:05:02
always looking over my shoulder,
hassled by cops, day and night.
:05:06
But here, I'm Mr. Rothstein.
:05:08
I'm not only legitimate,
but running a casino.
:05:10
And that's like selling people
dreams for cash.
:05:14
I hired an old casino pal, Billy Sherbert,
as my manager, and went to work.
:05:18
And this is Ronnie,
who takes care of the card room.
:05:24
SAM: For guys like me,
Las Vegas washes away your sins.
:05:27
It's like a morality car wash.
:05:29
It does for us what Lourdes does
for humpbacks and cripples.
:05:32
[Upbeat jazz music intensifies]
:05:39
SAM: And along with making us legit...
:05:41
comes cash, tons of it.
:05:44
What do you think we're doing
here in the middle of the desert?
:05:47
It's all this money.
:05:49
This is the end result
of all the bright lights...
:05:52
and the comped trips,
of all the champagne...
:05:55
and free hotel suites,
and all the broads and all the booze.
:05:59
It's all been arranged
just for us to get your money.
:06:05
That's the truth about Las Vegas.
:06:08
We're the only winners.
:06:10
The players don't stand a chance.
:06:12
And their cash flows from the tables...
:06:15
to our boxes through the cage...
:06:17
and into the most sacred room
in the casino.
:06:21
The place where they add up all the money...
:06:23
the Holy of holies, the count room.
:06:28
Now, this place was off-limits.
:06:31
Even I couldn't get inside.
:06:32
But it was my job to keep it filled
with cash. That's for sure.
:06:35
NlCKY: They had so much money in there...
:06:37
you could build a house out
of stacks of $100 bills.
:06:39
And the best part was that upstairs...
:06:41
the Board of Directors didn't know
what the fuck was going on.
:06:44
To them everything looked
on the up-and-up.
:06:46
Right? Wrong.
:06:48
Verify $5,000.
:06:49
NlCKY: The guys in the counting room...
:06:52
were all slipped in there
to skim the joint dry.
:06:55
They'd do short counts,
they'd lose fill slips.
:06:58
They'd even take cash
right out of the drop-boxes.