Meanwhile, mob strong-arm Nicky Santoro (Pesci) heads out to Vegas to protect Rothstein, but eventually ends up running his own rackets and trying to effectively take over the town. He falls in love with and marries former hooker/call-girl and current Vegas hustler Ginger McKenna (Stone), who remains in love with her pimp, Lester Diamond (Woods).

The mob backs Rothstein but has to set up a false front while Rothstein 'secretly' runs the hotel, because of his gambling charges back East. The hotel became the Tangiers for the film. The Rosenthal character is here named Sam 'Ace' Rothstein and is played by De Niro. Casino is based on the story of Frank 'Lefty' Rosenthal and the Stardust casino in Las Vegas. There are plenty of flaws here, and I'm going to spend some time pointing them out, particularly since the film receives so many 10's. An 8 out of 10 may seem high, but if you're familiar with my reviews, you'll know that it's not that high of a score from me-it's closer to average from me.

But I don't think that Casino is at all a 'perfect' film. I'm a huge De Niro fan, and I'm a fan of Scorsese and Woods as well. If you're at all interested in gangster/mafia films, or if you're at all a fan of director/co-writer Martin Scorsese, novelist/co-writer Nicholas Pileggi, or actors Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Sharon Stone or James Woods, then Casino is without a doubt a must-see.

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