Casinos are exciting places with a lot of energy. They’re a place where champagne glasses clink and people are trying their luck at games of chance like blackjack, poker and slot machines. There’s no telling when your lucky streak will end, so there’s always a bit of anticipation.

There is also something in the air that encourages people to cheat or steal and that’s why casinos spend so much time and money on security. Martin Scorsese’s Casino lays bare the web of corruption that centered on Las Vegas and reached into politicians, Teamsters unions and the Midwest mafia. It’s one of the most intense films that Scorsese has ever made, but it never lags or runs out of steam.

The biggest casinos in the world feature elaborate surveillance systems. They can be adjusted to focus on specific suspicious patrons by workers in a room filled with banks of security monitors. This is necessary because there are many different ways to cheat at a casino. It can be as simple as changing the outcome of a hand or stealing from a table. The most sophisticated casinos have high-tech eye-in-the-sky systems that can monitor a whole floor at once.

The best casino movies have a glitzy, glamorous feel and are able to keep the audience on the edge of their seats in suspense. They are full of characters that are either slick and smooth or downright criminal. It takes a lot of talent to make a movie about gambling that is actually interesting, but a few directors have managed to do it.