Gambling has been a popular pastime for centuries — the oldest dice found are from 3000 BCE! Throughout the 20th century, gambling had an important place in Western culture. One of the best ways to understand how people at the time viewed gambling is to see how they portrayed it. These eight films give us an idea about gambling across generations.
Dawson City: Frozen Time (2016)
Dawson City: Frozen Time is a documentary made up of old film reels found underground in the city of Dawson and photographs of the city during the gold rush. As a gold rush town, gambling was an important activity for prospectors when they returned from their claim. The film captures images of gambling in Dawson from the 1890s to the 1920s and shows that gambling halls and saloons were at the centre of social life in the young city. Although they were some of the fanciest buildings in town, these early casinos were still very simple affairs. Glitzy online casinos such as Skycity would have been unthinkable to the people of Dawson.
Casablanca (1942) & Gilda (1946)
Films of the 1930s-1950s portrayed gambling as glamorous and exciting but as there were strict gambling laws in place in many countries, they also linked gambling with the criminal underworld. Casablanca is an Oscar-winning film that tells the story of a man who runs a bar and tries to stay out a politics but has to make a choice to stand up against the Nazis. In the film, the gambling at Rick’s bar must be done behind closed doors and after the police have been bribed. In Gilda, the story focuses on a criminal boss who runs casinos. Casinos are presented as a way for criminals to make money. However, gambling itself is not shown in a bad light, but instead as an enjoyable pastime worth getting all dressed up for.
Casino (1995)
Films that depict gambling in the 1970s and 1980s continue to focus on the role criminal organisations played in running casinos, especially in places like Atlantic City and Las Vegas. Martin Scorsese’s Casino tells the story of the end of this time period, as the big casinos came under the control of corporations and became safer and more acceptable. In these films, casino games are shown as very popular and exciting, especially the slot machines, but other types of gambling, like betting on horse races, are shown in a less positive light.
Hard Eight (1996)
While Paul Thomas Anderson’s Hard Eight captures the dark underbelly of second-tier gambling towns like Reno, Nevada, unlike many other gambling films, it shows that being a successful gambler is due to a combination of luck, observation and an ability to exploit the human elements of the casino. The movie does a good job of showing how the highs and excesses of the 70s and 80s couldn’t last and that by the 1990s the world of casinos had begun to shift towards being more corporate and controlled. Unlike many other gambling movies that only show games like roulette and poker, it also shows the range of games that were popular during the time, such as craps and keno.
Casino Royale (2006)
Daniel Craig’s first outing as James Bond in Casino Royale centres around using a high stakes poker game in Montenegro to capture an arms dealer. Gambling in this film, especially poker, is shown as a glamorous and exciting but dangerous activity as we see one desperate man lose his car as he tries to win back his money.
21 (2008) and The Hangover (2009)
Unlike most gambling movies, 21 and The Hangover focus on blackjack — a very popular card game that is underrepresented on film. Unlike many games that are solely based on luck or a combination of luck and skill, blackjack can be won solely by skill if you know how to count cards. Counting cards is, essentially, keeping track of which cards the dealer has played in order to predict which cards are left and how good your odds are of winning. It is obviously discouraged by casinos as it increases a player’s chance of winning. In The Hangover, Alan’s ability to count cards is shown as some sort of mystical power, while in 21, it is shown as a skill that requires serious effort and intelligence to master. The reality is probably somewhere in between!
These movies show that gambling has been an important part of our culture and our entertainment for decades and probably will stay that way for a very long time.
