Martin Scorsese created a dark and depressing ending for his 90s mobster movie Casino, and he recently doubled down on that decision. Scorsese has a big name in the gangster movie genre, with masterpieces like Goodfellas and more recent releases like The Irishman. As a film historian, he has a great respect for what came before, with gangster movies like Scarface and The Public Enemy as references for his own additions to the genre. He also loves to deconstruct genres, which is what he did with Casino.

Screen Rant was in attendance for the Casino 30th Anniversary celebration that included Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro in attendance. The two men sat down with a moderator and talked about the movie and its legacy. During the interview, the moderator asked Scorsese: “Is Vegas better when it’s run by the mafia or the corporations?” Scorsese’s answer was perfect (via X): “What’s the difference?”

What This Means For Martin Scorsese’s Casino

Las Vegas Lost The Mobsters But Nothing Really Changed

Martin Scorsese directed Casino after he saw tremendous success with his previous mobster movie, Goodfellas. The film is based on the non-fiction novel Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas by Nicholas Pileggi, the same author who wrote Wiseguy, which Goodfellas was based on. Scorsese wanted to tell the true story of the Stardust Resort and Casino and its rise and fall in the hands of various crime bosses.

He had already told a true life story of a man inside the mafia who turned on his “family” and betrayed them to save his own life. However, in Casino, he took a different direction. He told the story of how greed and the belief that anyone could achieve unlimited success was a misnomer, and it would only lead to the downfall of everyone involved. It was a unique look at a familiar topic for Scorsese, but it doesn’t share the same acclaim as Goodfellas.

However, there was a message at the ending of Casino as Sam went on with his life and said he had no reason to “mess up a good thing” after he had his run on top for a short few years. Sam was back where he started, and the mobsters had moved on, but Las Vegas didn’t really change. The only difference is that the mobsters didn’t run the casinos. Corporations now ran everything, and as Scorsese said, that really isn’t a big difference in the long run.

Our Take On Martin Scorsese’s Thoughts On Casino’s Ending

Martin Scorsese’s Casino Remains A Morality Tale

Goodfellas was an interesting movie because it showed the mafia as a family, and when Henry Hill betrayed his family, it was a tragic moment. He ended up living in witness protection, but he might as well have died since he lost everything that he cared about. That was a tragedy, but told from the point of view of the bad guys. In Casino, it took it one step further and showed that everyone loses in the end in the mafia world.

In The Godfather, rivals gunned down Vito Corleone, despite his reputation as one of the most respected mafia dons in that world. Michael Corleone lost his soul by the time his story ended. In Goodfellas, Henry Hill lost his family in the name of self-preservation. In Casino, Sam lost the power he held and ended up in a purgatory in life like Henry Hill before him. However, while all these men fall, the power never lessens, and Scorsese reveals clearly that whether it is the mafia or corporations, everyone is expendable and nothing ever really changes.