The world of gambling has long been a fertile area for movie screenplay writers, producers, and directors. In a similar vein, Lifestyle is fertile ground for Sloto Cash Casino, one of the primary casinos we recommend here at Slots Play Casinos! Let’s see if we can combine the ideas presented in gambling movies with the Lifestyle areas covered regularly at Sloto Cash Casino.
Are All Gambling Movies Cut from the Same Cloth?
Certainly, not!
Just as any area of interest to movie makers and movie fans has many permutations, so does gambling. There are many different types of Westerns, war movies, comedies, movies about the challenges of growing up, ad infinitum squared and then squared again!
Still, we might divide gambling movies into two large, basic categories: gambling movies that are also comedies and gambling movies that are dark and foreboding.
How Can a Movie about Gambling be a Comedy?
How was Dr. Strangelove, about impending nuclear war, a comedy? People like to laugh and we can laugh at the dark side of life as much as the bright and sunny side.
It is better to ask: Can a movie about gambling that treats gambling as an addiction, ever be construed as a comedy?
Here the answer is no! Any attempt to laugh up gambling addiction is not funny! Period! However, it is possible to use one person’s obsession with winning bets to create a comedy of sorts. The Sting is a perfect example of this genre. California Split is the quintessential movie about gambling addiction and the effect it can have on one’s entire life.
Let’s look these two gambling movies to demonstrate the contrast between gambling as gaming and gambling as a black hole of more and more intensive gambling.
Do Online Casinos Deal with Gambling Addictions?
Yes, they do!
All of the casinos that we have reviewed and recommended, Sloto Cash being just one of them, treat gambling addiction with the utmost seriousness. Each casino may have its own way of dealing with this problem but the bottom line for all of these casinos is the same: they all want their gamers to have fun gaming, putting a little money on the line when they spin slots or play card games like video poker, Caribbean Poker, or blackjack.
Online Casinos Patrol Gaming
A good online casino (like Sloto Cash) has immediate feedback if a gamer suddenly starts making larger than normal bets. The casinos monitor high rollers to make sure that they can truly afford the bet size that makes them high rollers. Casinos belong to Responsible Gambling organizations which do their utmost to help problem gamblers.
A good casino encourages gamers to set time and monetary limits on gaming. After all, if someone is playing at home, they have many other areas of interest or personal responsibility. An hour of winding down with slots or any other online casino game may recharge their battery for the rest of the evening.
Land-based casinos, on the other hand, do encourage more obsessive gambling. The offers of free whisky whet a player’s appetite for more gambling and may trigger wild betting. In addition, any player who has taken a long weekend at the casino will spend a lot of time on the casino floor because there isn’t a whole lot to do in casino cities other than gamble.
California Split
Elliot Gould is the wisecracking gambler while George Segal is the quiet and more serious gambler who has trouble enjoying himself in any situation. While the background of California Split is gambling, the way the characters are drawn and developed reminds us of the Odd Couple with the happy go lucky slob played by Walter Matthau and his fastidious, uptight roommate played by Jack Lemmon.
George Segal is a casual gambler while Elliot Gould has never met a bet he couldn’t make. They are robbed of winnings and join forces. Segal gets sucked into Gould’s world. The two decide to pool their money to fund a gambling trip starring the studious Segal. He wins $82,000!
But he is not happy. He says that “there was no special feeling” and decides to walk away from the entire gambling scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPTrUDpuhdo.
Elliot Gould, as a compulsive gambler, cannot understand this attitude! He wants to refine their skills and hit Las Vegas but deep down George Segal knows that gambling is his friend’s life and obsession while it is nothing more than one activity of many and one that actually brings him little joy!
He also knows that he would be devastated if they lost the entire $82,000 while Gould would not care! This is the essence of the conflict between problem gambling and fun gaming: a fun gamer plays only as long as he or she can before other interests and responsibilities take over. A fun gamer set limits on gaming. A problem gambler doesn’t understand the concept of limits.
The Sting
This movie is based on the desire of two men for revenge after a mutual friend is murdered by people working for a mob boss. They set up an elaborate scheme to defraud the boss of a lot of money in such a way that even he would not know that he was being conned.
So, the movie has the elements of murder, organized crime and the type of men who run crime syndicates, and a con job based on the mob boss’s desire to win big at horse racing. It is only the boss’s compulsive gambling that allows the plot to con him work.
As such The Sting looks and feels like a movie about the hazards of compulsive gambling.
However Paul Newman and Robert Redford reprise their camaraderie from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and turn The Sting into a comedy! The plot to con the mob boss takes twists and turns and ultimately succeeds but the real success of the movie is in the humorous dialogue and facial expressions of Newman and Redford!
The Sting is a movie that begins with gambling obsession and turns it into something the audience is happy with since it is the gambling obsession of the boss that keeps the con going.
What Can Gamers Learn from These Two Classic Gambling Movies?
As gamers, we must always be alert to the possibility that a simple, pleasant pastime may devolve into an obsession. For this reason, good online casinos always look out for their gamers.
Gaming, not gambling, must be the byword of healthy casino gaming. This happy state of mind is much more likely when gamers play at a good online casino where it is much easier to limit oneself and to see gaming as one activity among many.
Gaming is One of Many Lifestyle Choices
Finally, we can come full circle to the way we began this article. Sloto Cash casino has a large Lifestyle feature. Living a good life, and helping gamers to do the same, is a lot more important to the people at SlotoCash than trying to turn gamers into gamblers!
Finally, we are proud to be affiliated with Sloto Cash and all of the other casinos we recommend. Come to SLOTS PLAY CASINOS often for more insights into the world of online casino gaming!
