I'd post my take except that it's been a couple years since I've seen Casino. Hell, I don't even remember if I own it.

[url=http://www.dvdprofiler.com/mycollection.asp?alias=Damfino]Ah, yes, I do.[/url]

Unfortunately, Mrs Walrustitty, while being fairly tolerant of my taste in movies, can't handle gangster movies. This means that pretty much any Scorscese movie I have to watch alone. She did sit through the first half of The Godfather, but was then too tired, and I ended up finishing it about a month or two later by myself. (Still haven't found the time to watch the sequels.)

Anyways, I only remember brief flashes from the movie. Sharon throwing the chips in the air, or the guy getting his hand chopped off for cheating, or Sharon wiped-out near the end, leaning on the hotel hallway wall. So, I can't give a proper estimation of the scene - in fact, any attempt to remember the guy in the 10-gallon hat makes me think of Burt Reynold's character from GTA: Vice City.

(Did you ever look at the [url=http://us.imdb.com/Title?0314123]cast list[/url] from GTA: VC? Pretty damn impressive.)

Jonsey should ban himself and hand the board over to Ben.

I've only the seen the last ten minutes a couple of times.

Yeah, that's what I thought, too. You bring up an excellent point, however. Great post!

When Robert De Nero's character meets with the one city councilman in the ten gallon hat and refuses to give his brother-in-law his job back -- was [i]that[/i] one of his critical mistakes? I would say that his biggest one was getting involved with Sharon Stone's character.

(Well, even if it were the real Sharon Stone, it would have had the same effect, I guess.)

But ultimately, did his refusal to let the incompetent guy who was in charge of the slots get his job back really cost him? Every time I see that scene, I wonder. I mean, wouldn't it have really been to his advantage to give the guy another job with less (no?) responsibility and have the favor of the councilman?

(The "payoff" at the scene is implied with the ten-gallon-hat-wearing mofo is present at De Niro's license hearing -- it is implied that the guy had a role in De Niro immediately getting rejected.)