From the glamorous high-stakes gaming rooms in Hollywood movies, to the architecture styles of casinos themselves or the evocations of the gambling lifestyle, casinos and gambling are part of pop culture just like any other popular form of entertainment. These are the most prominent examples of casino gambling portrayed in film, music, art and into the modern social media age.
Sure, a casino is, at its core, a place to gamble. But a line of slots in a gas station backroom is not Wynn Las Vegas or the Casino de Monte Carlo. Casinos, especially in the modern day of Las Vegas-style large casino resort properties, are cultural touchstones evoking luxury, excess, risk and reward.
Silver Screen Portrayed Gambling Glamour
Cinema’s relation to gambling is as complicated as either businesses’ real life history. The golden age of Hollywood showed casinos as a playground for the sophisticated and the elegant, with high stakes games populated by James Bonds and Danny Oceans trading one liners over thousands of dollars.
Today you don’t need a bankroll of cash, a sharp suit and flight to Las Vegas to give gambling a try, thanks to online casinos. The top providers bring all the thrills and spills of a physical casino straight to your device, wherever you are, and offer great bonuses and promotions to get you into the games up and running.
Films like the original Casino Royale and Ocean’s Eleven depicted casinos as places of immeasurable wealth and class, using the most modern architectural styles of luxury from that time. The original Casino Royale was filmed at the truly opulent Casino de Monte Carlo in Monaco and later Bond films occasionally featured the now-demolished Tropicana Las Vegas and its distinctive 60s art deco styles.
90s Movies Got Into Gambling’s Underworld
However, towards the 90s films moved more towards the gritty underbelly of gambling and Las Vegas. It aint called Sin City for no reason, pal. Films from that dealing with Las Vegas’ criminal past include:
- Rounders, which is possibly the best poker movie of all time
- Casino, the Martin Scorsese crime epic of the early days of the Las Vegas Strip
- Hard Eight, the directorial debut of Paul Thomas Anderson
Moving into the 2000s, the movies returned to a more upbeat or comedic portrayal of gambling. Films like The Cooler (2003), The Grand (2007) and The Hangover (2009) treated gambling as just one of the intoxicating milieu of entertainment options available at large destination casino resorts.
Gambling Funds Fine Architecture and Art
Where there’s money, you will find fine art. And fancy buildings. Casinos, and their owners, can afford to spend big on decoration. But it also makes sense, as incredible buildings and expensive art increases prestige and attracts more customers to casinos for things other than gambling.
Just a couple of casinos considered among the finest architectural feats in the world include:
- The Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, with its boat-like platform sky bridge connecting three skyscrapers
- The Bellagio Las Vegas and its iconic fountains and greenhouse atrium
- The Morpheus Hotel from the City of Dreams Casino Resort in Macau – one of the most innovative buildings in the world today
On top of that, fine art from classic to contemporary, can often be found adorning the walls or hanging in the lobby of Las Vegas casinos. Damien Hirst has designed a whole themed suite at Palms Las Vegas. Which is, at $200,000 a night, eye wateringly expensive to stay at.
Other famous artists who have works in Las Vegas casinos collections include Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Dale Chihuly and KAWS. For a long time you could even eat a meal surrounded by priceless Picasso paintings at The Bellagio. However, operator MGM recently closed the restaurant and sold off a lot of the paintings.
Modern Day Gambling as Memes in the Metaverse
For a new generation of legal age gamblers, a lot of what they know about it won’t come from movies, TV or an appreciation for architecture or art. Videogames, rappers and streamers are the new pop culture titans and many of them have embraced gambling and casinos in a big way.
Popular streamers like Roshtein, TrainwrecksTV and xQc mostly just stream themselves gambling online, and make huge money from sponsors and audiences doing it. Which is not to mention their occasional big gambling wins. Clips of their biggest reactions, win or lose, often go viral on social media platforms, as they put down thousands per spin of the reels.
Other big pop culture figures like global popstar Drake have normalized gambling by taking up big sponsorships with online casinos and sportsbooks, and broadcasting their high stakes bets to the world.
Even videogames have got in on the action, with gambling inspired games like Belatro proving massive hits and triple A titles like Red Dead and Grand Theft Auto including playable virtual casinos in their intricate in game worlds. Gambling in pop culture has certainly come a long way, and you wouldn’t bet against it sticking around for a while longer.