Gambling is surprisingly prevalent in action movies. Something about the high stakes thrill of a big bet, the temptation to make a cartoonish villain of a casino owner and the glamorous settings of a casino itself, lends itself to an action-packed adrenaline fueled experience. But, ask any gambler, and the reality is often quite different. This is what the movies get wrong about gambling, and what they get right.
From James Bond playing poker (or previously, baccarat) against his villainous rivals, to the ensemble crew of Danny Ocean robbing Las Vegas casinos blind, there are many great action movies that are heavily focused on gambling. However, from everyone getting amazingly strong hands at the poker table to laughably lax casino security, Hollywood also often gets gambling wrong.
The High Stakes Hollywood Gambling Fantasy
Ask most people to think of gamblers in cinema, and James Bond will probably be at the top of their list. The iconic fictional British spy has been gambling at the tables since his first iteration on the silver screen some six decades ago.
One of the most well known gambling scenes is from 2006’s Casino Royale, starring Daniel Craig as Bond. In the original 1970s version, Bond played baccarat against scheming billionaire Le Chiffre – but the 2006 remake changed that to poker.
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Unrealistic Action Can Be at the Tables Too
For any poker aficionado watching Casino Royale, things swiftly went downhill from the accurate location. These are just a few of the things this otherwise cinematically impressive scene gets wrong about poker:
- The huge $115 million pot is bigger than anything ever played in real poker, even 15 years later
- At the end of the hand, all four players had four of the strongest hands in the game – an extremely statistically unlikely scenario
- The dealer makes flashy card moves and fans, which poker professionals would not appreciate
One of the biggest holes in the scene, poker wise, is when Bond catches one of Le Chiffre’s “tells”. This is a poker term for when someone’s body language unconsciously signals they have a weak or a strong hand.
In Casino Royale Mads Mikklesen’s Le Chiffre scratches his temple when he thinks his hand isn’t looking good, and Bond seizes this as an opportunity to bet all of his chips.
However, at that point Bond was holding Three Kings and Two Aces – or a full house, kings full.
This is, by the math, one of the very best hands in poker. Most players would get all their chips in here regardless of their opponent and any possible bluffs.
Le Chiffre’s “tell” is also blatantly obvious, as in the movie it is pointed out by an observer watching the game. In reality, a high stakes poker player putting down millions would be too controlled and practiced to make such an obvious tell.
The Casino Heist Fantasy Proves Popular
The Oceans franchise was widely credited for revitalizing the heist movie genre when the first Ocean’s 11 remake came out in 2001.
The theatrical Las Vegas casino heist caper was a hit for its ensemble cast, prime Sin City locations and elaborately conceived plot that jumped around in time for maximum twists and turns.
However, the actual depiction of casino security measures were not up to scratch. Despite the crew making much of the impressive security in the casino vaults in the movie, the real vaults are even harder to get into. Especially at the big Las Vegas Strip casinos.
The kind of Ocean’s 11-style heist involving a major vault connected to three casinos, and Mission Impossible dangling on wires through laser trip beams is just that – impossible. But, it does make for a good movie.
In reality, casinos that get robbed in the US are not usually in the heart of Las Vegas. And they’re usually either low tech crimes – such as the elderly couple who robbed $250,000 from a casino cage in Primm, Nevada. Or they use an inside job, such as in the 2023 theft of $200K from Monarch Casino in Black Hawk, Colorado.
Interestingly sometimes Hollywood has tried to make a more realistic portrayal of gambling in an action movie, but it hasn’t panned out so well. 2013’s Runner Runner is about a student who is dragged into an international criminal conspiracy after trying to avenge being cheated at online poker.
The story did get the online poker terminology right – and starred a fresh-faced Justin Timberlake – but was almost universally panned by critics and audiences.