With the news of the remake of The Gambler set to hit our screens this Christmas, the genre of casino movies is a trend that’s not going to go out of fashion any time soon. But what exactly is it that makes these movies so popular? Whether it’s the glamour of the Hollywood sirens or the excitement of the casino heist, there is a reason that the movie industry continues to churn out blockbusters of this genre.
Perhaps one of the most definitive movies of this genre was Ocean’s Eleven, the 1960 classic which was so popular that it became a hit remake once again in 2001. The film had every kind of ingredient for a hit: the glamorous Hollywood siren in Julia Roberts, the heart throb in George Clooney (and Brad Pitt) and the thrill-a-minute mission that any other clan would fail: to simultaneously rob three Las Vegas casinos.
Of course, the 2001 hit very much brought the heist up-to-date, using modern day bomb devices to blow up casinos, along with faster guns, better guns and bigger prizes. With Ocean’s Eleven spawning two more equally successful sequels, the proof is in the pudding when it comes to modern casino movies making huge amounts of money.
But with technology ever advancing, could we be in for a new generation for casino movies? Away from the big screen, the casino industry has evolved considerably over the years – whereas 10 years ago people would make the trip to a land-based casino, today, people would much rather play online. This has in part been thanks to the advances of technology making online casinos far more desirable – affiliate sites like Fortune Palace are showing customers how to play with live dealers, another advance in technology that has proven how far things have come.
With these technological advances, it begs the question as to whether movies could be moving in the same direction. Whereas at the turn of the century, directors were having their cast members stealing cash from land-based casinos, could we soon see scripts which have online casinos being robbed?
Indeed, it makes for a very engaging subject and has been touched upon before, with 2011’s Moneyball telling the true story of a man who tried to assemble a baseball team based on algorithms. The film was a Hollywood hit, scoring a 7.6 rating on IMDB and starring casino veteran Brad Pitt.
Computer hacking is nothing new in the movie stakes either – with films like The Matrix or 2013’s Her showing the true potential of computers, a new genre of online casino heists could be in the pipeline. With so much potential for today’s technology, there’s no telling what we could be seeing in the next 10 years.
