History Film / Casino

* SmallNameBigEgo: Ace and Nicky eventually devolve into this. They are small pieces in the chessboard that would do better by keeping a low profile, but their success eventually go to their heads.

* RiseAndFallGangsterArc: The film charts the rise to prominence of Sam "Ace" Rothstein and Nicky Santoro in their efforts to control Las Vegas -- the former running the Tangiers Casino successfully enough to [[VillainWithGoodPublicity gain accolades in the legitimate world]], the latter [[TheBrute enforcing mob rule on the streets]]. However, their mutual pride and personal issues eventually set off a chain of events that concludes with the end of Mafia-controlled Las Vegas, resulting in both men losing everything.

** Frankie Marino's real-life equivalent, Frank Cullotta, couldn't have been involved in [[spoiler:the murder of the Spilotro brothers]] because he had agreed to become an FBI informant and was in witness protection at the time, after the FBI played him a wiretapped conversation of Spilotro getting sanctioned by the Chicago Outfit to kill him. In addition, as revealed in his autobiography, Cullotta [[spoiler:was offended at the Spilotro brothers being beaten to death: [[EvenEvilHasStandards he considered it barbaric]] and would have just shot them]].

* PrettyInMink: [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/casino_7.jpg Loads of furs are worn in this movie.]] In fitting with the theme of excess, it would be easier to list the ladies in the film who didn't wear fur at one point. Ginger wears the most, but even Amy wears a little white fur jacket for half her screen time.

* ThePeterPrinciple: Nicky is highly competent at any task involving violence or intimidation, which gets him promoted to a job that requires tact and subtlety. Disaster ensues.

* OutOfGenreExperience: The movie has many scenes of graphic violence, but the scene where [[spoiler: Nicky and his brother are almost beaten to death with baseball bats]] is more like a scene out of a horror movie. It's also one of the only scenes in the movie with no background music so all you hear is this sickening sound of aluminum hitting their bodies, their bones breaking, and [[spoiler: Nicky sobbing while watching what's happening to his brother as he waits for what's about to happen to him. Watching dirt being thrown over him while he's still conscious takes the cake.]]

* LoopholeAbuse: Ace's criminal record makes it impossible for him to get a license from the Nevada Gaming Commission. But Andy Stone points out that he doesn't need to have a gaming license to work in a casino, he just needs to ''apply for one''. There's a loophole in Nevada law in that an applicant can start working in a casino while the application is being processed. So after a while he can change his nominal job title, putting his application to the back of the line (which has a multi-year backlog), and then rinse and repeat. Since his corporation is pouring a lot of money into Las Vegas, [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney the authorities have no reason to be inquisitive or do things by the book]]... [[NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught that is]], until the Outfit orders a hit on a silent partner trying to sue their front man, Ace accidentally mentions to a reporter that [[TheManBehindTheMan he's effectively the head of the Tangiers Corporation,]] and outrage from the press leads to the Gaming Commission putting Ace under investigation.

* LoopholeAbuse: Ace's criminal record makes it impossible for him to get a license from the Nevada Gaming Commission. But his mentor points out that he doesn't need to have a gaming license to work in a casino, he just needs to ''apply for one''. There's a loophole in Nevada law in that an applicant can start working in a casino while the application is being processed. So after a while he can change his nominal job title, putting his application to the back of the line (which has a multi-year backlog), and then rinse and repeat. Since his corporation is pouring a lot of money into Las Vegas, [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney the authorities have no reason to be inquisitive or do things by the book]]... [[NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught that is]], until the Outfit orders a hit on a silent partner trying to sue their front man, Ace accidentally mentions to a reporter that [[TheManBehindTheMan he's effectively the head of the Tangiers Corporation,]] and outrage from the press leads to the Gaming Commission putting Ace under investigation.

** Lampshaded in one scene where Ace narrates that out of respect guys from other crews get away with a warning.

** Phillip Green, the man the mobsters arranged to be their 'squeaky clean' front man, turns out to be a crook who cheated his partner Anna Scott in a real estate deal, thus bringing a lot of unwanted police attention on them and also scare away the cash cow tourists.

** Nicky Santoro: His Narcissism. He lacks empathy for everyone around him and thinks he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. He displays the classic social disorder of never admitting when he's wrong, even denying things he did or said, just to get his way, like claiming he never asked Sam if he can come to Vegas, when he did. Or him pretending that Sam's banker Charlie Clark didn't warn him that depositing large sums of money would result in a loss. [[spoiler:Subverted somewhat after his play with Ginger failed. He admits he messed up afterwards.]]

* EyeScream: The scene with the vise. This specific bit was later cut by Scorsese, though the rest of the scene stayed.

* EverybodySmokes[=/=]SmokingIsCool: It's the 1970s in Vegas. What did you think?

* DrugsAreBad: Ginger suffers hard from her drug abuse and Nicky becomes more sloppy as a result of his drug abuse.

** Ace and Nicky state on a couple of occasions allude to "a lot of problems getting solved in the desert"; this alludes to people getting whacked either in said desert (or elsewhere) and getting buried in a hole.

* DeathGlare: Part of Billy's job description seems to be glaring at suspected cheaters or troublemakers.

** [[spoiler:Nicky and his brother Dominick.]] AssholeVictim, yes, but that was still a horrific way to go.
** Nicky puts one victim's head in a vise.

* CostumePorn: The costume budget for the film was $1 million. Robert De Niro had seventy different costumes throughout the film, Sharon Stone had forty. Both were allowed to keep their costumes afterwards.

** A particularly clever example. In ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'', Creator/RobertDeNiro and Creator/JoePesci played roles similar to the ones they play in this movie. However, there are certain notable differences -- in particular, while Nicky Santoro is more or less the same as Tommy de Vito (a blustery psychotic maniac with a HairTriggerTemper), Jimmy Conway was a lot more similar to Tommy than in this movie (being a calculatingly murderous sociopath rather than his comparatively more benevolent and decent character here). As such, the fact that Ace here is obviously terrified of Nicky in a way Jimmy wasn't to Tommy in the earlier movie serves to make Nicky even more terrifying.

* BlatantLies: To milk a rich whale like K.K. Ichikawa some more, Billy lies about engine trouble on his intended departing flight and that there are no more flights at the time so that he'll be forced to stay a little longer.

* BadBoss: ''All'' the mob bosses end up being this, [[spoiler:killing anyone and everyone who could possibly link them to skimming the casino; even guys they '''liked''']]. Special mention goes to [[spoiler:Remo, who single-handedly seals Andy's fate after everyone else vouches for his unquestionable loyalty]].

* BadassDecay: Justified and discussed In-Universe. As Nicky gets older and more into drugs he begins to lose his edge, and Ace even remarks at one point that it took Nicky three punches to knock somebody out; when he was young and clean, it would have only taken one.

* AntiVillain: Anywhere else in the country, Sam is a bookie hassled by cops[[note]]The real Lefty Rosenthal faced regular accusations of bribery and match-fixing. While never convicted for any of it, the authorities did their best to make things difficult for him, such as banning him from the racetracks in Florida[[/note]], but in Las Vegas, all Ace wants to do is to make an honest living by running with efficiency a legal casino for his mafia bosses back home in Chicago. But in doing so, he is not above using ruthless methods or being an enabler, as Nicky does most of the unavoidable dirty work. Still, Ace is quite decent compared to other characters.

** Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro to Nicholas "Nicky" Santoro.

* AbusiveParents: Amy (Sam and Ginger's pre-teen daughter) is tied to the bed while she's asleep and left alone in the house when Ginger wants to go on an escapade with her lover [[spoiler: Nicky]]..