De Niro’s character, portraying Frank Rosenthal, breaks down the hierarchy of the casino in his famous “eye in the sky” scene. The film also gives us a realistic inside look at what goes on behind the scenes at the casino. While the larger than life murder and assassination attempts all seem par for the course in a mob movie, what’s interesting is that little details like Sam’s insistence on an even number of blueberries in each muffin was also based on reality. Though the actual deed may have been performed somewhere else, they were found in a field very like the one in the movie. It’s not just the characters most of the events are all based on things that happened including the attempted assassination of Sam by a car-bomb in the introduction and the vicious murders of Nicky and Dominick Santoro. While out there Rosenthal met Geri McGee, who inspired Ginger McKenna in the movie and is played by Sharon Stone in a part that got her a Golden Globe Award. He was a pioneer of sports gambling, and secretly ran the Stardust, Fremont, Marina, and Hacienda casinos in Las Vegas. Rosenthal is the centre of the film which is based on his real life. The real-life inspiration for Rothstein was Frank Rosenthal, an infamous sports handicapper and affiliate of the mob who went out to manage casinos and was accompanied by an old friend, Anthony Spilotro, the inspiration for Nicky, to act as the muscle. It’s easy to get swept away in the movie Casino and forget that, as it says in the opening credits, is based on a true story.Ĭharacters Sam Rothstein, Nicky Santoro and Ginger McKenna are all based on real people who were active in Las Vegas in the 1970’s and all were affected by the mob’s moves to run the area at the time.

Casino movie stream uk