Best Movies About Gambling on Netflix: Time to Roll the Dice!

1. Casino

• • Year Released: 1995
  • Genre: Drama, True Crime
  • Director: Martin Scorsese
  • Runtime: 2 hours and 58 minutes
  • IMDB rating: 8.2/10

Martin Scorsese’s Casino is one of the most famous movies about gambling. It stars Robert De Niro as Sam “Ace” Rothstein, a Mafia associate put in charge of the Tangiers Casino in Las Vegas.

The film, which is based on real events, follows Rothstein as he manages the casino while dealing with its Mafia ties as Sin City changes around him.

De Niro is not the only star in this classic film. Joining him are Sharon Stone (Ginger McKenna), Joe Pesci (Nicky Santoro), and real-life Mafia lawyer and former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman.

Stone won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama for her role. She was also nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars but did not win. Scorsese received multiple nominations for best director, as well.

2. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

• • Year Released: 2023
  • Genre: Drama
  • Director: Wes Anderson
  • Runtime: 39 minutes
  • IMDB Rating: 7.4/10

Next on my list of the best Netflix movies about gambling is The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, and this one did win an Oscar in 2024! The short film has a run time of 39 minutes and is an adaptation of a Roald Dahl short story of the same name.

Dahl’s story was originally published as part of a collection of short stories in 1977. However, the film adaptation, which Wes Anderson directed, was not released until 2023.

The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Max Engelman, a wealthy bachelor with a gambling habit. After learning about Imdad Khan (Ben Kingsley), a yogi who can see without using his eyes, Engelman masters his meditation techniques.

Engelman, working under the pseudonym Henry Sugar, then uses the skills he learned from Khan to cheat casinos while playing blackjack. This supernatural casino movie has been widely praised by audiences and film critics alike, like most of Wes Anderson’s projects.

3. Ballad of a Small Player

• • Year Released: 2025
  • Genre: Dark Comedy
  • Director: Edward Berger
  • Runtime: 1 hour and 41 minutes
  • IMDB rating: 5.9/10

The newest movie on my list is Ballad of a Small Player, a Netflix original film that debuted on the streaming service in 2025. Colin Farrell stars as Brendan Reilly, a former Irish financier who is down on his luck.

Ballad of a Small Player, directed by Edward Berger, premieres in 12 HOURS.

Starring Colin Farrell, Fala Chen, Deanie Ip, Alex Jennings and Tilda Swinton.

A high-stakes gambler running from his debts meets a kindred spirit who might just hold the key to his salvation. pic.twitter.com/nffoBDezoB

— Netflix (@netflix) October 28, 2025

Reilly, a con man on the run, poses as Lord Doyle as he moves between luxury hotel casinos and resorts in Macau. His poor luck at baccarat gets Reilly in hot water with the local casinos.

While trying to play his way out of debt, he is tracked down by British law enforcement agents investigating Reilly for embezzlement. He also meets Dao-Ming, played by Fala Chen, who could be the key to turning Reilly’s luck around.

The film was nominated, but did not win, the Golden Seashell at the 2025 San Sebastián International Film Festival. Farrell won the Golden Icon Award and Spotlight Actor Award at the Zurich Film Festival and Middleburg Film Festival, respectively.

4. Mississippi Grind

• • Year Released: 2015
  • Genre: Buddy Comedy, Drama
  • Director: Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck
  • Runtime: 1 hour and 48 minutes
  • IMDB rating: 6.4/10

Mississippi Grind (2015) was written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. A buddy comedy, Mississippi Grind follows the story of Gerry (Ben Mendelsohn) and Curtis (Ryan Reynolds), two gamblers who meet at a casino in Iowa.

Convinced that Curtis is his good luck charm, Gerry takes him on a road trip through casinos in the South. As the duo travels around the US, stopping at casinos along the way, Gerry attempts to earn enough money to pay back his loan shark.

Mendelsohn was nominated for Best Male Lead at the 2016 Independent Spirit Awards but lost to Abraham Attah (Beasts of No Nation). Mississippi Grind was named one of the top independent films of the year at the NBR Awards in 2015.

5. Molly’s Game

• • Year Released: 2017
  • Genre: True Crime, Drama
  • Director: Aaron Sorkin
  • Runtime: 2 hours and 20 minutes
  • IMDB rating: 7.4/10

The directorial debut of Aaron Sorkin, Molly’s Game, based on the biography of the same name, details the story of one of Hollywood’s largest underground poker rings.

Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain) is a world-class mogul skier injured while trying to qualify for the 2002 Winter Olympics. With her athletic career over, Bloom moves to LA and, after working for Dean Keith (Jeremy Strong), is put in charge of running illegal poker games at The Cobra Room.

The games attract many members of the Hollywood Elite, including the mysterious Player X (Michael Cera). Molly becomes a popular figure, prompting her jealous boss to fire her. However, Molly uses her contacts to poach the best, richest players from Keith’s games to run her own poker ring. Her exploits get Molly involved deeply with the Mafia and the FBI.

Sorkin was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 2018 Academy Awards. Chastain was also nominated for multiple Best Actress awards.

6. Casino Royale

• • Year Released: 2006
  • Genre: Adventure
  • Director: Martin Campbell
  • Runtime: 2 hours and 24 minutes
  • IMDB rating: 8.0/10

Daniel Craig’s debut as the iconic James Bond in the remake of Casino Royale is another great gambling movie available on Netflix. Craig’s Bond attempts to take down the evil financier Le Chiffre, played by Mads Mikkelsen.

In order to take down Le Chiffre, 007 attempts to use his poker skills to beat him in a high-stakes Texas Hold’em tournament at the titular Casino Royale.

Everyone’s favorite secret agent is aided in his pursuit of Le Chiffre by Vesper Lynd, a British Treasury agent. Lynd, who is played by Eva Green, is tasked with overseeing Bond’s $10 million buy-in for the tournament.

Casino Royale, the launching point of Craig’s highly successful run as Bond, received dozens of nominations. Among its notable wins are Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film at the 2007 Saturn Awards, Best Film at the 2007 Empire Awards, and Best Original Song (“You Know My Name”) at the 2006 Satellite Awards

7. Untold: Operation Flagrant Foul

• • Year Released: 2022
  • Genre: Sports documentary
  • Director: David Terry Fine
  • Runtime: 1 hour and 17 minutes
  • IMDB Rating: 6.8/10

There are also great sports betting movies on Netflix, such as Untold: Operation Flagrant Foul. The Untold series covers lesser-known sports stories, and Operation Flagrant Foul provides a look at the 2007 NBA betting scandal.

Specifically, it takes viewers through the incident from the point of view of Tim Donaghy. A former referee in the NBA, Donaghy helped fix games he was officiating. The disgraced former official was also betting on the games he fixed.

Betting on games is now commonplace in most of the US. That was not the case when Donaghy was running his point shaving scheme.

Not everyone agrees with Donaghy’s account of events. However, even if the former referee is not the most reliable of narrators, this documentary still provides a fantastic inside look at one of the biggest gambling scandals in the 2000s.

Operation Flagrant Foul was released in 2022 and is the eighth part of the Untold docuseries. While other popular gambling movies may be based on real events, this is the only entry on my list that is classified as non-fiction.

8. Two for the Money

• • Year Released: 2005
  • Genre: True Crime, Drama
  • Director: D.J. Caruso
  • Runtime: 2 hours and 2 minutes
  • IMDB rating: 6.2/10

After suffering a career-ending knee injury, Brandon Lang (Matthew McConaughey) uses his knowledge of football to handicap games. His success draws the attention of Walter Abrams, played by Al Pacino, who recruits Lang to work for him.

Directed by D.J. Caruso, Two for the Money was inspired by infamous sports handicapper Stu Feiner.

As Lang descends deeper into the world of sports gambling, tensions between him and Jerry Sykes (Jeremy Piven) grow. Sykes was Abrams’s right-hand man prior to Lang’s arrival. Lang also struggles to maintain his success in correctly predicting games, which gets him in trouble with Abrams’s high-rolling clients.

Walter’s wife, Toni Abrams, is played by Rene Russo. Pacino and Russo were nominated, but did not win, Best Grownup Love Story at the 2006 AARP Movies for Grownups Awards.

• Uncut Gems (2019)
• The Gambler (1974)
• Win It All (2017)
• 21 (2008)

• Kakegurui: A gambling anime on Netflix based on a manga of the same name. It follows students at a special school where the student hierarchy is based on gambling ability.

• Bet: A live-action adaptation of Kakegurui with Miku Martineau starring as the protagonist, Yumeko Kawamoto.

• Bad Sports: A docuseries detailing major scandals in sports. Episode 1, “Hoop Schemes,” discusses the 1994 betting shaving scandal involving the 1994 Arizona State men’s basketball team.

• Ozark: Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman) is forced to launder money for a Mexican drug cartel. Among his schemes to clean the money is opening a riverboat casino in Missouri.