Since the Rat Pack’s day, the casino went through changes, particularly in Nevada, where organized crime syndicates rebuilt the Las Vegas strip and ran the city using intimidation and fear as bargaining tools. This of course lent a new element to the casino movie as a genre, and before long, many casino movies had a Mafia theme.

The most famous of these, perhaps, is Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather trilogy, notably The Godfather Part II, where Mario Puzo’s character Moe Green who was based on the real life Jewish Las Vegas entrepreneur Bugsy Siegel, establishes a partnership with Michael Corleone to build casinos in the state of Nevada.

This is widely recognized as the greatest sequel of all time, and although there are no actual gambling scenes, offers a good insight into the founding of Las Vegas and the underhand way in which it was managed.

More recently, the Martin Scorsese film Casino, starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Sharon Stone is another fine casino movie. Based on a true story, the rags to riches to rags theme, as De Niro’s character, a casino owner, builds his empire and loses it again, is a disturbing account of the corruption and violence that was the foundation of the bright lights and glitz of Las Vegas Strip.

The casino movie as a genre is never going to get tired. There is simply too much material to draw from, in an industry that is centered on intrigue, controversy and wealth.