Some excellent movies have been influenced by or taken place in casinos over the years. And, like every other genre, many of the best films from the category stand out and are often spoken about. However, where the casino genre is concerned, there are many underrated movies that deserve to be discussed more.

Atlantic City

While Las Vegas has some of the most famous casinos, which has always been the benchmark for all the best online casinos to strive for, Atlantic City continues to hold its own too, and it also has a movie named after it. Released in 1980 and taking place after gambling was legalised in New Jersey, Atlantic City documents the story of a waitress who aspires to be a croupier at a casino and a blackjack dealer specifically, but the criminality of her former husband threatens to jeopardise everything.

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Croupier

And talking of becoming a croupier, the movie Croupier, which hit screens in 1998, is one of those films that deserved much more acclaim than it received. Croupier, which starred Clive Owen as a writer struggling to make ends meet, so he turned to the croupier life, is a British flick which performed better in the US than it did anywhere else. When you’re a croupier, you become a target for those who have a keen interest in the money being made at a casino, as this film documents. But it surely makes for a good story for a writer, right?

Mississippi Grind

Sometimes you have to take a slightly more light-hearted approach when you’re putting together a film involving casinos, which is precisely the direction Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck went in with their 2015 film Mississippi Grind, which stars both Ryan Reynolds and Ben Mendelsohn. Instead of this being a movie solely focused on the action that unfolds at a casino, it’s more about the friendship that blossoms between the new friends, who met at a casino, and then go on to play in a high-stakes poker game alongside each other.

Hard Eight

Paul Thomas Anderson, in the eyes of many, is one of the greatest movie directors ever to walk the earth. And when you look at his body of work, you can see why so many believe this is the case. Hard Eight, which was released way back in 1996, happens to be the first film directed by Anderson, and it shouldn’t be overlooked. Sydney is a wealthy experienced gambler who is asked by a drifter called John to help pay for his mother’s funeral. Sydney instead suggests heading to Las Vegas together, with Sydney teaching John everything he needs to know, but how does John go about using his newfound skills?

The casino genre is stacked with some great films. But sometimes, those that get less of a mention are worth watching, especially as many excellent stories seem to drift by unnoticed. Who would have thought Paul Thomas Anderson’s directorial debut in Hard Eight would be classed as an underrated movie, for example?