Casino Games That Crop Up Most Often in Entertainment

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If you’re putting together a TV show or a movie and you want a little instant drama, casino games are a popular way to bring tension to even the dullest scenario.
From the traditional glamour of the high-class Monte Carlo casino to the dubious thrills of a game of poker in a dingy backroom, casino games have cropped up all over the world of entertainment. In some cases, the entire show is based around the casino, in others, the references to gambling are more oblique, but they usually bring a change in tone or atmosphere.

Of course, some games are more popular for this than others. Just as casino fans checking out sistercasinospy.com for the best online casinos are usually looking for sites that offer certain casino games, so directors and writers have consistently gravitated towards certain casino classics.

Roulette

While almost all casino games are games of random chance, no game encapsulates this reality more effectively than roulette. The game itself may have its roots in attempts to create a perpetual motion machine, and along the way it picked up a veneer of French elegance and sophistication, and even among those who have no interest in casino gaming, mention of roulette conjures a particular image.

From Casablanca to Croupier, the roulette wheel has variously symbolised illegality, the whims of fate and addiction. It is perhaps the most recognisable representation of the dangers of risking all on a single moment, and the harsh realities of trying to win a game against the house.

Baccarat

Baccarat holds a special place in this list as it has somehow become synonymous with a certain type of casino glamour, despite the fact that very few people know how to play it. In fact, the game is simple and involves betting on two hands of cards, a little like simultaneous blackjack hands, but the French name perhaps lends it an edge of intrigue.

The biggest boost to Baccarat’s image came with the Bond series of books and movies. When Ian Fleming wrote the first Bond stories, baccarat was the game that wealthy Europeans preferred to play at the casino, and it has become immortalized in novels and movies such as Dr No and Casino Royale, although in the 2006 reboot of the latter, it was replaced by a game of Texas Hold ‘Em.

Poker

Poker is the one game on this list that can be claimed as a game of skill, rather than one of chance, and so has come to represent a different sort of casino experience.

Of these four games, it is also the one that is most likely to appear outside of a formal casino setting, whether it is the fateful catalyst for the death of Jackie Aprile Jnr in The Sopranos, the central subject of the gambling movie Rounders or an essential part of the plot of The Sting. Like roulette, poker has its big dramatic climaxes, when players turn over their cards and the winner and losers are revealed.

Blackjack

Of the four games listed here, blackjack is the one that most of us will have played, most likely not in a casino. There is, theoretically, a degree of skill involved in blackjack and it has certainly been the subject of movies and TV shows in which players attempt to exploit this including The Card Counter, Rain Man, Swingers and 21. Blackjack has also often been used to represent gambling as an addiction, in movies such as The Gambler.

The game is also flexible enough to be used to represent a very different concept. In the movie The Big Short, which detailed the background to the catastrophic financial crash of 2008, Selena Gomez plays a hand of blackjack to demonstrate the escalating recklessness of investors effectively betting everything on a good blackjack starting hand.

Conclusion

While casino games are often used in movies and TV shows, it is important to remember, of course, that these are for entertainment only. In the real world, playing casino games is not a shortcut to riches and no-one should ever play any casino game with money they cannot afford to lose.