Casino is adapted from Nicholas Pileggi's 1995 non-fiction book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas, which Pileggi co-wrote into a screenplay alongside director Martin Scorsese. 1)
Robert De Niro's character Sam “Ace” Rothstein is directly based on real-life sports handicapper and mob-controlled Las Vegas casino executive Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal. 2)
Joe Pesci's character Nicky Santoro is based on real-life Chicago Outfit mob enforcer Anthony “The Ant” Spilotro. 3)
Sharon Stone's ill-fated character Ginger McKenna was directly inspired by real-life Las Vegas showgirl and socialite Geri McGee. 4)
Frank Rosenthal originally had no interest in helping writer Nicholas Pileggi, but eagerly cooperated as soon as he learned Robert De Niro was set to play him. 5)
Renowned graphic designer Saul Bass created the film's memorable opening sequence of Ace falling through fire, which turned out to be the final film title project of his legendary career. 6)
Sharon Stone almost missed out on playing Ginger after two canceled meetings led her to think Scorsese was snubbing her, prompting the director to track her down at a restaurant to make a personal appeal. 7)
Production shot inside the real Riviera Casino in Las Vegas four nights a week between midnight and 10 AM, when foot traffic was lowest. 8)
Joe Pesci looked so remarkably similar to the real Tony Spilotro in full makeup that real casino pit bosses who knew Spilotro reportedly double-took when Pesci walked onto set. 9)
Martin Scorsese famously described the structure of Casino in interviews by stating that the three-hour epic essentially had “no plot at all.” 10)
Martin Scorsese originally planned to direct the 1995 drama Clockers, but handed the director's chair to Spike Lee so he could focus on directing Casino. 11)
Unlike Goodfellas, Nicholas Pileggi wrote the non-fiction book Casino simultaneously alongside co-writing the movie script with Scorsese. 12)
The fictional Tangiers Casino was created as a stand-in for the real-life Stardust Resort and Casino, which was funded by mob pension loans. 13)
To enhance visual authenticity, Scorsese hired actual Las Vegas dealers and pit bosses to work table games in background shots. 14)
Costume designer Rita Ryack designed Ace Rothstein's wardrobe colors to become progressively more chaotic and visually jarring as his personal life spiraled out of control. 15)
Robert De Niro wore approximately 70 distinct custom outfits throughout the movie, contributing to a wardrobe budget exceeding $1 million. 16)
Sharon Stone wore around 40 customized period gowns and outfits during production, matching the film's lavish production value. 17)
The white-and-gold beaded gown worn by Sharon Stone in her opening scene weighed 45 pounds and reactivated a back injury during filming. 18)
Scorsese intentionally included the shocking head-in-a-vice torture scene to draw attention away from other violent moments during the MPAA ratings review. 19)
The head-in-a-vice interrogation scene was inspired by real-life mobster Tony Spilotro's brutal torture of gangster Billy McCarthy. 20)
James Woods shot all of his scenes as Lester Diamond in just two days because he was simultaneously filming Oliver Stone's Nixon. 21)
Joe Pesci suffered a broken rib while filming the cornfield beatdown sequence, breaking the exact same rib De Niro had broken while filming Raging Bull 15 years prior. 22)
The opening car explosion accurately reflects Frank Rosenthal's real 1982 assassination attempt, which he survived thanks to a heavy steel plate under his Cadillac driver's seat. 23)
The film spent over $1 million solely on period wardrobe styling, establishing a record for contemporary modern crime drama productions. 24)
The dialogue features pervasive profanity, with variations of the F-word spoken 435 times throughout the film's runtime. 25)
Oscar Goodman, who plays Ace's defense attorney in the film, was a real-life Las Vegas mob attorney who was later elected Mayor of Las Vegas in 1999. 26)
During Ginger's emotional phone booth scene, Martin Scorsese sat on the floor off-camera and held Sharon Stone's hand to help ease her performance anxiety. 27)
The Riviera Casino refused to allow cameras inside their actual secure count room, forcing production to construct a replica counting room set. 28)
Sharon Stone's critically praised performance as Ginger McKenna earned her the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. 29)
Film critic Roger Ebert awarded Casino a full four-star rating, praising its detailed historical look at how mob operations managed Las Vegas. 30)
Ebert noted in his review that the film serves almost as a documentary detailing how the mob skimmed uncounted cash from casino floors to deliver to Midwestern bosses. 31)
The film depicts how mobsters used the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund as an unofficial bank to finance Las Vegas casino acquisitions. 32)
Scorsese frequently allowed Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci to improvise their conversational dialogue by simply giving them starting and ending targets for scenes. 33)
Before casting Sharon Stone, producers considered several high-profile actresses for Ginger, including Uma Thurman, Cameron Diaz, Michelle Pfeiffer, Nicole Kidman, and Madonna. 34)
Joe Pesci's character Nicky Santoro reflects how Tony Spilotro's aggressive extortion tactics brought unwanted law enforcement scrutiny to mob operations. 35)
In 1979, the real Tony Spilotro was officially placed in the Nevada Gaming Commission's “Black Book,” barring him from entering any Nevada casino. 36)
The real Tony Spilotro angered Chicago mob bosses by conducting unauthorized executions in Las Vegas, including the murder of informant Sherwin Lisner. 37)
While the film depicts Nicky and his brother being beaten and buried in an Indiana cornfield, the real Spilotro brothers were murdered in an Illinois basement before being buried in a cornfield. 38)
All major characters had their real names changed for legal reasons: Frank Rosenthal became Sam Rothstein, Geri McGee became Ginger McKenna, and Tony Spilotro became Nicky Santoro. 39)
With a final running time of 179 minutes, Casino stands as one of Martin Scorsese's longest crime epics. 40)
As a subtle nod to the real Stardust Casino that inspired the Tangiers, the song “Stardust” is played three times on the film's soundtrack. 41)
When consulting on the film, professional casino cheaters refused to disclose their actual working techniques to avoid alerting modern casino security teams. 42)
Following his death in 2008, documents revealed that Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal had actually served as an FBI informant during his time in Las Vegas. 43)
In 1987, Frank Rosenthal was officially added to Nevada's “Black Book,” permanently banning him from entering any state gambling establishment. 44)
Film critics frequently pair Casino alongside Goodfellas and Mean Streets as the defining pillars of Martin Scorsese's crime trilogy. 45)