Casino Review

A casino is a place where people can gamble. While some casinos offer a range of additional luxuries, including restaurants and free drinks, gambling remains the main activity. People have been gambling for thousands of years, and the practice is an integral part of our culture. The most popular casino games are slots, blackjack and poker. According to a survey by Gemini Research, these games are preferred by over 50% of the respondents, while table games and bingo only received around 10% each.

Behind the flashing lights, free cocktails and stage shows, casinos are built on a bedrock of mathematics, engineered to slowly bleed their patrons of cash. This is why casinos spend so much money on security. Elaborate systems allow them to monitor every table, window and doorway from a room filled with banks of surveillance screens. These cameras can even be repositioned to focus on certain suspicious patrons by security personnel in the room. Even so, savvy mathematically inclined people have found ways to beat the system.

This is the sort of story that Martin Scorsese excels at. He is a master of taking reprehensible characters and making us care about them, and Casino is no exception. From the opening scene with the car bomb to the shocking ending, Casino is a relentlessly compelling drama that showcases the talents of Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Sharon Stone. It may be one of the longest movies ever made, but it never lags or runs out of steam.