Casino lifestyle, with its quick pace and perplexity, has captured the world’s attention and kept it for a good many years. Casinos are still associated with glamour and prestige and this undoubtedly affects their popularity in pop culture.
At present, gambling and casino elements can be found in arguably every aspect of pop culture – there are numerous casino-related books, video games, movies, songs, etc. In the following lines, bonusinsider.com will take a look at the greatest examples of casino gambling in popular culture, focusing our attention on some of the best casino-related songs, movies, and video games ever made.
Best gambling-related songs
Gambling references can be found in popular tracks as early as the 1920s. Further, some of the best hits from the past 50 years have been influenced by gambling in one way or another – from the Rolling Stones to Frank Sinatra, gambling-related songs can be found in almost every music genre.
Ace of Spades by Motörhead
Released back in 1980, Motörhead’s Ace of Spades is one of the band’s greatest hits. The song is about the dissipated life of a heavy-gambling guy and, of course, it became immensely popular as soon as it was released.
Initially, the track was issued as a 7” vinyl single and served as a preview to the album of the same title and the band’s autumn tour. Later, a limited edition of 50,000 copies was released as a 12” vinyl single for Christmas.
Tumbling Dice by The Rolling Stones
Tumbling Dice is a Rolling Stones track, released in 1972 as a lead single for the band’s double album called Exile on Main St. The song became a huge hit and reached No.7 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart; in the UK, it peaked at No.5 in the UK Singles chart.
What is interesting about Tumbling Dice is the origin of the lyrics. In the early 1970s, Keith Richards lived in a mansion in France, where the band set up a recording studio. The founder of Rolling Stones spent time creating a great riff for a song he called Good Time Woman. The song was then given to Mick Jagger to write the lyrics, but the singer was unable to come up with something useful.
Surprisingly, it was Mick Jagger’s maid who served as an inspiration – the woman explained how craps works in brief and Mick used parts of her tutorial to create the lyrics for the well-known 1970s hit.
The Gambler by Kenny Rogers
Without a doubt, The Gambler is the best gambling-related song ever sung. The Gambler’s lyrics were written by Don Schlitz in 1976. The song was recorded several times, but it was Kenny Rogers’ performance that broke all records.
Kenny Rogers recorded The Gambler in November 1978 and his version became a No.1 Country hit. Surprisingly, the song was even included in Pop charts (at that time, country and pop were strictly differentiated). Two years later, in 1980, Kenny Rogers was awarded with a Grammy award for the best male country performance.
Best gambling-related movie
There are tens of gambling-related movies in existence – if you want to watch all gambling-related movies, you will have to spend more than a month in front of the TV. Below, you can find one of our favourite gambling-related movies.
Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
Directed by renown film director Guy Ritchie, Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels tells the story of Eddy and his friends, who pool funds for Eddy to participate in a high stakes poker game against crime boss Hatchet Harry. Unfortunately, Eddy loses and Harry gives him a week to pay back the £500,000 Eddy and his friends now owe.
To raise the funds, Eddy and his friends decide to rob their neighbours – robbers who have decided to rob drug dealers. If everything goes to plans, Eddy will pay back the money he owes to Harry and keep his father’s pub.
Best gambling-related game
Not surprisingly, casino games have also inspired world’s leading video game developers. As a result, these sites offer a number of high quality gambling-related video games. To us, the best of all is Fallout: New Vegas.
Fallout: New Vegas
Fallout: New Vegas is a game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and released by Bethesda Softworks in 2010. As it is a part of the Fallout game series, the game is set in an post-apocalyptic environment.
Fallout: New Vegas is set in a region that meets parts of Arizona, Nevada and California, after “The Great War” – a nuclear war between USA and China over resources. Players control a character known as the Courier, who has to transport a package. While travelling through the Mojave Desert to get to the city of New Vegas, the Courier is ambushed and his package is stolen. He has to recover the package and participate in a conflict that determines the new chief of the New Vegas Wasteland.
