But Nicky, feeling liberated by all the miles between him and the other powers that be, gets a little reckless. Nicky is sent to protect Sam since he has helped make the mob so much money. He had proven himself to be a good gambler, and with some mafia help was eventually put in charge of his own casino.

We then go back ten or so years earlier when Sam was new to Las Vegas. The film begins with Sam telling the audience about the importance of trust before getting into a car that explodes, suggesting that he trusted the wrong people. Like that film, Casino relies on character narration though this time the omniscient perspective comes from both Sam Rothstein (Robert De Niro) and his hot tempered buddy, Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci). There would be a lot of money, violence and excess before the eventual bloody fallout.

Having already seen Goodfellas, I had an expectation for how this story would unfold. Everything in this movie is fairly predictable (both the rise and the fall) but that doesn’t make it any less interesting.

Martin Scorsese has said (according to IMDB trivia) that this movie has no plot, and though a lot happens, I can see what he’s saying.

Casino 1995 plot