Rosenthal was a massive Robert Deniro fan, and this played a huge part in the genesis of the story.
Not only was this movie based on real-life events that happened to Frank Rosenthal, but the movie could not have existed without him regardless of this fact. In fact, ‘Casino’ is based on a real man named Frank ‘Lefty’ Rosenthal, who the character of Sam ‘Ace’ Rothstein was based on! Rosenthal was notorious for being a professional casino and sports better in addition to being an organized criminal, so you can see where the inspiration from this movie came from! Fact 3 – The Movie was Made Because the Real Sam Rothstein was a Robert Deniro Fan Many people believe that the plot of ‘Casino’ is simply too crazy to be true, but they couldn’t be more wrong.