Characters / Casino

Characters in Casino.

Since this a character page, spoilers will be unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

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Sam "Ace" Rothstein

Sam "Ace" Rothstein

"In Vegas, everybody's gotta watch everybody else."

Played By: Robert De Niro

"In the casino, the cardinal rule is to keep them playing and to keep them coming back. The longer they play, the more they lose, and in the end, we get it all."

A Jewish-American handicapper who runs the Tangiers Casino on behalf of the mob. The film portrays the establishment of his operation and then its gradual failure between 1973 and 1979.

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• The Ace: It's even his nickname and he regularly shows why with his exceptional skill at money making.
• Adaptational Name Change: Despite a very close portrayal, Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal had his name changed for the film. While many of Scorsese's historical films change the names of most characters, it's a bit unusual for the leads to also have their names changed.^note Universal's lawyers suggested this to avoid litigation from Rosenthal. Doubles as No Celebrities Were Harmed.
• Amazon Chaser: He falls in love with Ginger when he spots her skimming a guy and then throwing his chips in the air once she's confronted.
• Anti-Villain: Anywhere else in the country, Sam is a bookie hassled by cops, but in Las Vegas, all Ace wants to do is to make an honest living by running with efficience 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 dirty work. Ace is quite decent compared to other characters.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Sam is so good at betting because he knows every minor detail affecting the events. His success is owed to his extreme diligence, learning as much as he possibly can about every available factor about a game, both what he can and insider information, and making bets accordingly.
  Nicky: He even figured out the different bounce you got off the different kinds of wood they used on college basketball courts, you know?
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's a Control Freak who doesn't wear pants when he sits in his office. He's also one of The Mafia's biggest moneymakers.
• Camp Straight: Has one very garish and flamboyant fashion sense... but do not let that fool you.
• Consummate Professional: The reason Ace gets promoted to manager; he is a money machine that "sleeps and breathes gambling", works 18 hours a day, and cannot abide sub-par competence. However, his Control Freak tendencies demonstrate, as Nicky notes, that he may be the best at what he does, but he doesn't really seem to enjoy it.
• Control Freak: Though to be fair, the chef failing to put any blueberries in his blueberry muffin was probably the straw that broke the camel's back.
  Ace: From now on, put an equal amount of blueberries in each muffin.
  Chef: Do you know how long that's going to take?
  Ace: I don't care. An equal amount in each muffin.
• Cool Car: No matter what year it currently is over the course of the film, Sam will be driving a period-correct Cadillac El Dorado. A car that perfectly reflects the opulent and flashy gaudiness of Sam's surroundings and the life he leads within them.
  • Thanks to a particular quirk of the car he survived an assassination attempt in Las Vegas. A bomb was attached to the gasoline tank. His Cadillac had a metal plate underneath the driver's seat, installed by General Motors to correct a balancing problem. This plate shielded Ace's body from most of the explosion's force.
• Country Matters: Ace calls Ginger a cunt after she leaves her daughter home alone and tied to a bed.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Ace fires a young employee just for saying his wife is beautiful. He’s also notably antagonistic towards Lester and his relationship to Ginger, though it’s not entirely unjustified.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While he's no hero, he loves his daughter.
  • Initially he's a pretty decent husband to Ginger and is completely blind to how she uses him.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He's disgusted with the modern Las Vegas of "theme park" casinos that attract families to invest in their kids' college fund when before it was the province of serious gamblers who knew what they were doing and what the stakes were, and is pretty disappointed with the lousy service and poor standards of hospitality.
• Evil Genius: His role in the grand scheme of things for the mob. Ace, much like his real-life counterpart, Lefty, is an absolute genius at gambling and everything to do with it, and went out of his way to be from an early age, leafing through every sports journal he could get his hands on, learning how weather patterns affect gaming odds, knowing about the health condition of the players and more, and of course, being gifted mathematically and business-wise. He doesn't even like sports that much, but rather he's attracted to the calculations along with the money he is able to make off his legal and illegal endeavors, and the mob in turn like the money he makes for them.
• Fatal Flaw: His Pride and his ego. He arrogantly forgets that it was because of the mob bosses, as well as the Vegas police and politicians looking the other way, that he was able to run the Casino. He stepped on all their toes, and he only survived because he made good money for the bosses and still had the potential do so. He marries Ginger, knowing her bad reputation and seeing first hand how deeply attached she was to a worthless pimp. Yet, he convinces himself that he can change her for no reason other than ego, which he admits during the narration.
  "Before I married Ginger, I heard all the stories, but I didn't give a fuck. 'I'm Sam Ace Rothstein', I said. I can change her."
• Historical Villain Downgrade: Ace is certainly no hero, but he is portrayed as a doting husband who only makes his wife wear a beeper after she tries to run off with their daughter. His real life inspiration, Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, actually brutally beat his wife, openly cheated on her, and humiliated her by buying other women more expensive gifts than for her, yet was still enough of a hypocrite to make her carry around a beeper even before she tried running off, despite the fact that she was apparently faithful at the time (which, given her treatment, makes her more sympathetic than in the film). However...
• Historical Villain Upgrade: His real-life counterpart was an FBI informant although this detail was disclosed in 2008.
• Honor Before Reason: While firing the incompetent cousin of the County Commissioner may be a proper decision regarding day-to-day operations, Sam refuses to re-accommodate him even in a lower position out of professional ethics when the Commissioner asks him to do so as a personal favor. Unsurprisingly, things go sour from there.
• Insufferable Genius: Sam is very smart and isn't afraid to let others know it, often showing disdain for people not at his level. Nicky even calls him out on his high opinion of himself.
• Karma Houdini: When the bosses decide to whack pretty much everyone that had anything to do with the skim, Sam is spared because he can still make them money. He also survives a car bombing (implied to have been done by Nicky without the bosses' approval), and manages to stay out of prison after the FBI discovers the mob's influence in Vegas. Likely because the man Ace was based on was an FBI informant, which wasn't public knowledge until after he had died.
• Kosher Nostra: He has the personality typical of this trope: brilliant, fast talking, and nice until pushed too far.
• Love at First Sight: Sam falls for Ginger on the spot, when she is throwing away the winnings of a another guy, no less.
• Love Makes You Dumb: Ace, the smartest gambler in the country, wagers his patrimony on a sleazy gold digger who outright tells him she does not reciprocate. He jumps in with with both feet. It's a disaster.
  Ace: When you love someone, you've gotta trust them. There's no other way. You've got to give them the key to everything that's yours. Otherwise, what's the point? And for a while, I believed, that's the kind of love I had.
• Non-Action Guy: Ace rarely ever gets his hands dirty, leaving that to Nicky or other people.
• Obsessively Organized: A strength and weakness depending on the situation. He wants everything to work exactly the way he wants it to. Apparently it's why the mafia bosses like him so much, because Ace makes everything run like clockwork, which of course makes them richer.
• Pants-Free: Sam doesn't wear them in his office. Revealed when he moves away from his desk. The costume designer said in an interview that this reflected Ace's fastidiousness, he didn't want creases on his pants, so he removes them when he's alone in office.
• Papa Wolf: What was the moment that made Ace hate Ginger's guts? Not her planning to kill him. Not her cheating on him with Nicky. It was when she tied Amy to the bed. He even threatened to kill her if Ginger ever did something like that again.
• The Perfectionist: Makes him perfect to run the casino while contributing heavily to his eventual downfall.
  • Won't bet on a sports match without knowing every single detail about the game, including things like how a basketball might bounce differently off of different floors in different arenas, or if a player is on drugs or just got their girlfriend pregnant.
  • Demands that the kitchen at his casino starts putting an equal number of blueberries in each blueberry muffin after getting one with barely any (Frank Rosenthal, who Sam is heavily based on, merely demanded that each muffin have at least ten blueberries, which would be far easier to accomplish).
  • Won't abide so much as a single incompetent worker at his casino, even if the worker is well-connected and has powerful people pushing for him to keep the job. Pat Webb more or less tells him that he'll get his gaming license denied and get him forced out of Las Vegas if he doesn't re-hire Don, but Sam still refuses, even though there was probably a position he could have given him where he couldn't do very much damage.
• The Peter Principle: Sam is extremely good at making money and seems the logical choice to run a casino on paper but a variety of factors (his brutal methods and use of guys like Nicky, rubbing powerful people the wrong way and an uncompromising perfectionist nature, his own growing ego and just plain bad luck) conspire to blow his chances and ruin any future he might have as anything but a bookmaker.
• Professional Gambler: His job prior to moving to Las Vegas and afterwards. He is so good that he makes the odds fluctuate when he places a bet.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Sam is in fact very friendly with the local Vegas police, and even gets into a polite conversation with a pair of officers near the end of the film despite his tarnished reputation. The officers are even genuinely apologetic for having to assist Ginger during the domestic meltdown between her and Sam since they are legally required to do so.
• Real Men Wear Pink: A mob-affiliated man who has few qualms about dishing out violence, and one of his suits is bright pink.
• Red Baron: He's called "Ace" because of his skills as a sports handicapper. He's also called "The Jew" derisively.
• Relieved Failure: By the end of the film, he's lost everything and been forced to go back to being a handicapper, albeit living in a nice home and clearly enjoying a comfortable life. Though sad to see his "paradise" go, after having to deal with all the chaos that ensued thanks (in part) to his efforts to maintain his reputation, he's just grateful to still be alive and still able to make money.
• Refusal of the Call: Sam is initially reluctant about the offer of running a casino, pointing out good arguments. Nicky snarks that it's Sam's entire Distinction Without a Difference personality.
• Sherlock Scan: He identifies a pair of cheaters through a quick scan of the area.
• The Smart Guy: Ace is this to the mid-west bosses, a guy who makes them earn a lot money thanks to his absurdly accurate bet analysis. It gets him promoted to managerial duties in Las Vegas.
• Too Clever by Half: Sam is undeniably an extremely intelligent gambler and excellent at making money but he badly overestimates his own intellect, both in regards to the casino and his personal life, causing many of the problems he faces.
• Tranquil Fury: He is pretty good at being outwardly calm whenever he's arguing, chewing someone out, or having a guy thrown out. However, he can barely contain himself after Ginger ties Amy to a bed, and then calls her a cunt, among other things. Finally, having had enough of her antics, he loses it and physically drags her out of the house all the while roaring with rage.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Zigzagged. At first Sam builds an entrepreneurial reputation, is given awards and social recognition, but after a while, things go sour and he is surrounded by great media controversy regarding his license problem and his association with Nicky, who is a well-known ruffian that almost lives inside a courthouse by then. As a reaction, Sam starts his own talk-show to make a stand and defend himself and his image. He gets rebuked by the wiseguys as this flamboyant crusade draws unwanted attention. (They'd rather be villains with no publicity.)
• Villainous Breakdown: When he gets denied his license, he has a public meltdown, openly yelling about all the corrupt activity he's been providing for all the public officials. Immediately afterwards, he makes himself a local talk show host and continues his PR war with the politicians, unnerving his bosses. Even Nicky notes it's crazy.

Ginger McKenna

Ginger McKenna

"I want my cut!"

Played By: Sharon Stone

"I went into this with my eyes open, you know. I knew the bottom could drop out at any time. I'm a working girl, right? You don't think I'm gonna go into a situation like this if I don't think I'm gonna get covered on the back end?"

Sam's fiery and independent wife.

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• Abusive Parents: She ties her daughter to the bed and leaves her alone in the house so she can go on an escapade with her lover Nicky.
• Adaptational Name Change: Her real-life counterpart was named Geraldine "Geri" McGee.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Has a thing for them, apparently. It is implied (or speculated) to be what draws her to Ace. She has an on-and-off relationship with Lester, her abusive ex and a pimp. She also begins an affair with Nicky, the biggest gangster of the movie.
• Asshole Victim: She's a greedy, selfish golddigger who eventually dies of a drug overdose. The shot of heroin that kills her is a "hot dose" laced with battery acid, implying that she's whacked by the mob.
• Broken Ace: She is Vegas' top casino hustler. She's beautiful and smart. She marries Ace and becomes respected among Vegas' elite. But she also has a troubled relationship with her former pimp Lester and as the years pass she succumbs to substance abuse and it’s implied that she loses her hustling skills towards the end of the movie.
• Chewing the Scenery: In the second half of the film, Ginger degenerates into this due to alcoholism and her deteriorating marriage.
• Demonization: Despite being a very emotionally fragile woman who clearly needs help, she's portrayed as a greedy self-serving bitch that both the characters and audience hope gets what's coming to her. There's also the fact the real Ginger was apparently a far more compassionate individual, while her husband Lefty was the abusive one.
• Devil in Plain Sight: Ace proposes based on an assumption that the two of them share a mutual respect. While Ace does respect Ginger, Ginger is only ever in it for the money (although in the beginning she does respect him enough not to lie and pretend to be in love with him, telling him that she cares for him but that marrying him would be a mistake). Ace seems to be oblivious to the fact that she's only in it for the money and will do anything to get it, including manipulating him. Ace even notes that he loves watching her work a room and make everyone there love her, not realizing that it is exactly what she's doing to him. He clues up in the last third of the film.
• Distracted by the Luxury: Basically how Ace gets Ginger to marry him is to offer her loads of expensive gifts.
• Establishing Character Moment: In her first scene, Ginger is in the company of a loaded player, throwing the dice for him, winning and stealing some of the profits on the sly. After she's done, the guy gives her a few chips in payment, which she finds insufficient. They begin to argue, and when she's told to get lost, she tosses his chips into the air, putting them up for grabs, making a big scene. This establishes Ginger as a gold digging hustler artist who is given leeway at first and isn't afraid to tear down her victim when necessary, but also that she's not as clever as she thinks she is to avoid being caught in the first place. It foreshadows her vitriolic conflict with Ace and blowing all of her newfound cash in her future marriage.
  Ace: What a move, I felt in love right there, but in Vegas, loves costs money. Ginger's mission in life was money
• Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry: Ace buys her a million dollars worth, which she even shows off to an infant Amy.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Around the time their marriage is falling apart, Ginger's hair goes from long and wavy to short and spiky.
• The Farmer and the Viper: Sam marries Ginger, knowing her bad reputation and seeing first hand how deeply attached she was to a worthless pimp. Yet, he convinces himself that he can change her for no reason other than ego, which he admits during the narration. To their mutual misery and ruin, she reverts back to her swindler nature in little time.
• A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted: It stated outright in her death scene that all her wealth she amassed as a Gold Digger towards Ace was gone within a few months.
• Forced to Watch: Ace makes a point of putting Lester's well-deserved ass whuppin' on full public display, making sure Ginger has a front row seat.
• Gold Digger: Discussed. Sam thinks he can defy it and change her. He cannot.
• Has a Type: All of the men Ginger has been with would be considered "bad boys".
• Hate Sink: She is a shrill, greedy, and self-destructive character who has no genuinely human moments. The story makes it clear that you are not supposed to sympathize with her.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: Geri McGee Rosenthal was the real-life inspiration for Ginger. Yes she was a chip hustler so she was obviously no saint, but in real life she used her money from hustling to support her sick mother, her sister's family and her daughter (with the real life Lester Diamond). She was known for her generosity; people in Vegas still rave about what a great person she was, she was considered a loving mom and some of her actions and attitude towards her husband Lefty Rosenthal are more understandable when you consider that unlike in the film he was abusing her. The story about her tying her child to the bed has not been disproven, but when you consider the source (Lefty), given what we know about him, it is questionable. She was also an FBI informant along with Lefty, although this wasn't revealed until Lefty's passing so this detail couldn't have been added to the film.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Was anybody surprised that her self-destructive behavior led to her becoming dirt poor, and dying of a drug overdose in a cheap motel room?
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Every time the audience gets a glimpse of human qualities from her, she promptly subverts it. At the end of their relationship, Ace rightfully deduces that every time she is trying to get pity, it's nothing but Crocodile Tears.
• Lady Drunk: Ginger turns into this as the marriage goes downhill. Her substance abuse ends up being Played for Drama when it leads to her developing a drug addiction that would eventually claim her life.
• Manipulative Bitch: She's quite willing to turn on the waterworks and the puppy eyes whenever Ace confronts her about anything. The more their marriage breaks down the more savvy he is about this.
  Ace: You're lookin' at me a certain way. You're teary-eyed, huh? You're upset. You're a good actress, you know that? Good fuckin' actress.
  • When Ace throws her out of the house and Nicky refuses to whack Ace and throws her out of his place, she causes a disturbance at the home and then manipulates the police who arrive to act as her muscle not only get her jewelry but also take Ace's money from the bank by pretending to be a victim.
• Money to Throw Away: Well, someone else's chips anyway.
• Predatory Prostitute: Ginger is first introduced as a hooker in a Vegas casino. She marries Ace for his money, making it a longish version of this. She occasionally shows some vague suggestions that she may be a Hooker with a Heart of Gold, but she subverts this by revealing herself to be a Manipulative Bitch and an abusive mother.
• Pretty in Mink: As soon as Ace starts showering Ginger with gifts and money, she is seen wearing furs (about half the furs in this movie are worn by her). It starts with a stylish A-line white mink coat, to a few fox furs, to a chinchilla coat Ace shows her when he buys their house.
• Taking the Kids: Ginger attempts to do this, but she comes back, knowing what could happen.
• Too Dumb to Live: In the last third of the film, she attacks Nicky, a gangster well known for being vicious and violent.
• Villainous Friendship: With Jennifer Santaro, Nicky's wife.
• What Does She See in Him?: Ace's reaction to her relationship with Lester Diamond. As Ace narrates, the high class and independent hustler he knows her as would never even be seen with a loser pimp like Lester. Yet Lester apparently has Ginger wrapped around his finger, even after she marries Ace.

Nicholas "Nicky" Santoro

Nicholas "Nicky" Santoro

"Take this stiff, and pound it up your fucking ass!"

Played By: Joe Pesci

"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."

A mob enforcer from Chicago who runs the Hole in the Wall Gang in Las Vegas. He is also an old friend of Sam's.

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• Actor Allusion: Nicky is a lot like Pesci's character, Tommy, from Goodfellas, but with a key difference: Tommy was a bottom-of-the-barrel hood with no impulse control whatsoever, while Nicky is a high-ranking gangster with just enough control to earn him his authority. It's like a demonstration of what would happen if someone like Tommy was given a position of authority like Nicky's.
• Adaptational Name Change: He is based on Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro.
  • An FBI agent refers to him as "The Ant" during a surveillance session.
• Addled Addict: Along with the Vegas lifestyle of drink and broads, his physical well-being deteriorates on coke. Ace overhears that Nicky had to deck a man three times before he went down, when in the early days, it would've only taken one punch.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: He begs for his brother's life as he is being beaten.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Even if Nicky is a sadistic psychopath who had his violent demise coming a mile away, it's hard not to feel sorry for him as he is being forced to watch how his brother is beaten to death in front of him, desperately begging for his life.
• At Least I Admit It: His attitude stems from the fact that he's being looked down on for being a brutal murderous thug by the other mob bosses, and by Ace, when his murders and street crime represents the reality of their enterprise, far more than their middle-class pretensions.
• Asshole Victim: Despite the fact that his death is extremely brutal, he's still a horrible man who sealed his own fate.
• Ax-Crazy: Here's how Ace sums it up:
  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.
• Badass Decay: Justified and discussed In-Universe. As Nicky gets 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 clean, it would have only taken one.
• Big Brother Instinct: Witnessing Dominick getting battered, Nicky vainly tries to fight off the two men holding him down. Him weeping over Dominick's beating is the only time Nicky shows such emotion.
• Bodyguard Betrayal: The mafia bosses send Nicky out to Vegas with one simple order - protect Ace. But Nicky has ideas above his station, wanting to carve out his own enterprise. Over the course of the film, he goes further and further off the rails, messing around with Ace's wife Ginger (a very big no-no as far as the mobsters are concerned), and though not his style, possibly rigs Ace's car with a bomb.
• Break the Haughty: Happens to him in the end of the film where the bosses have had about enough of Nicky and had him and his brother Dominick beaten with baseball bats and Nicky breaks down upon being forced to watch Dominick getting beaten to a bloody pulp and stripped and buried.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's a violent psychopath and largely autonomous, but the bosses put up with him because he's a good earner and functionally loyal. He accomplishes their assigned errands to a T. and regularly kicks up envelopes full of money, but as the envelopes grow thinner and his mischiefs more blatant, his sidekick Frank Marino begins to wonder if he's going be greeted or whacked on arrival when delivering them. Nicky is also an accomplished thief who, for some reason, dislikes being "watched" by the people he robs, so he turns their pictures around.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: He and his brother are brutally beaten to death with baseball bats, stripped naked and buried alive.
• Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster!: Nicky is a brutal deconstruction of this trope as his love of the gangster lifestyle and the immunity from consequences he believes it gives him end up being his undoing, making him unable to function in the more white collar setting Ace and other mob bosses are switching to.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: His real-life counterpart Tony Spilotro ^note and his younger brother was shot in a basement in Cook County and buried in a cornfield. To be fair, this information wasn't known until years later.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Nicky repeatedly stabs a guy in the neck with his own pen after the guy tells Ace to 'shove it up his ass' when Ace politely tries to return it to him. Horrific enough by itself, but keep in mind that Nicky is not even responding to an insult directed at him.
  • There's also the scene where Nicky confronts Charlie Clark, Ace's banker after losing money in one of his investments. While Nicky's frustration is understandable, his blatantly (and graphically) threatening to murder a public figure over a minor inconvenience shows how unsuited he is to his leadership role. Ace calls him out on this, noting that the banker will report Nicky's threat to the FBI and bring down even more heat on them.
• The Dragon: He evolves into Dragon with an Agenda.
• The Dreaded: Nicky to other wiseguys. His very presence is enough to frighten two members of another crew away from Sam's casino.
  • Even when they were on good terms, Sam was always nervous about meeting privately with him.
• Dumb Muscle: Despite all his toughness and violence, Nicky is incredibly stupid. He even states this flat out while threatening Sam's banker. He also completely lacks eloquence and pragmatism, having only the smallest hint of self-control.
• Establishing Character Moment: In his first scene, he savagely stabs a man with a pen after overhearing said victim insulting Ace, Nicky's friend.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite being a violent and psychotic mobster, he's a loving and devoted father. He also cares deeply about his brother Dominick, and he even didn't mind babysitting an infant Amy while her parents were on their honeymoon because he loved her.
• Even Evil Has Standards: For a psychotically violent mobster who reacts to any minor slight, real or imagined, with disproportionate violence, Nicky sure has a lot of standards:
  • He reacts very angrily when Ginger flippantly asks him to get someone to kill Ace; while relations between the two are at a low and he's been considering it himself, the guy was still like a brother to Nicky so he's not going to do it without a lot of thought. It's implied that he eventually made up his mind and the car bomb Ace barely survives was a parting gift from Nicky, though.
  • Nicky also expresses disgust over "degenerate gamblers". In particular, he chews into one who's let his gambling addiction leave his family broke and unable to pay the bills. He even calls Remo one, though only in narration.
  • When Ginger says that if she'd taken her and Ace's daughter, Ace would have hunted her down and killed her, Nicky corrects her by saying he would have. "You don't take a man's kid."
  • When Ginger kidnaps Amy, Nicky asks Ace why he didn’t get in contact with him and explicitly noted it doesn’t matter if they’re currently beefing with each other, he’d have helped Ace get Amy back.
  • Nicky would drop whatever he was doing at 6:30am to go home and cook breakfast for his son and is generally shown to be a very devoted father.
  • In his narration, Nicky expresses sympathy for an innocent waitress who was killed when a rival gang shoot up one of Remo’s bars.
  • As Horrifying the Horror states below, Nicky is implied to be uncomfortable at the level of extreme torture he puts Tony Dogs through.
  • In a less-murderous example, he's also mortified when he learns that the reason one of his men got kicked out of the casino by Ace's guys was because he was rude, obnoxious and put his feet up on the table. He ends up hitting the guy with a telephone receiver.

    Nicky: You took your boots off? You put your feet on the table... you shit-kicking, stinky, horse-manure-smelling motherfucker you! You fuck me up over there, I'll stick you in a hole in the fucking desert! You understand? Go over there and apologize.

• Expy: Nicky Santoro is pretty much what would happen if you drop Tommy DeVito into Las Vegas, albeit toned down a notch. Unlike Tommy, Nicky has some degree of self-restraint.
• Facial Horror: Nicky's face is almost completely covered in blood when he and his brother are buried alive.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • His massive ego. He lacks empathy for almost everyone around him that isn't related by blood 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 didn't warn him that depositing large sums of money would result in a loss. Subverted somewhat after his fling with Ginger sours. He admits to Frankie Marino that he messed up.
  • There's also his complete lack of pragmatism. He simply cannot understand that violent, low thugs like him are unhealthy for the new wave of organized crime. Quite simply, he is unsuited for the semi-legit, more white collar sort of crime that Ace and the bosses are converting to.
  • And oh, that short fuse of his....
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Nicky Santoro's spectacular temper is a fatal liability pivotal to the plot.
• Hidden Depths: Ace mentions that for all his violent thuggery, Nicky is in fact a very successful businessman with his restaurants. He opens one in Vegas. The Leaning Tower, and throughout the entire film it is always busy and full of celebrities and other high-class customers and its success is completely legitimate. He's also smart enough to invest money in legal enterprises. It's even implied that Nicky could have done decently well in the more white collar environment were he not so in love with the traditional gangster lifestyle and if he didn't possess his explosive temper.
• Horrifying the Horror: Nicky is implied to be uncomfortable with the measures he has to take to extract information from Tony Dogs, up to and including putting the latter's head in a vise. Nicky even tries to convince Dogs to give him a name already so he doesn't have to go through with any sort of cranial pulverization.
• Hypocrite: Is a major loan shark who judges and browbeats the people he lends to, calling them "degenerate gamblers" and such.
  • He has the audacity to tell Ace to be calm and nice when he goes to confront Ginger for tying up Amy when he himself is far from being calm and nice.
  Nicky: (To Ace) Hey! Be fuckin' nice! Calm! Be nice. Don't fuck up in here.
• It's All About Me: Believes he's the top mob honcho in Vegas despite only meant to serve as muscle to Sam, and later gives out a tirade to Sam about how he is the true power in the city when the bosses start to complain about all the trouble Nicky is causing them.
• Jerkass: There's almost nothing remotely pleasant about Nicky: he's a nasty asshole, Dumb Muscle, a self-destructive thug who's pretty bad for business, a madman who kills people on the flimsiest of pretexts, a sadist who loves killing and torturing, and a jerkass who only causes trouble for everyone around him. His only redeeming qualities are his fondness for children, being somewhat of a devoted father, and at one point displaying signs of being uncomfortable with the levels of violence he has to go trough to extract information from a thug, implying even he has limits.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While he’s still a self-destructive thug that burns everything down around him, some of his criticisms of Ace as a self-important egotist and the Mafia Dons as being unreasonable in their anger over the skim being skimmed are pretty accurate as is his view that, for all they look down upon him, his violent behavior is a necessary part of what keeps their business going.
• Just a Gangster: Mixed with Too Dumb to Live. He thinks that the sort of vulgar, violent, low thuggery that he employs is ultimately the heart of what being a gangster is, and he has no use for the semi-legit, more white collar sort of crime that Ace and the bosses are converting to. (Possibly because it's fairly obvious that he would never fit in with such a plan.) It results in Nicky being brutally murdered when he won't change and his exploits threaten everyone involved. Ace, on the other hand, rolls with the changing times and lands on his feet.
• Kavorka Man: Nicky can get practically any woman he wants, despite being short, fat, and far from conventionally attractive. Being one of the most powerful mobsters in Vegas has its advantages.
• Laughably Evil: Sure he is an ill-tempered and violent mobster but you can't help but laugh at some of his insults.
• Manipulative Bastard: He seems to be manipulating Ginger in order to get his hands on the millions in jewelry that Ace has entrusted to her.
• The Millstone: In the pursuit of his own criminal endeavors, Nicky seriously undermines Rothstein's efforts to run the casino. Unlike the typical Load, Nicky is actually very good at what he does; strong-arming people and pulling heists. It's the fact that he wants to be the Boss of Las Vegas that screws Ace over. For his part, Nicky doesn't really care about how it affects Ace or even his bosses.
• The Napoleon: Short, ambitious, and very aggressive.
• Nice to the Waiter: Averted. Aside from Sam and a casino person telling him that 2 wiseguys forgot to sign their papers, Nicky is both verbally and physically abusive to the Tangiers staff when he's in a bad mood.
  • He is aghast when "Tony Dogs" murders a waitress (alongside others in one of Remo's bars), noting that the poor woman was there on her day off.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Done to Nicky and Dominick by Frank Marino and company.
• Oh, Crap!: After he throws Ginger out of The Leaning Tower Restaurant, he realizes how bad things have gotten with the Rothstein situation, and that there is no doubt that Gaggi is going to find out about it. He knows things are going to shake out soon, and he'll be in very deep trouble.
• Persona Non Grata: He gets his name in a Black Book and is banned from the casinos. Sam warns him beforehand but Nicky mocks the issue as the book only has two names and one of them is still Al Capone and continues to generate waves. Then he laments, as the ban hurts his operations.
• The Peter Principle: 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. Several people (mostly Sam) try their best to rope him in, but he doesn't think he needs to listen.
• Pet the Dog: He cares about his son and he chides a degenerate gambler for his vice but still gives him heating bill money for the sake of his family, twice.
  • He also defends Ace to Ginger when she talks to him about Lester getting beat up, saying that Ace loves her and is worried about Lester manipulating her.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: While he's a little guy, he can still win fights against people much larger than him. This is Truth in Television: his real-life inspiration, Anthony Spilotro, was nicknamed "Tony the Ant" for being small but strong.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Nicky provides some offhand remarks towards Arabs and Nigerians which are a bit diluted by his "charming" personality. Not to mention the anti-Semitic insults towards Sam even though he works for him.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Nicky is still caught in a childlike mindset, seeing a gangster as a job that lets him steal and brutalize with impunity and has no understanding of the consequences of his behavior until they catch up to him.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When the FBI starts their mass-arrest, Nicky gets outta dodge.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: He says the F-word more than 208 times compared to everyone else in the movie (many of whom say it plenty of times as well).
• The Sociopath: His greatest talent is his remorseless capacity for violence, torture, and murder. Barring his family, there is no telling whether or not you'll be his next victim, no matter how close you are as friends.
• Stupid Evil: It doesn't dawn on him how serious getting himself into the Black Book of Vegas was, and it would hurt his operations until Ace had to spell it out for him - he was in a sense, as infamous as Al Capone effectively blacklisted from every casino in the State of Nevada.
• Take Over the City: Nicky becomes the crime lord of Las Vegas and muses about a bigger independence and a hit on the bosses, but his wishful thinking goes nowhere.
• Villain Respect: In spite of killing an innocent waitress he admired Tony Dogs as one of the toughest Irishmen he ever met, and wasn't happy with the level of torture he had to subject him to, to find out who his associates were.
• Would Hit a Girl: Nicky has zero qualms over hitting women.
  • He kills Anna Scott on orders from the higher ups as her lawsuit against Phillip Green threatened to expose the casino's books to the authorities.
  • Gives his wife, Jennifer, a slap when she gives him static about the stray diamonds he has hidden in her hair, though he kisses her immediately after they're all recovered.
  • Then, there's his violent manhandling of Ginger. But to be fair, she hit him first.

Lester Diamond

Lester Diamond

"But I want you to understand that I'm lookin' out for you in this thing. Okay?"

Played By: James Woods

"He was a moocher, a card cheat, a country-club golf hustler. A scumbag... chasing dentists for a few bucks. I mean, the guy was always broke, he always had a story. And somehow, she could never turn him down. The way Ginger saw it, I guess, was that Lester was just an unlucky guy. Somebody had to take care of him."

Ginger's old pimp and former lover, who is trying to get back into her life.

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• Adaptational Name Change: He is based on Leonard "Lenny" Marmor, a High School sweetheart whom Geri McGee also had a child with prior to her marriage with Rosenthal.
• Blatant Lies: After Sam discovers that Lester and Ginger have kidnapped Amy, Sam calls him up and demands Lester return his daughter. Lester (with Ginger and Amy ten feet away) repeatedly denies they are there, and promises to call Sam back.
• Child Hater: During the kidnapping of Amy later in the film, he repeatedly berates the little girl, tells her to shut up, threatens to slap her face and even ship her to Bolivia "in a fucking box".
• Comically Missing the Point: At one point when he is talking about escaping with Ginger and Amy whines that she wants to go see The Elephant Man, he replies back that "we're not going to see any fuckin' elephants", as if elephants in a zoo.
• Historical Villain Upgrade:
  • The film implies that Ginger became a prostitute because he lured her into it, and became her pimp (and mentor). There is no evidence that McGee ever was a prostitute.
  • Marmor didn't ascond with Ginger, but supported McGee’s marriage to Rosenthal, as that would mean she would be able to give him even more money than she had been.
• Hypocrite: Lester guilt-trips Ginger for marrying Ace... on her wedding day, no less... over the phone. While he's at a hotel, and he's just finished having sex with a prostitute.
• The Load: Lester is an enormous load for Ginger. What she sees in him, Ace cannot even fathom.
• Manipulative Bastard: He has Ginger completely wrapped around his finger for much of the movie. However, Ace trumps him as this and easily neutralizes him when he actually confronts him.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Ends up on the receiving end of one, courtesy of Ace's associates, after the latter catches him receiving an envelope full of Ace's money from Ginger.
• Paper Tiger: Talks big but none of the gangsters, Ginger, or even the pre-teen Amy are remotely intimidated by him, and he folds immediately at the sight of anyone other than Ginger or Amy.
• Psychopathic Manchild: He's needy, greedy, and has virtually no sense of responsibility. He comes off even more like this trope later in the film, especially in his interactions with Ginger's pre-teen daughter Amy. They bicker like siblings competing for attention, and Lester at one point even exclaims "she started it!" like a five year old caught doing something naughty.
• Smug Snake: He plays one, that varies from sleazy to comical.
• Too Dumb to Live: Shakes down a savvy, ruthless, "connected" casino boss' wife for cash, intending to "juice him for all he's got," and is badly beaten in public by mob associates for it. Later he attempts to run off with said boss' wife and kidnap his daughter to extort him, threatening her in the process. And on top of all that, he doesn't put two and two together (until Ginger points it out to him) that if "Ace" called him, he obviously knows where they are, and thugs are likely en route.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: After Ginger decides not to flee to Europe with him and Amy, Diamond is not seen or mentioned for the rest of the movie.
• Would Hurt a Child: Threatens to do this to Amy, but it's implied he was only bluffing.

Amy Rothstein

Amy Rothstein

"I don't wanna go to Europe. I wanna see the Elephant Man."

Played By: Erika von Tagen

(Sam, to Ginger.) "You listen carefully! You ever fuckin' touch her again, you ever do anything like that again, I'll fuckin' kill you. Pure and simple. Do you hear me? Pure and fuckin' simple, I'll fuckin' kill you, you bitch."

Ginger and Sam's daughter.

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• Bullying a Dragon: Subverted. Despite Lester mentioning he might murder or dismember her, Amy isn't at all frightened. On the contrary, she taunts him because she knows he's all talk and she's in no real danger.
• Composite Character: Lefty Rosenthal and Geri McGee had two children, Steven and Stephanie. However, Amy is the only child of Rothstein's depicted in the movie. Also counts as Adaptational Name Change.
• Daddy's Girl: She's clearly closer to Sam (who for all his flaws is a good and loving father to her) than she ever was to Ginger. The fact her mother abuses and neglects her while Sam protects and nurtures her probably feeds into this.
• Girlish Pigtails: Amy, which helps to highlight that she's innocent in all this.
• Harmful to Minors: The poor girl is exposed in a lot due to her mother's hedonism and wrathfulness. Amy watches her mother snort cocaine (though Ginger sheepishly mutters "don't do this"), Amy gets tied to a bed by Ginger so the latter can go out and drink, and Amy witnesses Ginger freaking out and repeatedly ramming her car into Ace's while high on drugs. The last scenario is possibly the most poignant, as Amy is only sitting at the window silently looking on until someone leads her away.
• Mafia Princess: Amy is one, although she is affected more by her parents' failing marriage than her father's work.
• Pink Means Feminine: When she goes on a shopping trip, she gets a pink suede skirt, vest, and boots.
• Pretty in Mink: Ginger takes Amy on a shopping trip in Beverly Hills, and buys her an outfit that includes a cute little white rabbit fur jacket. She wears it until Ginger takes her home.

Pat Webb

Pat Webb

"Are we certain that you want the gamin' control board eyeballing your record and your gangster pals like Nicky Santoro?"

Played By: L.Q. Jones

"Mr Rothstein, you people never will understand the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you somethin', partner... you ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the Governor. Thank you for your time."

A corrupt Clark County Commissioner who comes into conflict with Sam.

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• Almighty Janitor: Comes across as a modest, down home, "aw, shucks" country boy, but is actually one of the most politically powerful people in Las Vegas, if not Nevada. Sam finds this out the hard way.
• Blatant Lies: Immediately after Pat refers to himself as a 'poor old civil servant', the camera cuts to his shoes, which are alligator skin and probably cost several thousand dollars. Hard to imagine anyone poor affording those.
• Brutal Honesty: Has no problem admitting how stupid Don Ward is, calling him as useless as "tits on a boar", and makes no attempt to argue that he should be re-hired for any reasons related to competency. Of course, Pat likes Don despite his stupidity, and is his brother-in-law, and also knows that Don has a lot of friends and influence in Las Vegas due to his family, which he considers to be more important than how good he actually is at his job.
• Composite Character: He is loosely based on Darwin Lamb, a Clark County Commissioner at the time who was known among the local populace for his colorful cowboy image that he had cultivated. However, his direct conflict with Ace is inspired by his brother, Clark County sheriff Ralph Lamb, who actively clashed with Lefty Rosenthal in Real Life. Also counts as Adaptational Name Change.
• Cowboy: Ace isn't impressed by this image.
  Ace: Anybody with cowboy boots is a county commissioner or related to a county commissioner.

• Hidden Depths: As he introduces himself to Ace, the camera pans down to reveal that Webb is wearing very expensive alligator shoes (compared to Ace's standard dress shoes), indicating (at the least) that he has more wealth than he lets on.
• Jerkass: He lectures Ace on the Good Old Ways when he doesn't get his way, yet he's been in breach of Western etiquette during the entire meeting - by disrespectfully wearing his cowboy hat indoors.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • He is forced to concede that Ace had entirely valid reasons for firing his brother-in-law.
    Ace: I think you're way out of line talking to me like that [...] You're in no position to challenge my expertise. I went way out of my way to be very helpful and courteous to that kid. He's weak. He's incompetent. He jeopardizes the whole place. There's not much more I can do for him.
    Webb: [Chuckles] Well, you have got me there. Ol' Don's as useless as tits on a boar.
  • He starts Ace's prosecution for the wrong reasons when Sam doesn't play ball and rejects Webb's nepotist plea, but said prosecution has grounds, as Ace is, at the very least, in collusion of several criminal conspiracies.
• Nepotism: Despite admitting Don is useless, Webb arranges for Sam's Loophole Abuse to unravel, just because Sam won't re-hire Don.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: When preparing his attack on Ace, he tells his assistants that they're going to "run a kike out of town."
• Pyrrhic Victory: Any smile of satisfaction he gets from denying Ace his license is quickly wiped off his face when the handicapper has a Villainous Breakdown and in his tirade starts implicating other public officials about their involvement in all the corruption (as Nicky said, it was crazy and risked displeasing the mafia). It forces Pat to keep close watch on Ace.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives a short, understated one to Sam when he refuses to give Don his job back, reminding him that for all their brutality and reputation, the Mafia and their front men are "just visitors" in Nevada. Men like him are who really control the state, the courts, and the gaming industry, and he has no problem with demonstrating that.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: As powerful and influential as he is, he still approaches Sam in a friendly and respectful manner, and sincerely tries to work out an equally amicable solution to the problem with his nephew Don.

Don Ward

Don Ward

"You might regret this, Mr. Rothstein. This is not the way to treat people!"

Played By: John Bloom (a.k.a. Joe Bob Briggs)

"Old Don is as useless as tits on a boar. But, he is my brother-in-law, and I would look on it as a personal favor if you'd think some more on hirin' him back."

An incompetent employee at Tangiers with important political connections.

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• Casting Gag: Don is played by John Bloom, who is most famous as Joe Bob Briggs, a Half-Witted Hillbilly Horror Host of drive-in exploitation movies. For all intents and purposes, Don is Joe Bob.
• The Ditz: He happens to be the brother-in-law of a Commissioner and has a job in the casino because of that... for a while.
• Dumbass Has a Point: Even though Ace fires him for it since the slot machines were rigged, Don is correct that people HAVE to win in a casino sometimes. Problem for him is, the machine in question is still giving out jackpots even as it's being pulled.
• Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance: Painfully ignorant. Ace gives him several chances to own up and take responsibility for allowing the slot machines to give THREE Jackpots on the SAME day (the odds are a million and half to one for just a single jackpot, so it's obvious to anyone they've been tampered with and a scam is happening), and yet Don pisses him off by still thinking it's not impossible.
• The Load: Poor Don is a liability on the Casino floor, and Ace only tolerates him for so long. He can't even keep his section of the floor clean and rearranges it hiding the most popular games in the back, which causes a drop in profits. Later, his inability to catch on to saboteurs rigging the machines after a second and third consecutive jackpot wins is what finally pushes Ace to fire him. Even Don's own brother in law, the county commissioner (who wants Ace to re-hire Don as a favor) calls him useless.
• The Millstone: A mild case, in that he doesn't constantly cause trouble, but his incompetence forcing Ace to fire him is what starts Webb's agenda against Ace. Doubles with Small Role, Big Impact.
• Nepotism: He only has a job at the Tangiers because his brother-in-law is the County Commissioner. Ace only tolerates it for so long.
• Nobody's That Dumb: While he can't prove it, Ace suspects Don is conspiring with the scammers. Regardless, Ace fires him and refuses to rehire Don, deeming him a liability to the casino.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: The reason he is on Sam's payroll. Discussed and ultimately defied by Sam to his own detriment.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He appears in only two scenes, but his firing becomes a major thorn in Sam's side later on and is one of the triggers of the ensuing Disaster Dominoes.

Frank "Frankie" Marino

Frank "Frankie" Marino

"What could I say? I knew if I gave the wrong answer, I mean, Nicky, Ginger, Ace, all of 'em could've would up gettin' killed."

Played By: Frank Vincent

"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 gonna be kissed or killed."

Nicky's right-hand man.

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• Adaptational Name Change: He is based on Frank Cullotta. Unlike the rest of the cast, his first name was unchanged.
• Ax-Crazy: Possibly more than Nicky despite being less impulsive. He certainly lacks Hair-Trigger Temper, but he willingly shoots houses with Nicky and his beating of Nicky and Dominick is exceptionally drawn-out and brutal.
• Beleaguered Assistant: Nicky's antics and schemes make him and the rest of the gang collateral damage in any fallout, whether it's the threat of being whacked by the bosses, or their eventual arrest by the FBI.
• Bodyguard Betrayal: Turns on Nicky by beating him to death.
• Composite Character: While mainly based on Cullotta, his taking part in the assassination of Nicky was based on Nicholas Calabrese's actions, as Cullotta took no part in the assassination.
• A Day in the Limelight: He gets his own scene as a Character Narrator.
• The Dragon: For Nicky.
• Foil: To Billy Sherbert. Both are the right hand men for Ace and Nicky in the mob's Las Vegas operations, though while Billy is loyal to Ace to the very end and is the manager of the Tangiers, Frankie turns on Nicky and beats him to death.
• Karma Houdini: He suffers no repercussions for the scummy behavior he gets up to with Nicky, lying to Remo, and betraying Nicky.
• The Reliable One: He carries out whatever task is given to him by Nicky, and then later, the bosses.
• Secret-Keeper: To Frank's credit, in spite of the consequences he tried to protect Nicky from Remo's wrath when the latter suspected him of interfering with Ace's wife Ginger. But of course Nicky doesn't come to his senses and eventually none of his associates can cover for his actions any longer.
• The Starscream: Subverted. Though Nicky's increasingly reckless behavior (not to mention Nicky's affair with Sam's wife) causes no end of trouble and potentially puts him in danger, he only executes his friend and nearest superior not for advancement or revenge, but upon direct orders from the Big Bosses.

Billy Sherbert

Billy Sherbert

"That's a lot of money to be counting out in public."

Played By: Don Rickles

"I can't understand it. These mechanical things, you know, they happen. Hey, be-better here than (gesturing to the sky) up there, you know what I mean?"

An old friend of Sam's who's the official manager of the Tangiers.

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• Adaptational Name Change: He is based on Allan D. Sachs, who managed the Stardust, Fremont, and Sundance casinos for the mob between the 1950s and 1980s.
• Authority in Name Only: He's the official manager of the Tangiers, but Sam's the one who calls the shots.
• Beleaguered Assistant: He briefly becomes one while serving the abusive Nicky at Sam's behest.
• Bullying a Dragon: Tries to stare down/intimidate a drunken, pissed-off Nicky when he acts up on the casino floor. It does ''not'' end well for him.
• The Dragon: To Sam.
• Foil: To Frankie Marino. Both are the right hand men for Ace and Nicky in the mob's Las Vegas operations, though while Frankie is just a gangster like Nicky, Billy is the manager to the Tangiers Casino and is very loyal to Ace to the bitter end and never betrays him, unlike Frankie who beats Nicky to death on orders from the Chicago Outfit when he becomes a problem.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: When Ginger goes off the deep end, he shows up at Sam's place with a shotgun.
• The Reliable One: Sam hires him for the mob's skimming scheme at the Tangiers due to their past working relationship, and he even becomes his bodyguard once his life is at risk.
• Sole Survivor: Unlike most of everyone else involved at the Tangiers, he is spared an assassination.^note Allan Sachs would die of natural causes in 2002
• True Companions: Ace's establishing narration about Billy notes that he's an individual who's implicitly trusted... which later comes true when the situation with Ginger and Nicky unravels. With only a few words from Ace, Billy is convinced to bring a shotgun over in the middle of the night to protect the house. Billy subsequently stays the night at Ace's house, and later accompanies Ace as they try to defuse Ginger's antics and stop her from stealing the safety deposit box.
• Villainy-Free Villain: Despite working for the mob, Billy doesn't really do anything bad. He does own a gun, however, but it is more than likely licensed.

Remo Gaggi

Remo Gaggi

"Look: Why take a chance? At least, that's the way I feel about it."

Played By: Pasquale Cajano

"Keepin' Remo happy with money was the greatest insurance policy in the world."

The boss of the Chicago Outfit and one of the minds behind the Las Vegas operation.

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• Adaptational Name Change: He is based on real-life Chicago boss Joseph "Joey" Aiuppa.
• Affably Evil: Remo, the head of a criminal organization, maintains a demeanor of civility and politeness in his interactions, expressing his opinions and wishes respectfully in a very clerical way, treating murder as merely another aspect of the business, something that has to be done.
• Bad Boss: By the end of the film, most of the men under his employ, even reliable ones like Andy Stone, wind up dead on his orders.
• The Don: He is the boss of the Chicago Outfit is the one who sends Sam and Nicky to Las Vegas. He also seems to have the most authority over the Las Vegas operation.
• Everyone Has Standards: As most mobsters believe, fraternizing with another man's wife is a big no-no.
• Fatal Flaw: Like any mobster, insatiable greed. The Midwest Mafia bosses and he were displeased that a few thousand dollars was going missing in the counting room. Considering they rake in millions anyway, this should not have been a problem. But they are mafia bosses, they cannot comprehend what the word "leniency" means. They put the incompetent underboss Artie Piscano in charge of cash transactions. This sets off a chain reaction culminating in Sam's casino getting rumbled by the FBI.
• The Gambling Addict: Nicky saw him as a degenerate in this regard, never winning and never quitting at gambling unless Ace was there to back him up.
• Gratuitous Italian: Occasionally speaks in Italian when he's upset.
• Hourglass Plot: At the beginning of the movie, he orders Nicky to keep an eye on Ace, since he's their best money maker. Later in the movie, he orders Frankie to keep an eye on Nicky, due to his antics getting out of control.
• Leave No Witnesses: Nicky knew Remo would embrace this tactic when investigations start coming down.
• Pet the Dog: Despite being lied to by Frankie about Nicky's affair with Ginger, he nonetheless tells him that he's a good boy and orders him to keep an eye on Nicky. In return, when the Chicago Outfit starts killing people who could squeal about their Vegas operation, he spares Frankie and the rest of Nicky's crew in return for beating Nicky and his brother Dominick to death, which he happily accepts.
• Pragmatic Villainy: As far as the bosses were concerned, you do not screw around with another mobster's wife. Not so much adultery itself offends them, its because its always messy, attracts unwanted attention from onlookers, the law, and bad for business in general.

Artie Piscano

Artie Piscano

"Well, I'm goin' all over, layin' money out of my own pocket, and I never get anything back. What the hell's goin' on?"

Played By: Vinny Vella

"The only trouble was, Piscano was a disaster. This guy could fuck up a cup of coffee."

The underboss to Vincent Borelli in Kansas City, who is sent to supervise their skimming operations in Las Vegas.

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• Adaptational Name Change: He is based on Carl DeLuna, underboss to the Kansas City Mob.
• Death by Adaptation: Unlike Piscano, DeLuna did not suffer a heart attack when the FBI raided his home. In Real Life, he was tried and convicted with the help of records found in his home (which were also used to convict all the other bosses and underbosses involved), was released from prison in 1998, and then died in 2008.
• The Ditz: Lampshaded by Nicky, who comments that he could fuck up a cup of coffee. One wonders why he was even put in charge of Las Vegas.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Artie is first seen having dinner with the other Midwest Mob Bosses while John Nance is bringing back the suitcase with the money skimmed from the Tangiers Casino.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: During his tirades, he constantly checks himself for swearing due to the presence of his mother. The fact that he tells everything about his unlawful business to said mother is also showcased as evidence of him being a huge loser amongst the made men.
• Fat Idiot: He's noticeably heavier than his counterparts and is so stupid, that he blurts out the secrets of the mob in his open shop, leading to everyone's downfall and his death.
• Fatal Flaw: The man complains often and never ever shuts up, whining to his mother about the other mobsters. Since Artie's joint was wired by the FBI, he named and incriminated everybody. Lampshaded by Nicky, to his dismay that one man managed to sink the criminal underworld of Vegas all by himself.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Implied. Not only is he sent to live in the relatively dead heartland of America by the bosses (due to his incompetency), but once his records are exposed, Nicky (in voiceover) expresses genuine disgust at Artie's idiocy helping to bring the empire down.
• Hollywood Heart Attack: He suffers a fatal heart attack when the FBI raids his home. Though considering how almost everyone else involved with "the skim" met their ends, Artie gets off easy by comparison.
• Loose Lips: Good Lord, is this man a perfect example. His rambling complaints are single-handedly responsible for knocking down the house of cards the Mafia had built in Las Vegas.
• Too Dumb to Live: Even after being explicitly told not to, he kept extensive records while overseeing the Las Vegas operation. These prove to be the final nail in the coffin for everyone involved in Las Vegas after the FBI raids his house and seizes them.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His revealing tirades in his store, which is apparently bugged, are largely responsible for bringing the whole operation down.

John Nance

John Nance

Played By: Bill Allison

The main guy in charge of the skimming operation in Vegas.

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• A Father to His Men: He defends his Count Room guys when they're stealing the Mob's money for themselves and tries to tell the Chicago outfit to give them leeway.
• Boom, Headshot!: Mob hitmen hunt him down and finish him off with a gun placed on the top of his head.
• Middle-Management Mook: John does the money deliveries for the Chicago Outfit and oversees the count room guys who manage said money.

Andy Stone

Andy Stone

Played By: Alan King

The head of the Teamsters' Pension Fund, the organization that put up the money to buy the Tangiers casino. He, in turn, takes orders from The Mafia back home.

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• Bearer of Bad News: As the link between the Mid-West bosses and Las Vegas, he occasionally falls into this role when events begin to take a bad turn.
• Boom, Headshot!: Two mobsters kill him in the street, with one walking right up behind him and blasting him in the noggin.
• Mentor Archetype: Andy serves as a mentor to Sam, showing him how to work in a casino even without a gaming license and warning him not to upset Remo.
• No Honor Among Thieves: When discussing what to do with the loose ends, some of the bosses want to spare Andy, but Remo points out He Knows Too Much, so Stone is killed like the rest of the bunch.
• The Reliable One: He is a solid member of the criminal conspiration and does not commit any major screw-ups. Not being able to temper Sam to be more discreet and pragmatic is probably his biggest failure.
• Semper Fi: A retired Marine, which speaks positively about his character.
• Undying Loyalty: All of the mafia dons agree that Andy Stone is a stand-up guy and would never betray the Organization. Not that it saves him.

Dogs

"Tony Dogs"

Played By: Carl Ciarfalio

• Defiant to the End: Gives Nicky one last "fuck you" just before his head is crushed.
• Eye Scream: His left eyeball pops out of his head from the pressure the vise exerts.
• Historical Domain Character: Dogs is based on one of Anthony Spilotro's interrogation victims, Billy McCarthy, who also shot up a bar and killed mob personnel and waitstaff.
• Make an Example of Them: In retaliation for Dogs and his crew murdering a waitress in addition to two men, Remo orders everyone connected to the murders be found and assassinated by any means necessary.
• Nasty to the Waitress: Dogs shoots a waitress in cold blood just for being in the establishment he is targeting.
• Undying Loyalty: Endures prolonged torture to withhold the identity of Charlie M, only revealing Charlie's name after having his head pressed in a vise grip.

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