The Real Life Inspiration Behind Martin Scorsese’s Casino

Casino, like other gangster movies by Martin Scorsese, is based on real-life events and people, though with a couple of differences.

Summary

• "Casino" is based on the real-life story of Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, a professional sports gambler and casino executive in Las Vegas who had connections to organized crime.
• Rosenthal survived an assassination attempt in 1982 when a bomb was attached to his car, thanks to a metal plate that shielded him from the explosion's force.
• After the events depicted in "Casino," Rosenthal moved to California, and won a court ruling to have his name removed from the "Black Book" before passing away in 2008.

Casino is one of Martin Scorsese’s most notable crime movies, and like other gangster movies made by him, it was based on real-life people. Although Martin Scorsese has explored different genres in his career as a filmmaker, he’s best known for his gangster movies. After telling the story of Henry Hill in Goodfellas and visiting the horror genre with Cape Fear and historical drama with The Age of Innocence, Scorsese returned to the gangster genre with Casino. Based on the 1995 nonfiction book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas by Nicholas Pileggi, Casino reunited Scorsese with two of his most notable frequent collaborators: Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci.

Set in 1973, Casino follows Same “Ace” Rothstein (De Niro), a gambling expert handicapper who is asked by the Chicago outfit to oversee the casino and hotel operations at the Tangiers Casino in Las Vegas. Casino was a critical and commercial hit, marking another success for the Scorsese-Pileggi team-up after working together in Goodfellas. Casino followed the steps of past Scorsese crime movies and is inspired by a real-life story, and while it did take various creative liberties, it has been pointed out by those involved to be largely accurate – and here’s the real story of Martin Scorsese’s Casino.

Casino Is Inspired By The Life Of Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal

As mentioned above, Casino is based on Nicholas Pileggi’s nonfiction book about Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, and what led Pileggi to write about him was a 1980 report about a domestic argument between Rosenthal and his wife, Geri McGee (played in Casino by Sharon Stone). Like De Niro’s character, Frank Rosenthal was a professional sports gambler, a casino executive in Las Vegas, and an organized crime associate. Rosenthal learned sports betting as a youth, and by the mid-1950s, he was working with the Chicago Outfit. Rosenthal was moved to Las Vegas in 1968 to escape police attention, and he secretly ran the Stardust, Fremont, Marina, and Hacienda casinos, which were controlled by the Chicago Outfit, with Anthony Spilotro (Pesci’s character Nicky Santoro) managing the profits.

Just like in Casino, Rosenthal survived an assassination attempt in Las Vegas in 1982, where a bomb was attached to the gasoline tank of his car, detonating the moment he started the car. Rosenthal’s surprising survival is credited to a stout metal plate under the driver’s seat that was installed on all models of that car, with the plate shielding Rosenthal’s body from the explosion’s force. Rosenthal was thrown from the car and suffered minor burns and a few broken ribs.

That same year, and following Ginger’s death, Rosenthal left Las Vegas and moved to California with his children. In 1987, he was formally banned from Las Vegas casinos and was placed in “the Black Book”, meaning he couldn’t even enter any Nevada casino due to his ties to organized crime.

What Happened To Frank Rosenthal After The Events of Casino?

Casino covered Rothenstal’s assassination attempt and Ginger’s death, and in the end, it saw De Niro’s Rothstein working as a sports handicapper in San Diego after the Mafia got out of the casino industry, almost all old casinos were demolished, and new ones were built with money from junk bonds. In real life, and as mentioned above, Rosenthal moved to California and focused on raising his children, and in 1990, he won an unprecedented court ruling to have his name removed from “the Black Book”, but the following year, the ban was reinstated. Rosenthal later moved to Boca Raton, Florida, where he ran a sports bar, and then moved to Miami, where he ran a sports betting website and served as a consultant for various offshore sports betting companies.

Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal died on October 13, 2008, and after his death, it was revealed that he had been an FBI informant, as was Geri McGee. As for Rosenthal’s opinion on Casino and the character of Sam Rothstein, he shared De Niro’s character was quite similar to him though not fully (via Casino Discussion), and felt that the depiction of his life’s events was largely accurate.

Source: Casino Discussion.