: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...
: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.