Casino Movie True

Next month marks the 25th anniversary of the release of the movie 'Casino,' a lightly fictionalized version of real events involving Midwestern mob activity in Las Vegas in the 1970s and early '80s.

Casino Movie Real Cast

This week, we take a look back with a man who covered some of the key events depicted in the movie: former News 3 photographer Greg Rundell.

On October 4, 1982, Rundell was heading over to Sunrise Hospital where his wife worked to join her for dinner when a radio transmission caught his attention.

It’s now been 20 years since the release of Martin Scorsese’s Casino. It’s a story of sex, drugs, violence, stealing, and gambling or basically everything that makes Las Vegas great.

The 1995 movie Casino directed by Martin Scorsese is a cult classic but did you know the plot was inspired by a real-life story? Well you do now! The story was inspired by Frank ‘Lefty’ Rosenthal who managed the Fremont, Hacienda and Stardust casinos in Vegas for the Chicago mob in the 70’s and 80’s. With a screenplay written by John Guare, the film features an honest, old-school movie-star performance from Burt Lancaster and a riveting turn from a young Susan Sarandon as a casino waitress with. In the 1995 film Casino, director Martin Scorsese and star Robert De Niro gave us the fictional story of Sam “Ace” Rothstein, a mob-affiliated casino operator who always knows just how to manipulate odds and maximize profits on behalf of the murderous gangsters he works with.

'On the scanner, there was a car fire that came out at Marie Calendar's,' Rundell said. 'And that's all the initial dispatch was. So I kind of hemmed and hawed about going over. Because a car fire was something we normally didn't cover. But I was so close I decided to go over.'

Rundell had been covering the crime and courts beat for Channel 3, and as soon as he arrived on the scene, he knew it was something much bigger.

'And I went over and I immediately recognized Frank,' said Rundell.

That's Frank 'Lefty' Rosenthal, reinterpreted in 'Casino' as the character Sam 'Ace' Rothstein, played by Robert De Niro in a similar scene that both opens and closes the movie.

Casino Movie True Facts

Rosenthal had gotten into his car after dinner at Tony Roma's next door, and when he turned the key, an explosion came from under the floorboards.

'So I got out and shot it. You know he was still literally -- there was steam coming off of him from the fire. His clothes were burnt off,' Rundell said.

Rundell was later given a commendation from his news director to Channel 3's general manager, and columnist Don DiGilio used his column in 'The Valley Times' to mock the other stations for trailing so far behind.

'I think we broke in live with it, and once we broke in the other stations started showing up,' Rundell said.

Rundell's other close mob encounter came in a routine part of his job.

'My beat was the federal courthouse,' said Rundell. 'So I was constantly there with Tony Spilotro and Oscar [Goodman] and the whole gang that would come in and out of there.'

Tony Spilotro served as inspiration for the 'Casino' character Nicky Santoro, played by actor Joe Pesci.

There was a fairly standard routine when high-profile court proceedings were underway.

'We used to sit at the bottom of the federal courthouse at the elevators waiting for the court to break,' said Rundell. 'And that was our opportunity to get the B-roll of them coming in or out of court.'

Although Rundell and the rest of the media were always surrounding the characters coming in and out of the courthouse, it was all business. Nothing personal.

'I think more or less we were a nuisance, but they knew we were doing our job and we were not on there radar as far as retaliating at us for taking pictures.'

In fact, on one occasion, something different happened after Rundell finished shooting video and put down his camera.

Spilotro noticed Rundell had stopped shooting and paused.

'He turned around and said, 'You want to have a sandwich?' And across the street from the courthouse was a little sub place.'

Basso's Italian Grinder House was very popular with the courthouse crowd.

'So he took me over and bought me a subway,' Rundell said. 'And we didn't have much of a conversation. But he actually offered to take me to lunch. So that was something unique in the Spilotro days.'

Greg Rundell so enjoyed the crime and courthouse beat that in 1985 he joined the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, working both as a regular beat cop and a specialist in the Audio/Visual Department until retiring in 2014.

Channel 3 still has plenty of Rundell's tapes stored in the Video Vault.

The movie Casino remains one of the most successful films in American history. It’s based on Nicholas Pileggi’s book ‘Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas’ and follows the story of Sam “Ace” Rothstein (Robert De Niro), an American Jewish gangster who is sent to Las Vegas to oversee the Tangiers Casino and increase its profits. The plot was inspired by the real-life events of Frank Rosenthal who managed three casinos in Las Vegas for the Chicago mob in the 1970s and 1980s.

Casino was directed by none other than Martin Scorsese, the mastermind behind plenty of other mafia-related movie productions, and stars actors such as Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, and James Woods. Casino achieved a box office earnings of $116 million, which was already double of the relatively low production budget of $50 million.

Since the movie mixes real-life events with fiction, you might find yourself asking which bits of Casino are true. With the help of Sister Sites, a comparison site for Internet casinos, we present you the scenes that remained unaltered by the screenplay writers.

Rosenthal did not hold a gambling license

In the movie, De Niro’s character Ace Rothstein does not possess a gambling license although he’s overseeing the entire casino operations. This fact is true! Frank Rosenthal never owned a gambling permit since it was too dangerous for him to apply. Instead, he was officially employed in a non-managerial position, which didn’t require such a license.

The Tangiers Casino is an actual resort in Las Vegas

This is true! Scorsese did not want to waste money on building a set when there was an actual casino that could be used for shooting the scenes. While there is no ‘Tangiers’ casino in Las Vegas, the film crew used the Riviera casino in Downtown Las Vegas.

Rosenthal survived an attempted murder

Correct! In Casino, Rothstein (De Niro) survives a car bombing, and this scene remains unaltered. In 1982, Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal was injured when a bomb situated below his car exploded. Although it was a huge explosion, Rosenthal walked away with minor burns to his legs, left arm, and left side of his face. According to one special agent, the reason Rosenthal survived the attempted murder was since the bomb exploded in the wrong direction.

The Chicago mob killed one of the Casino’s accountants in Costa Rica

In the movie, the mob hunts down an accountant and former executive of the Tangiers Casino and ultimately kills him in Costa Rica. This murder is based on real-life events. John Nance was a low-level accountant who also served as the mafia’s bagman, collecting money from several Las Vegas casinos and handing them to mafia bosses such as Joey Aiuppa in Kansas.

When his son got arrested for drug possession, the mafia feared that Nance would turn into a state witness against the mob in return for a better deal for his son’s drug charges. He fled to Central America, but was hunted down and eventually killed.

Geri McGee died of a drug overdose

Casino The Movie True Story

Casino shows Rothstein’s wife, Ginger McKenna, die of a drug overdose in a motel. Not only was Geri McGee’s involvement in criminal activity accurately portrayed in the movie but also her death. McKenna died in 1982 at the age of 46 at the Beverly Sunset Hotel. Although her sister believed McGee had been murdered by the mob because “she knew too much”, the coroner ruled it an accidental overdose. A postmortem examination showed a lethal mix of cocaine, Valium and alcohol in her system.