:03:06
SAM: Before I ever ran a casino,
or got blown up...
:03:09
Ace Rothstein was a hell of a handicapper.
:03:12
I can tell you that.
:03:13
I was so good that whenever I bet,
I'd change the odds...
:03:16
for every bookmaker in the country.
:03:18
I'm serious, I had it down so cold...
:03:20
that I was given paradise on Earth.
:03:22
I was given one of the biggest casinos
in Las Vegas to run, the Tangiers...
:03:27
by the only kind of guys that can actually
get you that kind of money.
:03:31
$62, 700, 000.
:03:34
I don't know all the details.
:03:36
NlCKY: [Voiceover] In fact,
nobody knew all the details...
:03:38
but it should've been perfect.
:03:40
He had me, Nicky Santoro,
his best friend, watching his ass...
:03:44
and he had Ginger,
the woman he loved, on his arm.
:03:48
But in the end, we fucked it all up.
:03:51
It should've been so sweet, too.
:03:53
It turned out to be the last time
that street guys like us...
:03:57
were ever given anything
that fucking valuable again.
:04:04
SAM: Vegas was a place where suckers...
:04:06
flew in every year on their own nickel...
:04:08
and left behind about a billion dollars.
:04:11
But at night, you couldn't see
the desert that surrounds Las Vegas.
:04:17
But it's in the desert where lots
of the town's problems are solved.
:04:20
NlCKY: Got a lot of holes in the desert...
:04:22
and a lot of problems
are buried in those holes.
:04:25
Except you gotta do it right.
:04:27
You gotta have the hole already dug...
:04:28
before you show up
with a package in the trunk.
:04:31
Otherwise, you're talking about
30 or 45 minutes of digging.
:04:34
Who knows who's gonna be coming along
in that time?
:04:37
Before you know it,
you gotta dig a few more holes.
:04:40
You could be there all fucking night.
:04:44
[Horns honking]
:04:52
THE STRlP - LAS VEGAS
TEN YEARS EARLlER
:04:56
[Upbeat jazz music]
:04:58
SAM: Who could resist?
:04:59
Anywhere else, I was a bookie, a gambler...