Movies undeniably influence people’s behaviour. A great hero story, like the ones found in James Bond movies, can often result in us leaving the cinema fantasising about being the protagonist. This has been a part of human psychology since stories were first told and the expression ‘life imitates art’ best encapsulates this idea.
One genre that particularly influences how we act is the casino movie genre. This is a broad category of movies, that can include gangster, crime, action, comedy and heist blockbusters. One thing that unites all of these movies is how they inspire people to travel to Las Vegas and other gambling capitals to role-play as our favourite stars.
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Here are some examples of how gambling movies have impacted casino tourism:
Oceans 11
To start, let’s take a look at the most famous example of a gambling movie: Oceans 11. When you mention the gambling movie genre to someone, they’ll most likely immediately cast their mind to the Oceans series. This alone gives you an idea of how much of an impact this George Clooney-starring movie had.
Oceans 11 is notable because it used the Bellagio in Las Vegas as its filming location, making it one of the first movies to use a live casino as opposed to a set. So, the 2001 classic was one of the first to capture what it’s like to step foot and gamble inside a real life casino. The film depicted the atmosphere of a gambling resort like no movie before it.
The movie, which would go on to gross 450.7 million USD at the box office, inspired an increase in international tourism to Sin City. As shown in this Las Vegas Visitor Statistics document, the visitor volume went from 35,017,317 in 2001 to 38,566,717 in 2005. The steady influx of tourists after the 2001 film’s release suggests that many people made the trip to Las Vegas based on what they saw in the movie.
Not only that, but many movie fans still make the pilgrimage to the Bellagio today based on their love of the movie, which is nearly 25 years old.
Hotels.com released a ‘Hotels on Screen’ video series last year, which saw celebrities and influencers picking their favourite movie hotels and booking a trip based around them. The lifestyle blogger Lindsay Silberman picked the Bellagio based on her love of Oceans.
The fact that an influencer is choosing to visit the Bellagio for this reason, in addition to Hotels.com using it as a marketing technique, is a true testament to the impact of gambling movies on casino tourism.
The Hangover
The Hangover impacted casino tourism in a slightly different way. The 2009 comedy movie reestablished the city as the perfect place to enjoy a bachelor party. It highlighted the wild side of Las Vegas that people may have forgotten, which resulted in a lot of thrill-seekers putting it at the top of their list of must-visit locations.
The trilogy, which ended in 2013, had a massive impact on tourism in Sin City in the early 2010s. This impact is best measured not by statistics, but by the way many Las Vegas visitors were prone to acting during the movie series’ release years.
Inspired by the movie, tourists would reportedly attempt to recreate some of the ridiculous scenes depicted on screen. Besides having a particularly debauched weekend, this included sneaking up to the roofs of hotels and asking where to find live tigers. This resulted in numerous tour packages aimed at movie fans being created, as well as recreated sets from the movie.
Overall, the Hangover was a PR success story for the Caesars Palace as very specific movie fans descended on the city for an alcohol-fueled weekend of fun.
Rain Man
The most important thing the Tom Cruise/Dustin Hoffman movie did was bring more attention to autism. The way Hoffman depicted Raymond Babbitt directly inspired thousands of people to donate towards funding medical research into neurological disorders.
The movie also inspired the world in a very different way at the same time: to practice the controversial art of card counting. At various points in the movie, Hoffman’s character is very successful at blackjack due to his ability to expertly count dealer cards. He’s able to predict which card is most likely to come next, allowing him to bet more accurately.
This huge plot point makes ‘cheating’ the dealer look easy, even though Raymond Babbitt is clearly very gifted at math and not an average person. How card counting is demonstrated in the 1988 movie inspired a whole generation of gamblers to visit their local casino and attempt to outsmart the dealer.
There is technically nothing illegal about counting cards in your head. Plus, there’s no way that dealers could ever determine whether or not you are. However, the enduring success of Rain Man led to a rise in card-counting machinery, which refers to electronic devices that count cards on your behalf.
Card counting presents an issue for gambling institutions. So much so, that casinos around the world have introduced card-counting preventive measures to curb this problem. Most casinos now feature ‘continuous shuffling tables’, which makes it impossible to count cards.
Plus, most dealers are now trained to carry out distractive measures should they detect that a player may be card counting. This includes engaging in conversation with the player that is designed to distract them from counting. The conversation may involve numbers, which normally works.
If you’re caught with a card counting machine, you’ll definitely be asked to leave the casino. Casinos are highly monitored venues, with CCTVs on all tables. Generally, it’s not worth the risk.
Regardless of whether or not it’s a good idea to card count, Rain Man, which grossed the 2024 equivalent of almost 1 billion dollars, definitely influenced a whole generation of movie lovers to try it out. The fact alone that so many casinos have had to take action against card counting proves the influence of the film.
While it may no longer be as easy to count cards in the modern world of crypto gambling, many professional blackjack players still do it.
