Money doesn’t talk here, it screams bloody murder. Everything else is incidental. And it still is today. But it was a whole different world back then. Everyone was “juiced in”…or “made”. You were where you were because one or another set of “bosses” dictated it. And the bosses played footsies with the pols.
But it’s a world I never really learned to comprehend at all because I never [ever] had even the slightest inclination to gamble.
It’s an ersatz spectacle that plastic people thrive on. And that’s okay by me. As long as I can steer clear of them.
But then people being people even the pros here eventually succumb to the ravages of contingency and chance and change. And while fear works wonders in keeping the sheep in line there were just too many anomalies ready, willing and able to stir things up.
Now it’s just business as usual.
IMDb
[b]The blackjack “cheats” were using a technique known as “spooking”. Nevada courts have mostly ruled it to be legal because it merely takes advantage of hold card information exposed by sloppy dealers.
Martin Scorsese stated before the film’s release that he created the “head in the vise” scene as a sacrifice, certain the MPAA would insist it be cut. He hoped this would draw fire away from other violent scenes that would seem less so by comparison. When the MPAA made no objection to the vise scene, he left it in, albeit slightly edited.
When James Woods heard that Martin Scorsese was interested in working with him, Woods called Scorsese’s office and left the following message: “Any time, any place, any part, any fee.”
In the scene where Joe Pesci comes over to Ace Rothstein’s house to talk to Richard Rheil (the banker). There is a photo on the counter, where Robert De Niro is standing. That is an actual photo of Lefty Rosenthal and Tony Spilotro, which are the real guys DeNiro and Pesci are portraying.[/b]
Casino at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casino_(film
CASINO [1995]
Directed by Martin Scorsese
[b]Ace [voice-over]: Before I ever ran a casino or got myself blown up, Ace Rothstein was a helluva handicapper, I can tell you that. I was so good that when I bet, I can change the odds for every bookmaker in the country. I’m serious. I had it down so cold that I was given paradise on earth. I was given one of the biggest casinos in Las Vegas to run: The Tangiers, by the only kind of guys that can get you that kind of money. Sixty-two million seven hundred thousand dollars. I don’t know all the details…
Nicky [voice-over]: Matter of fact, nobody knew all the details. But it should have been perfect. I mean he had me, Nicky Santoro, his best friend watching his ass. And he had Ginger, the woman he loved on his arm. But in the end, we fucked it all up. It should have been so sweet, too. But it turned out to be the last time that street guys like us were ever given anything that fuckin’ valuable again.
…
Ace [voice-over]: At that time, Vegas was a place where millions of suckers flew in every year on their own nickel and left behind about a billion dollars. But at night, you couldn’t see the desert that surrounds Las Vegas. But it’s in the desert where lots of the town’s problems are solved.
Nicky [voice-over]: Got a lot of holes in the desert and a lot of problems are buried in those holes. Except you gotta do it right. I mean, you gotta have the hole already dug before you show up with a package in the trunk. Otherwise, you’re talking about a half hour or 45 minutes of diggin’. And who knows who’s gonna be comin’ along in that time? Before you know it, you gotta dig a few more holes. You could be there all fuckin’ night.
…
Nicky [voice-over]: Now, notice how in the count room nobody ever seems to see anything. Somehow, somebody’s always lookin’ the other way. Now, look at these guys. They look busy, right? They’re countin’ money. Who wants to bother them? I mean, God forbid they should make a mistake and forget to steal.
…
Ace [voice-over]: No matter how big a guy might be, Nicky would take him on. You beat Nicky with fists, he comes back with a bat. You beat him with a knife, he comes back with a gun. And if you beat him with a gun, you better kill him, because he’ll keep comin’ back and back until one of you is dead.
…
Ace [voice-over]: In Vegas, everybody’s gotta watch everybody else. Since the players are looking to beat the casino, the dealers are watching the players. The box men are watching the dealers. The floor men are watching the box men. The pit bosses are watching the floor men. The shift bosses are watching the pit bosses. The casino manager is watching the shift bosses. I’m watching the casino manager. And the eye-in-the-sky is watching us all.
…
Ace [voice-over]: Ginger had the hustlers code. She knew how to take care of people. And that’s what Vegas is all about. It’s kickback city. She took care of the dealers, pit bosses, floor managers…but, mostly, she took care of the valet parkers…the guys who could get you anything and take care of anything. Ginger took care of the parkers because they took care of the security guards who took care of the metro cops, who let her operate.
…
Ace [voice-over]: Nicky’s methods of betting weren’t scientific, but they worked. When he won, he collected. When he lost, he told the bookies to go fuck themselves. I mean, what were they going to do, muscle Nicky? Nicky was the muscle.
…
Nicky [voice-over]: Ace was so fuckin’ worried about his casino he forgot what we were doin’ out here in the first place. A million times I wanted to yell in his fuckin’ ear…“This is Las Vegas. We’re supposed to be out here robbin”‘…you dumb fuckin’ hebe.
…
Ace [voice-over]: Back home, they would have put me in jail for what I’m doing. Here, they’re giving me awards.
…
Nicky [voice-over]: To be truthful with you, I had to admire this guy. Tony Dogs was one of the toughest Irishmen I ever met. This son of a bitch was tough. For two days and two fuckin’ nights, we beat the shit out of this guy. I mean, we even stuck ice-picks in his balls. In the end, I had to put his fuckin’ head in a vise.
…
Nicky: Hey, Dogs, can you hear me?
[Tony Dogs looks over]
Nicky: Listen, Dogs. I’ve got your head in a vise. I’ll squash your fucking head like a grapefruit, if you don’t give me a name.
[now in reasonable voice]
Nicky: Come on, Anthony. We go way back. Don’t make me do this, please. Don’t make me have to be the bad guy here.
Tony Dogs [weakly]: Fuck you.
Nick: [miffed]: Fuck me?
[to cohorts]
Nicky: Do you believe this? Two whole days and nights now.
[turns to vise and starts twisting it almost spinning it like a sailor’s wheel]
Nicky: Fuck me? Huh? Fuck me, motherfucker? Fuck my mother? Is that what you’re telling me?
Tony Dogs [gasps painfully as one of his eyes literally sprouts out of its socket]:
Nicky [upon seeing this]: Oh God, please give me a name.
Tony Dogs [gasping]: Charlie, Charlie M.
Nicky Santoro: Charlie M? YOU MAKE ME POP YOU’RE FUCKING EYE OUT TO PROTECT THAT PIECE OF SHIT?!
…
Mob Boss [to Nicky]: Wait a minute. You mean to tell me that the money we’re robbing is being robbed? Somebody’s robbing from us? We go through all this trouble and somebody’s robbing us? Huh?
John Nash: Like I said, it’s part of the business. It’s considered leakage.
Mob Boss: Leakage my balls. I want the guy who’s robbing us.
…
Nicky [voice-over]: But the bosses never believed in leakage…so listen to what they do. They put Artie Piscano, the underboss of K.C. in charge of making sure nobody skimmed the skim.
…
Pat Webb: We may have to kick a kike’s ass outta town.
…
Nicky [to Charlie]: I think in all fairness, I should explain to you exactly what it is that I do. For instance tomorrow morning I’ll get up nice and early, take a walk down over to the bank and walk in and see and, uh, if you don’t have my money for me, I’ll crack your fuckin’ head wide-open in front of everybody in the bank. And just about the time that I’m comin’ out of jail, hopefully, you’ll be coming out of your coma. And guess what? I’ll split your fuckin’ head open again. ‘Cause I’m fuckin’ stupid. I don’t give a fuck about jail. That’s my business. That’s what I do.
…
Ace [voice-over]: Meeting in the middle of the desert always made me nervous. It’s a scary place. I knew about the holes in the desert, of course. And everywhere I looked, there could have been a hole. Normally, my prospects of coming back alive from a meeting with Nicky were 99 out of 100. But this time, when I heard him say “a couple of hundred yards down the road”, I gave myself 50-50.
…
Nicky [to Ace]: Get this through your head you Jew motherfucker, you! You only exist out here because of me! That’s the only reason! Without me, you, personally, every fuckin’ wise guy skell around’ll take a piece of your fuckin’ Jew ass! Then where you gonna go? You’re fuckin’ warned! Don’t ever go over my fuckin’ head again! You motherfucker, you.
…
Ace [narrating]: By this time, Nicky had things so fucked up on the streets that every time Marino went back home, the packages got smaller and smaller. It got to the point, when he walked into the place he didn’t know whether he was going to be kissed or killed.
…
Gaggi: Frankie, I want to ask you something. It’s private. But I want you to tell me the truth. Of course, Remo. I want you to tell me the truth, mind you. I always tell you the truth, Remo. Frankie…the little guy…he wouldn’t be fucking the Jew’s wife, would he? Because if he is, it’s a problem.
Frankie [voice-over]: What could I say? If I had given them the wrong answer, I mean, Nicky, Ginger, Ace - all of them could have wind up getting killed. Because there’s one thing you gotta know about these old timers, they don’t like any fucking around with the other guy’s wives. It’s bad for business. So I lied. And even though I knew that by lying to Gaggi, I could have wound up getting killed myself.
…
Nicky [voice-over]: When it looked like they could get twenty-five years to life in prison just for skimming a casino, sick or no fuckin’ sick you knew people were going to get clipped.
…
Ace [voice-over]: 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. But in the end, I wound up right back where I started. I could still pick winners, and I could still make money for all kinds of people back home. And why mess up a good thing? And that’s that.[/b]