Nicholas Pileggi explained in interviews that Casino was deliberately meant as a continuation of not only Goodfellas but also Mean Streets. Although the film isn't an exact account of what happened (a lot of that is Artistic License), it does provide a good overview of it. The film is loosely based on the story of Frank 'Lefty' Rosenthal, who unofficially ran four casinos for the Chicago Outfit and who served as the inspiration for the Rothstein character, as well as Anthony 'Tony the Ant' Spilotro, a Chicago Outfit enforcer who had ambitions of becoming boss of his own crime family and was the inspiration for Santoro's character. Santoro, a psychotically hot-headed mobster, is sent by the bosses to watch over things and make sure no one interferes with Rothstein's operation, but soon decides to make Las Vegas his personal kingdom, bringing much undesired attention on Rothstein himself and creating tension between the two men that will end up bringing the whole thing crashing down on top of them. Rothstein, a ruthlessly logical and efficient character, soon turns the Tangiers into a successful and profitable organisation for the Mob bosses, but things start to go shaky when Rothstein falls head-over-heels in love with Ginger (Stone), a beautiful and seductive but manipulative and troubled casino hustler, and when Rothstein's old friend Nicky Santoro (Pesci) arrives in town. One of these fronts is Sam 'Ace' Rothstein (De Niro), a Jewish gambling prodigy who, having made big money for his Mafia associates in the past, is sent to Vegas to run the Tangiers casino-hotel for the Chicago Outfit. They had to use fronts to get their men in to run everything.

But while they ran the casinos, they didn't run the town.

Until the early 1980s, The Mafia had a huge stake in Las Vegas. Casino is a 1995 crime drama film directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Sharon Stone, who earned a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination for her role as Ginger.

Casino movie full cast