The 25 Best Movies About Gambling

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Movies about gambling have an inherent drama because, by definition, they’re about risk. It’s not fun to watch someone be prudent and cautious, but to see someone constantly putting his well-being on the line in desperate, irrational hope for that One Big Score … well, gamblers in gambling movies are in many ways just like that veteran cop who takes One Last Case before retirement. They usually don’t end up with a calm home life upstate, counting their winnings. 

So, with the annual gambling bonanza that is the Super Bowl coming up, we decided to take a look back at some of the best movies about gambling. A note on methodology: We tried to make sure we emphasized the gambling over the movie. Few would argue that Rounders is better than Casino, but Casino is less about the gambling and more about the world in which that gambling takes place; Rounders is definitely about the gambling. We veered more toward movies about the gambling. Luckily, a whole lot of them happen to be great movies all on their own.


25. Vegas Vacation (1997)