The real-life inspiration for Rothstein was Frank Rosenthal, an infamous sports handicapper and affiliate of the mob who went out to manage casinos and was accompanied by an old friend, Anthony Spilotro, the inspiration for Nicky, to act as the muscle. It’s easy to get swept away in the movie Casino and forget that, as it says in the opening credits, is based on a true story.Ĭharacters Sam Rothstein, Nicky Santoro and Ginger McKenna are all based on real people who were active in Las Vegas in the 1970’s and all were affected by the mob’s moves to run the area at the time.