The Reels Spin as the Movie Reels Roll

People Love When to See Where and When Everything Stops

Casinos and the slot machines in them are the perfect settings for staging movies and writing scripts about them. There are all sorts of characters in these flicks and plenty of high drama. It doesn’t matter if it is a table game or a slot machine, Hollywood types can build treachery and dreams around the floors of casinos.

So, what were famous movie slot machines? And why are they so captivating and mesmerizing? You can sit in a movie theatre and tense up waiting for the reels to come to a half. Win, lose, who cares, going to hit the button again to make things whirl. People are able to project themselves into the seats of people in their roles. Why? Because that is exactly what they would be doing if they were there.

Some flicks turned into movie-themed slot machines, like “Bruce Lee,” “Wonder Woman,” “Gladiator,” and “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

What Are the Most Famous Movie Scenes with Slot Machines?

There have been many movies about casinos that have incorporated slot play into them.

 Ruthlessreviews did some homework and offered its input on what some of the best are.

• “Casino”: This movie is on the list of every great gambling movie. The slot scene in it that gained attention was when an elderly woman hit the jackpot, leaving the casino manager (Robert De Niro) less than thrilled.
• “Oceans Thirteen”: This movie features a scene where characters rig a slot machine for a huge payout in hopes of breaking a casino.
• “The Hangover:” We can only wish this would happen to us. In the chaos of the movie, Zach Galifianakis bumps into a slot machine, and the reels do their thing. When they stop, the accidental spin turns into the guys hitting a big jackpot. Warning: This doesn’t happen in real life.

What Is the Movie About Gambling Cheating?

One of the movies about gambling cheating has a reality-bent. The flick “21” is about a group of six MIT students who used their genius in card-counting. It turned into a time when the students wound up winning millions of dollars through their scheme.

They not only won on their own but began training others on how to beat blackjack, which was the lone game these students thought could be had. Per an article in 2003, “They took over $400,000 in one weekend out of the casinos in Las Vegas,” said Gordon Adams, a casino security investigator.

The players became known as the MIT Blackjack Team, not the most clever of monikers, but it certainly fit. 

One of the players, Mike Aponte, lost at to start and was welcomed with open arms by a casino.

“An executive casino host came over right away and greeted me and took me up to a penthouse suite,” Aponte said in 2014. “It had a jacuzzi, pool table – it was amazing. I was in awe of the room, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I would normally have, because I was still upset about losing all that money.”

And once Aponte started winning, he was quickly noticed and asked to stop playing Blackjack at the casino.

“You’d get a tap on the back and the security man would say, ‘Mike, casino management has decided you’re welcome to play any game except blackjack,'” Aponte remembered to BBC in 2014.

Part of the fun for others was not getting caught. “He shaved his head, put on a wig, dressed like a woman, and then he played for the longest time,” Bill Kaplan told the  BBC. “He was a very good-looking guy!”

What Is the Best Poker Movie of All Time?

“Rounders” is widely regarded as the best poker movie. It is about a reformed gambler who gets in deep with loan sharks and has to return to his trade. While doing this, the gambler tries to balance real life with winning enough to pay those he owes.

Who Are the Famous Gamblers in Movies?

Some of the most memorable gamblers include the late Steve McQueen, who played “The Cincinnati Kid.” Mel Gibson was Bret Maverick in “Maverick.” And the incomparable Marlon Brando was Sky Masterson in “Guys and Dolls.”