Most people who enter a casino or gamble online set out to beat the house through fair and square means and sometimes good strategy and a little bit of luck can result in a profitable outcome.
Over the years, however, there have been many cases where individuals or groups have tried to beat the bookmakers or casinos by more dubious means. Such hustles, where a fortune rides on successfully hoodwinking the house, have long been popular with movie makers who thrive on the kind of tension that can build in such a situation.
But which movies have best captured the dynamic of the hustle? We take a look at two famous examples from the silver screen – one based on real-life events and one fictional.
21 (2008)
The number in the title refers to the game of Blackjack that is the target of the shakedown in this Robert Luketic-directed movie. A group of MIT college students, under the guidance of their professor, perfect the technique of card counting and set about extracting millions from casinos around Las Vegas. However, things take a sinister turn when the casinos get wise to their racket. A star-studded cast ensure this true-life story is brought to life in exhilarating fashion.
The film focuses on the game-playing with dramatic effect. You get to see the techniques first-hand the and learn how the characters operate effectively as a team – all the while, feeling the tension build as the risk of getting caught increases.
While it may not be the greatest hustle movie ever made, it offers a fascinating insight into card counting and how a real group of MIT students were drawn into one of the biggest casino scams of the century.
The Sting (1973)
Late betting or post-betting is a popular method of cheating casino games or bookmakers. It simple terms, it is a bet placed after the market has officially closed. This can be achieved in many ways. For example, distracting the roulette dealer while a casino chip is moved to a winning position after the ball has settled.
In the days before live broadcasts, bets were accepted up until the moment the bookmaker was informed of the result by telephone, often a few minutes after the race had been completed. Hustlers could exploit this by taking a call from someone at the event and getting a live update on the result. They would then have a small window of opportunity to place a bet before the bookie got the call with the result.
In the 1973 movie The Sting (1973), swindlers used wire transmissions to place bets on horse races which had finished a few minutes earlier. This is just one of many techniques used to exact revenge on the protagonist’s enemy in the movie. Starring Robert Redford, Paul Newman and Robert Shaw, it remains one of the greatest hustle films of all time and inspired many other projects including the BBC TV series Hustle.
Honourable mentions
Another movie that deals with late betting and is well worth a watch is the New Zealand-based comedy Came a Hot Friday (1985). And for more card counting action, you could do worse than watch the Oscar-winning Rain Man (1988) starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman.
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