“The town will never be the same. After the Tangiers, the big corporations took it all over. Today it looks like Disneyland. And while the kids play cardboard pirates, Mommy and Daddy drop the house payments and Junior’s college money on the poker slots. In the old days, dealers knew your name, what you drank, what you played. Today, it’s like checkin’ into an airport. And if you order room service, you’re lucky if you get it by Thursday. Today, it’s all gone. You get a whale show up with four million in a suitcase, and some twenty-five-year-old hotel school kid is gonna want his Social Security Number. After the Teamsters got knocked out of the box, the corporations tore down practically every one of the old casinos. And where did the money come from to rebuild the pyramids? Junk bonds.”
-Casino
Las Vegas used to be Disneyland for adults. Now it’s like Walmart but without the homey charm.
Outstanding film and yes it was based in reality. FYI, the LV politician character “Pat Web” who was such a sleaze bag and gave De Niro’s character Arnold Rothstein such a hard time is purportedly directly based on “Dingy Harry” the former Democrat speaker of the House. Interestingly he is one of the only characters in the film to be “fictitious” and to not have his actual name used.
My mistake, the sleazy “Senator” played by Dick Smothers who sat on the Nevada gaming commission that denied Rothstine a gaming license was directly based on Harry Reid. What can I say... it was late and I’m tired ;0)