts and creditors. Like the hard luck Pig who must always go broke, or the Doc who still believes a system can win, or Yeller who has a joke for every hand. There’s the millionaire Slade who just wants to win so he can dance on a grave and doesn’t care how it’s done. And Ladyfingers, of course, who has seen it all so many times that the story has played out before it even begins.

Molly’s Game (

Whether showcasing the opulent, adrenaline-fueled world of high rollers or the stark realities of addiction, these films play a pivotal role in shaping how society views the casino experience. They stand at the crossroads between glorification and caution, often blurring the lines between entertainment and real-life consequences. Gambling movies, with their high-stakes drama and glittering portrayal of casino life, have long captivated audiences, weaving a complex narrative that deeply influences our collective perception of gambling culture. This exciting crime thriller stars Nicolas Cage as a dishonest detective.

Color of money

• This is pretty much a gambling epic, like a sprawling western directed by Sergio Leone or Howard Hawks with Robert De Niro playing the gunslinging head of the titular location in Casino (1995).
• Honeymoon in Vegas follows Jack Singer (Cage), who promised to never get married to his mother when she was dying.
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• Furthermore, the film’s usage of Vegas as a plot device is clever, standing out from other places in the film.
• Sitting in-between those two periods is The Big Sleep, a charming, sleazy noir about a private eye who flirts with Lauren Bacall and caresses her gambling debts.
• This romantic comedy that sees Hong Kong icon Andy Lau take on the role of Sam, a billionaire businessman who falls in love with Milan, a baccarat dealer and cabaret dancer played by Shu Qi.
• In “Uncut Gems,” Adam Sandler takes on a non-comedic role to embody a character consumed by the thrill of gambling.
• Set in the 1970s and 80s, “Casino” follows the rise and fall of Sam “Ace” Rothstein, a professional gambler overseeing the Tangiers Casino.

Jeweler Howard Ratner, played immaculately by Adam Sandler, will gamble anything away to crawl out of a never-ending debt spiral, including Boston Celtics Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett’s 2008 NBA Championship and mobster money. The film is an uncompromising look into how much gambling is truly a disease that can destroy a gambler’s life and the lives of nearly anyone who touches him. The lasting phrase from the film may be a delusionally confident Howard exclaiming, “This is how I win,” but the tragic irony of it all, gambling is ultimately how he loses everything. Paul Newman may seem like the greatest billiards player of all time in The Hustler, but that doesn’t make his high stakes pool games feel any less like he’s about to lose it all. His rival is Minnesota Fats, one of the coolest named characters in gambling film history. In this action-packed heist film, Danny Ocean, played by George Clooney, gets a skilled group together to rob the biggest casinos in Las Vegas.

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In the meantime, he convinces his wife, Julia, to place a parlay bet hoping that he will make enough money to repay everyone, and he does as the bet wins. In this movie Charlie (Tom Cruise) discovers he has a brother he knew nothing about and that his estranged father has left all his money to look after him. Charlie hatches a plan to take Raymond (who is an autistic savant) away from the hospital to try and force them to split the money with him. As the film goes on the unlikeable Charlie starts to understand Raymond more and discovers much about him but towards the end of the movie Charlie is in debt and his girlfriend has walked out over his treatment of Raymond. Disney+ is home to some great movies including animated classics, Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, and so much more. A film cynical in nature, the beguiling use of the spiraling roulette wheel is meant to represent the randomness and transience of life.

The Color of Money (

Another pool-based good gambling film about casinos is The Color of Money. 1986 American drama directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Paul Newman, Tom Cruise, Helen Shaver & Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. It is a sequel to the 1961 movie ‘The Hustler’ with a 7/10 rating on IMDb and 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. Following Fast, Eddie Felson, a former pool hustler, decides to admit a pupil & return after retirement. He encounters Vincent Lauria, a talented & green player, proposing a partnership. Casino depicts the epic story of the traditional casino gambling culture in Las Vegas.

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• The movie ends, but although it depicts a happy ending, we need to be reminded that gambling addiction and problem gambling ought to be treated seriously.
• It’s important to note, however, that while the film is set in Las Vegas, it doesn’t focus on the first Vegas casino.
• A famous casino movie quote is, ‘Change the rules on what controls you, and you will change the rules on what you can control.’ Its IMDb rating is 6.3/10, but it has 15% Rotten Tomatoes.
• The film also strives to showcase the more historic side of Macao by featuring scenes with the Guia Lighthouse, the Chapel of St. Francis Xavier and Long Wa Tea House.
• There are a number of casino movies out there, many of them set in Las Vegas or Atlantic City.
• Casinos are glamorous settings for meetings between superspies and supervillains, and they symbolise a wildcard that draws ordinary people to test their luck.
• Chastain and director Aaron Sorkin were nominated for several big awards for “Molly’s Game,” including an Oscar, a BAFTA and two Golden Globes.

Our selection of Netflix gaming movies includes action, drama, thriller, and documentaries, along with a few international picks that will make for a great watch no matter what your preferred genre is. With this said, let’s plunge right into our Netflix must-watch gambling movies list. In this article, we will be discussing the best gambling movies that are produced in the last few years, and you can find them on Netflix. Each of those movies shows a different drama thrilling story about some gamblers and their personal experience.

Gambling Movies on Netflix

All of these movies have great reviews from the so-called movie experts/critics and from most people who have taken the time to watch them. You can read the reviews to see which ones you might like to try first on several notable movie review websites, such as Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, Roger Ebert, and the Internet Movie Database (IMDB). Over the past several decades, Hollywood studios have produced a fantastic selection of movies depicting the main protagonists playing in casinos. Should you end up enchanted with the game of poker through the movie, make sure to check out our expert selection of 1 euro online casinos where you can indulge in your favourite game by depositing as little as 1 euro.

The Gambler

In a unique dramatic role for Adam Sandler, “Uncut Gems” has him starring as a slick New York jeweler with a gambling addiction. When he comes across a rare, expensive opal that should pay off his debts, the protagonist gets involved in some dicey deals. The top casino movies range from moody noire films to action-packed heists, so you’re certain to find something you like.

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Much of the heist action was filmed at the City of Dreams, with one particularly thrilling scene involving Jun Ji-hyun of My Sassy Girl (2001) fame scaling the building. The director, Choi Dong-hoon, however, layers the film with complexity by having the thieves distrustful of each other, as well as fleshing out their backstories. A significant amount of the film was shot at MGM Macau, with the integrated resort’s VIP lobby, luxury suites and gaming rooms all making an appearance. The film also strives to showcase the more historic side of Macao by featuring scenes with the Guia Lighthouse, the Chapel of St. Francis Xavier and Long Wa Tea House. In that film, the Roger Moore incarnation of James Bond is on the hunt for a deadly assassin that wields a golden gun. The journey takes Bond to Macao where he finds a Portuguese gun expert who leads him to Macau Palace, a floating casino in the Inner Harbour area.

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We remain impartial and committed to delivering unbiased gambling content. Its basic tension arises from the question of why Sydney is starting to help John. An answer is also obtained at the end of the film, which is unexpected, as we have not gotten any hints from Anderson. The answer is so surprising that it touches the boundaries of credibility, if not go beyond that. The internal logic of the film works great; the actors do an amazing job.

Honeymoon in Vegas follows Jack Singer (Cage), who promised to never get married to his mother when she was dying. However, he still proposes to his long-term girlfriend, Betsy (Sarah Jessica Parker) and they fly to Las Vegas to get married, where Jack loses Betsy in a high-stakes poker game that has been rigged. 21 follows Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) who will need to have $300,000 for the program in order to get admitted into Harvard School of Medicine. He and five other MIT students received training to be professionals at card counting in blackjack as a result, and they later used Las Vegas casinos to earn millions of dollars. In any event, Eddie Garrett, a gambling addict, is tasked to stash the money for an acquaintance – if that’s what you can call a local thug who is rummaging through your kitchen one morning – who is heading into prison.

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The conflict makes for a great drama, as long as you’re watching the original ’70s film with James Caan and not the hated 2014 Mark Wahlberg remake. Despite 007’s legendary fondness for gambling, the James Bond movie franchise has only featured Macao twice over the course of its more than 60 years of history and 24 films. It nonetheless pays homage to the real life floating casino, Macau Palace, which makes its appearance in the ninth film, The Man with the Golden Gun.

Revolver is a 2005 action thriller starring Jason Statham, Ray Liotta, Vincent Pastore & Andre Benjamin, written & directed by Guy Ritchie. Jake Green, a gambler, seeks revenge against a crime boss who sent him to prison unjustly. A famous casino movie quote is, ‘Change the rules on what controls you, and you will change the rules on what you can control.’ Its IMDb rating is 6.3/10, but it has 15% Rotten Tomatoes.

Balancing law school, a relationship, and debts owed to loan sharks isn’t easy. In “Rounders,” John Dahl takes us to New York’s private poker clubs where friends Mike McDermott and Worm need to secure enough money to repay a debt Worm accumulated in prison. Mike, who had quit playing poker, picks up the cards again and is drawn back into the gambling underworld. The film features many humorous segments, including a memorable finger-chopping scene, and is well worth a watch for a funny movie where casino games feature heavily. Instead of listing them all, here are the names of some of the best-known movies of all time that feature one or more casino scenes that every casino player and movie buff should know about. Like most gambling films, this one includes a big win for the protagonists.

This criminally underrated movie shows the intense highs and lows of the gambler’s mind, with the audience having a front-row seat. Acting as a realistic portrayal of gambling addiction, Ben Mendelsohn’s performance as Gerry shows the misery and recklessness that comes with his type of dependency. Whether you’re into intense poker games or dramatic heists, our collection has something for everyone. Plus, we’ve thrown in a few international films that are real hidden gems.

The Gambler (

As these films continue to shape public perceptions, they also spark important conversations about the ethics of gambling, the lure of the casino lifestyle, and the fine line between risk and reward. It follows the story of two poker players as they circle each other looking for an opening or a tell. They compete for the best odds, but sometimes it’s not the right answer.

• The movie storyline depicts Sam Ace’s rise to power as a casino operator.
• Clooney stars as Danny Ocean, a charismatic ex-con who recruits a team of skilled criminals to pull off an ambitious robbery of three of the biggest casinos in Vegas.
• It is also probably the most violent movie involving casinos as the story does not shy away from the Mob related behaviour in Las Vegas at the time.
• Swingers is blessed with a beautifully quotable screenplay, one of the most electrifying and intelligent ever written, demonstrating that in modern Hollywood, sincerity and compassion are not incompatible with humor.
• With seven wins at the Academy Awards out of ten total nominations, The Sting (1973) is perhaps the most acclaimed film of the entire list.

Best GAMBLING movies

For anyone who’s into movies or casinos, this list is a solid gold find. Based on the true story of six talented MIT students with gifts for doing math, 21 is one of the best and most famous casino movies of all time. Axel Freed, played by James Caan in the original, heads the cast of the film as a gambler who is also an inspiring English professor and author. He steals $44,000 from his own mother and heads to Vegas, looking for a big score so he can settle all of his financial obligations. Director Robert Altman must have recognised himself in the characters of Bill and Charlie, and we believe that’s what makes California Split one of the greatest casino movies of all time. When you think about the best movies for poker players, you have to start with Rounders.

If there is a better lesson to winning at sports betting we’d love to know what it is. Even for those who have never seen the movie, Dustin Hoffman’s performance as Raymond Babbitt lives on as legend. An autistic savant with an affinity to count cards, Raymond helps deeply indebted brother Charlie take the Vegas blackjack tables by storm.

One of the most popular casino movies of the last decade was “21”, which was based on true events. Jim Sturgess plays Ben Campbell, an MIT math student who learns to count cards with the help of a professor. He then recruits a group of brilliant young people to become part of his team.

They set out to sharpen their skills, with Vincent eventually out-hustling the original hustler. Bolstered by an Academy Award-winning, tour-de-force performance by Newman, this Martin Scorsese film deftly navigates the dank pool halls with ease, ensuring the audience is racking up right beside his layered characters. Rosa himself is banned from entering casinos https://true-fortune.us/ as his card counting skills are known to the establishments and they are not happy to be losing that much money to a trick. This gambling movie on Netflix is probably one of the most realistic ones as well, as card-counting systems in blackjack do exist and casinos need to be extra careful not to allow a player to take advantage of a weakness in their security.

Part II is the best example of a sequel outperforming its predecessor, making it one of the best films of all time. The film also depicts America’s corruption accurately while providing a glimpse into New York City’s underground. Furthermore, the film’s usage of Vegas as a plot device is clever, standing out from other places in the film. In 1970s Las Vegas, Sam “Ace” Rothstein is riding high as front man for the mob’s multibillion-dollar casino operation. It’s a winning hand—Ace’s brains and Nicky’s muscle—until wild card hustler Ginger McKenna gets between them.

• With a strong romantic subplot, this one of the best blackjack-based movies ever.
• What makes Casino Royale so popular is the 007-style mixture of secret missions and high-class gambling.
• Charlie takes Raymond to the blackjack table in hopes his card-counting gift will help Charlie win.
• To further inspire writing, he disobeys a casino’s conduct code, getting caught in a dangerous heist.
• He carries the entire movie by himself through the first hour, with Judi Dench as his only real peer.
• Each concludes that the choices and risks one takes have consequences, but if you can handle those, you might just pull off a casino heist.
• William H. Macy stars as the titular character Bernie Lootz — and as a cooler in a casino, he acts as bad luck for the other gamblers, placed there by the casino themselves as a sort of negative presence.

And that’s hardly scratching the surface of what makes Croupier so great. Directed by Robert Altman, this gambling saga tells the tale of its two primary characters, Bill Denny and Charlie Waters — played by George Segal and Elliot Gould, respectively. A friendship between the two blossoms after a fellow gambler gets angry at them for beating him and taking their money.

The two instantly become friends and come up with an idea to try their luck in all the major cities along the Mississippi River. They will play until they win a high-stakes poker game at a casino in New Orleans. The Gambler tells a powerful story about the ferociousness of addiction as well as alienation and all the temptations a person can be overwhelmed with when facing very high stakes. Both James Caan and Mark Wahlberg in the 2014 remake managed to breathe life into one of the most famous gamblers in movies. One of the best gambling movies of all time, 21 is a must-see for anyone who is curious about blackjack and card counting. 21 was a major success at the box office, the top-grossing film in North America for the first two weekends after it was released.

• The tale of small-time pool hustler Eddie taking on the big time is one any gambler can empathise with and it features the same mix of hope, hubris, heroics and heartbreak we’ve all experienced.
• Owing a local loan shark as well, Professor Bennett has a week to pay it off or it will cost him his life.
• That same year, Sam narrowly survives a car bomb, suspecting Nicky to be the culprit.
• The characters are great, especially the just about believable villain Teddy KGB, and the poker is the right side of plausible while also being ridiculous enough to be entertaining.
• We at GamblingCollective take betting seriously, and as fun as it is we understand that it can cause a lot of problems.
• The people and events he encounters at a big casino inspire him – and add up to one of the industry’s top must-see casino movies.
• When you get Terry Gilliam to direct a biographical gambling movie based on a Hunter S. Thompson novel, it’s more than clear the result won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.

The city’s popularity among filmmakers is exemplified by Cultural Affairs Bureau data cited in a South China Morning Post report, which shows that roughly 110 film applications are made in the SAR each year. Most of these come from Hong Kong productions, although mainland, Taiwanese and Japanese features can also be found in the mix – along with movies from further afield. Macao has long been a magnet for international movies, thanks to its exotic mix of cultures, world-class casinos and bags of atmosphere.

• It’s also a strange blend of gangster brutality, romanticism, and humor that takes some risky aesthetic risks and mostly succeeds.
• This film delves into the psychological aspect of gambling, portraying the superstitions, fallacies, and the thrill of the game that keeps players coming back for more.
• If there is one film that both transports viewers to Las Vegas and reminds them of Casino, it’s Bugsy.
• Add poker and gambling to the mix, and you’ve got Rounders helping you make the best of your weekend poker movies night.
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• Based on John O’Brien’s semi-autobiographical 1990 novel of the same name, Leaving Las Vegas follows Ben Sanderson (Nicolas Cage), who lives with alcoholism and suicidal ideation.
• And as Fast Eddie seeks to test his pool hustling aptitude against the professional player “Minnesota Flats”, the stars of this sports show in Newman and George C. Scott lead the project to utter greatness.

Outside of Eddie’s hilarious misfortune and idiotic gambling logic, Win It All actually has an empathetic core and is a great advertisement for the benefits of addiction counseling. You could read up on the seedy history of Sin City, or you could spend close to three hours watching a Martin Scorcese masterpiece. Sam “Ace” Rothstein (Robert DeNiro) unofficially runs the Tangiers Casino in Las Vegas at the direction of the Chicago Mafia and acts as the viewers’ eyes and ears to the unseen machinations of running a casino in Las Vegas. The payoffs to the mafia, the politicized wranglings with the Nevada Gaming Board, the berated Blackjack dealers, and the showgirls are explored like parts of the blueprints of the Vegas gambling world.

Philip Baker Hall plays surly gambling pro Sydney; Gweneth Paltrow plays waitress/prostitute Clementine; John C. Reilly plays gullible loser John Finnegan; Samuel L Jackson plays slick-talking, no-nonsense casino security personnel Jimmy. For a little over 90 minutes, Hard Eight Sydney takes John under his gambling wing after helping his homeless protege get enough money for his mother’s funeral. After her career was derailed by a life-changing injury to her spine, Molly was then put in charge of an underground poker game within the Viper Room in Los Angeles.

However, the documentary needs to be taken with a grain of salt, because it mostly portrays events as told by Donaghy. Ben Campbell, a maths major at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology wants to study medicine but he cannot afford the tuition fee. He is then recruited by one of his professors Micky Rosa, who asks him to solve the Monty Hall Problem, which Campbell does. The movie (Jack’s Casino) is just another version of this wonderful fairy tale, and it reflects the rampant corruption in some parties and the backstage of American politics. After a decade of success, the situation suddenly turned, and her bank balances were frozen, and she found herself required to appear before the American court.

With seven wins at the Academy Awards out of ten total nominations, The Sting (1973) is perhaps the most acclaimed film of the entire list. It also holds a 92% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and has been selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry. And one could argue that the bulk of its admiration from fans and critics alike stemmed from the chemistry of its cast. It’s dark at times, it’s touching every once in a while, and the whole way through Mississippi Grind (2015) will make you laugh at the absurdity of its characters and their many questionable decisions. The two leads develop a legitimate friendship, too, one which mirrors the chemistry of the actors themselves.