The gambling industry has been growing significantly in the last decade. Many experts believe that gambling industry is currently one of the biggest industries in the world that is currently worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Only in 2016, the total gross win of thecasino from all over the world only from the gamblers was more than 450 billion dollars.

Interestingly, currently, the biggest gambling center in the world is Macau who has taken over the title from Las Vegas back in 2006.

• Only in 2014, the gross gambling revenue of the country in Macau was around 44 billion US dollars.
• However, Macau’s gambling industry is showing signs of reduced revenues from gambling because, in 2015, the gross gambling revenue was only 28 billion dollars
• On the other side of the planet, Las Vegas is attracting more than 43 million visitors annually and almost all of them are tourists who want to try their luck in many casinos along the Las Vegas Strip

Over the years, many countries around the world have attempted to regulate this industry and some have been more or less successful. The United States, for example, still have a ban on any kind of gambling in thehuge majority of countries.

Gambling has always been one of the most interesting topics for different kinds of researchers. In this piece, we will be bringing you a list of best documentaries that deal with the topic of gambling.

1. Inside: Underground Poker

Year: 2012
Author: Jon Bulette
Country: the United States
Cast: Mikey Tats, Breezy, John The Banker, Joe Mush, Brad The Conductor
Theme: The underground poker scene in New York City and the effects that illegal gambling has on people’s life

The Inside: Underground Poker documentary follows a story of a man who earns his living by organizing underground poker matches. These kinds of poker matches have been ahuge problem for the country’s gambling authorities and they have been trying to find a way to prevent the organization of those matches.

This documentary explores the lives of people who have been involved in underground poker scene in New York and how those poker matches are affecting their lives. This documentary gives us an insight into the lives of poker players who have been gambling for a long time.

Through conversations with those players, we can see how gambling has affected their lives and their families. Besides that, we also get the opportunity to see who organizers of those matches are actually trying to make the experience of playing poker in those matches as better as possible by providing food, girl company, and drinks. In general, Inside: Underground Poker is a great insight into the underground gambling scene in New York.

2. Gambling – Against The Odds

Year: 2009
Author: Mike Kleinsteuber
Country: the United States
Cast: Pretty Boy Floyd
Theme: How gambling industry evolved in the United States and what are the consequences of gambling addiction for people who do not get the treatment

Gambling – Against the Odds is one of many documentaries that tried to give an insight into the historical evolvement or development of gambling industry in the United States.

However, this documentary also explores the consequences that gambling industry had on the entire society and whether or not gambling can be considered as a part of the culture in the United States.

More importantly, this documentary explores the problem of gambling addiction and what it does to the people who are not able to stop themselves from gambling.

This is a pretty dark documentary about the consequences of gambling addiction and it paints a pretty dark picture for people who are suffering from gambling addiction but who do not seek the treatment for their problems.

This documentary emphasized that gamblers need to understand that gambling, just like any other addiction, whether drug or alcohol, provides just a temporary feeling of satisfaction. The biggest problems are consequences that come after and it is not easy to handle all those issues alone and that is why this documentary encourages many people who suffer from gambling addiction to seek help as soon as possible.

3. Bet Raise Fold: The Story of Online Poker

Year: 2013
Author: Ryan Firpo
Country: the United States
Cast: Danielle Andersen, Tony Dunst, Martin Bradstreet
Theme: This documentary explores the evolution of online gambling industry as well as the action that the US authorities took against online gambling providers

This documentary starts with the poker players revealing the consequences of the decision of the US authorities took against the providers of online gamblers that left many people without their money. With those actions, the US authorities have frozen more than 500 million dollars of people from all over the world.

Bet Raise Fold: The Story of Online Poker features interviews with three people who have been affected by that decision, Danielle Andersen, Tony Dunst, and Martin Bradstreet.

This documentary features interviews with all of those people and through those interviews, the director is trying to explore the evolution of gambling or evolution of poker specifically. This documentary also touches upon the legality of online gambling in the US states and the decision that the US Department of Justice has taken on several occasions against websites that provide online gambling sites.

4. Life on the Line

Year: 2013
Author: Isaac Feder
Country: the United States
Cast: Ted Sevransky, John Netto, Jay Kornegay, Steve Fezzik
Theme: The effects that Super Bowl has on the sports betting industry and gambling in general

Life on the Life is a documentary that takes a look at the issue of sports betting during the Super Bowl which has been characterized as the biggest betting event in the world. During the Super Bowl match, sports bettors in the United States are usually betting more than a billion dollars which is an amount that is never seen in the sports betting industry.

This documentary focuses on sports betting in Las Vegas, Nevada as sports betting is still illegal in many states in the United States. This documentary features interviews with John Netto, Steve Fezzik, Jay Kornegay, and several other sports bettors who are betting huge sums of money on the Super Bowl.

It also explores the notion of sports betting and gambling in general and what it feels to win big and lose big as well. Just like many other documentaries, Life on the Line is also taking a look at the legality of sports betting in the United States.

Sports bettors who were part of this documentary state that gambling is a part of the culture in the US and that it should be legal across the country.

5. Gambling Addiction & Me – The Real Hustler

Year: 2012
Author: Alexis Conran
Country: the United Kingdom
Cast:Alexis Conran
Theme: Alex Conran investigates the issue of gambling addiction that caused his father to end up in a jail and whether or not he could have the same tendencies

Gambling Addiction & Me – The Real Hustler is the story about the problems caused by gambling addiction told from the perspective of Alex Conran. In this documentary, Alex Conran is trying to understand the reasons that made his father do the things he did and what causes people to surrender to gambling addiction.

In order to figure out gambling addiction, Alex Conran conducts interviews with several people who have been treated for gambling addiction and whose addiction led them to lose almost everything they had.

One of the biggest issues that Alex Conran encounters while making this documentary was online casinos that have been identified as the direct reason for the increased number of people who are suffering from gambling addiction.

In the final part of this documentary, Alex Conran reaches to some organizations that help people fight gambling addiction and emphasized that those people can contact these organization at any given moment.

6. FRONTLINE: The Fantasy Sports Gamble

Year: 2016
Author: Frank Koughan (The New York Times & PBS)
Country: the United States
Cast: /
Theme: A closer look at the fantasy sports betting and sports betting in general

The Fantasy Sports Gamble documentary is one of the most interesting and groundbreaking documentaries about the issue of gambling. This documentary takes a look at the sites such as FanDuel and DraftKings who are providing the option of fantasy sports betting for players in the United States.

It also takes a look at the business of these sites and how they have been making money throughout the years. Considering that bettors were not betting on actual sports events, this kind of betting became very popular all across the United States.

While gambling, as well as sports betting, is illegal in many areas of the United States, betting on fantasy sports is legal in all countries. One of the reasons why betting on fantasy sports is legal is the fact that authorities have classified this kind of gambling as entertainment. That enabled fantasy sports sites like the one that we have mentioned before to acquire huge profit without having to pay the gambling and other related taxes.

7. A Kid’s Game: The Story of Online Poker

Year: 2011
Author: Li Dong
Country: the United States
Cast: Martin “Dr.Giggy” Giguere, Alexei “MagicNinja” Martov, Thuy “ShesNoGood” Doan, Di “URinDanger” Dang, Hac “trex313” Dang, Peter “apathy” Jetten, Isaac “LuvtheWNBA” Haxton, Andrew “Good2CU” Robl
Theme: This documentary explores the lives and careers of some of the world’s best young online poker players in the world and the effects online gambling had on their lives

One of the biggest issues that many people have with gambling being available online is the availability of gambling for young people and children especially. A Kid’s Game: The Story of Online Poker is a documentary that explores the lives of several young online poker players.

During those interviews, those players reveal that they started to play online poker when they were still underage. Through those interviews, we get the opportunity to see what led to the success that those players had in their career.

Besides that, we also get to see them in not so great moments or when they lost a lot of money playing online poker. These players also talk about the development of online poker and what does it mean for them and whether or not they consider that they might have a gambling addiction. They are also talking about their high stakes and what does it mean for a player the opportunity to place high stakes.

8. Vice World of Sports: The Line

Year: 2016
Author: Evan Rosenfeld
Country: the USA
Cast: Sal Masekela, Mark Cuban
Theme: This documentary investigates the legality of gambling in the form of sports betting

Vice World of Sports: The Line is one of the most interesting documentaries about sports betting and gambling in general about this industry in the United States. Those who are not aware sports betting as well as gambling, in general, is illegal in huge part of the United States.

This documentary explores the reasons why authorities have made gambling illegal and what could be the consequences of gambling addiction. Besides that, it also reveals the background of sports betting and how sports betting is provided by sides from all over the world.

This documentary also explores some of the biggest sports betting scandals in the United States and the effects those scandals had on match-fixing and sports betting in the country. When it comes to those scandals, the biggest question was whether or not those who were involved have committed any illegal action or was everything that they were doing legal.

This documentary goes in-depth about this issue and tries to uncover the truth behind the sports betting and match-fixing in the United States.

9. Drugs Inc. High Stakes Vegas

Year: 2012
Author: Andrew Parkin
Country: the United States
Cast:
Theme: The issue of drug use and the connection between drug abuse and gambling industry

Las Vegas is one of the biggest entertainment centers in the world and because of that, it is no wonder that it will also be a center of criminal activities. One of the biggest problems that Las Vegas faces is the problem of drug use and drug distribution.

Parts of Las Vegas are not as glamorous as it might seem to some visitors and people who live there have lost everything and they have taken on thedrug as the treatment for their suffering. This documentary investigates the connection between drug abuse and the gambling industry.

Millions of people visit Las Vegas annually and that is agreat opportunity for drug dealers to sell more drugs. Gamblers who are very passionate about their vacations and gamblers who are struggling with their gambling addiction might be looking for a way to spend more time in the casinos and drug dealers are known to use their weaknesses to sell them different kinds of drugs.

10. The Gambling Mafia and International Sports Betting

Year: 2017
Author: Benjamin Best, Herve Martin Delpierre, UweSchwering
Country: Germany
Cast: SivakumarMadasamy, Andreas Bachmann, Rudolf Stinner, Ralf Mutschke, Marco Paolini, and others
Theme: An investigation of the involvement of mafia, organized crime, and betting syndicates in match-fixing across Europe

The Gambling Mafia and International Sports Betting is a revolutionary insight into the world of sports as it reveals the match-fixing scheme is some of the biggest football competitions in the world.

This documentary was hugely popular in Germany as it revealed that some games in German football leagues, as well as the matches of Germany’s U16 national teams, have been fixed by organized crime organizations from all over the world.

However, this documentary does not only focus on the matches in Germany as it also reveals that some matches in UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League have also been fixed by the same group of criminals.

It clearly lists the games that were fixed for the betting profit of syndicates from Asia and other parts of the world. It also reveals the way in which those matches are fixed and what it takes to consider a player a bigger number of players to throw a match.

Throughout this documentary, the creator is investigating whether or not sports betting manipulation are legal and what might be the consequences for match-fixing.

11. Nosebleed

Year: 2014
Author:Victor Saumont
Country: France
Cast: Alex ‘Alexonmoon’ Luneau, Sebastien ‘Seb86’ Sabic
Theme: This documentary features the story of Alex ‘Alexomoon’ Luneau and Sebastien ‘Seb86’ Sabic and their attempt to achieve great success and win the title at the 2014 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas

Alex Luneau and Sebastien Sabic are two French online poker players who have managed to win millions playing this game. For a certain period of time, both of them were professional poker players and their main goal was to win the World Series of Poker.

Nosebleed is a documentary that follows these two players on their path to Las Vegas where they were attempting to win the title at the 2014 World Series of Poker. However, this documentary provides a much more detailed insight into the mind of players who are preparing for the biggest poker tournament in the world.

Besides that, we also follow these two players through several weeks of tournament and we have the opportunity to see how playing poker constantly in such an important tournament affects people. This documentary is also an insight into the relationship between these two players in a sense that they have helped each other in their career many times.

Because of that, since then these two players play together and they are playing online poker together helping each other to win as many matches as possible.

12. American Justice: Vegas and the Mob

Year: 1996
Author:
Country: the United States
Cast: Tony Accardo, Joe Agosto, Sam Giancana, Sammy Davis Jr., Bill Kurtis, Don Rickles
Theme: This documentary explores the connections between gambling industry in Las Vegas and the mob families who have been running gambling industry in Las Vegas for a long time

Back in the days, Las Vegas was run by mafia families who mostly came from Chicago. This documentary tries to find the answers to the question whether or not those families are still controlling gambling industry in this city.

The influence of mafia families in Las Vegas has been evident for more than 80 years as these families managed to lobby the legislation that allowed gambling in Las Vegas and in the entire state of Nevada.

Over the years, Las Vegas has witnessed many murders that were related to the gambling industry and this documentary takes a look at those murders in order to find out whether or not mafia families were responsible for those murders.

13. The Best of It

Year: 2016
Author: Scott Pearson Eberly
Country: the United States
Cast: Alan ‘Boston’ Dvorkis, Alan ‘Dink’ Denkenson, Lem Banker, Ken ‘The Shrink’ Weitzner
Theme: This documentary investigates the other side of the sports betting – the darker one

The main focus of The Best of It documentary is Alan ‘Dink’ Denkenson, Alan ‘Boston’ Dvorkis, Lem Banker, and Ken ‘The Shrink’ Weitzner who have said that they do not have a standard job and that they make their living by placing sports bets.

This documentary follows these four bettors in their lives and it explores how they place their bets, how much they have won and how much they have lost while betting, as well as the consequences that betting had on their lives and their families.

This documentary provides an insight into the weakest and the darkest moments in the lives of these four bettors. It reveals what kind of struggle these players go through when they face losses and their ability or better say their inability to cope and fight against their gambling addiction.

This documentary got even bigger attention after it was revealed that Ken ‘The Shrink’ Weitzner has committed suicide just a couple of weeks after the end of theshooting of this documentary. According to some reports, the reasons why he committed suicide were the debts that he was unable to repay.

14. High Rollers High Risk

Year: 2014
Author: Linton Besser
Country: Australia
Cast: Sandy Boucher, John Broome, Nelson Rose, Jose Pereira Coutinho
Theme: Macau’s gambling industry and the involvement of organized crime in the gambling industry in this country

Currently, the biggest gambling center in the world is Macau and in the last 10 years, gambling industry in this city has been flourishing and developing incredibly quickly. High Roller High Risk is a documentary that investigates the involvement of organized crime groups and mafia in the gambling industry in this group.

It is not a secret that Chinese triads have been involved or even controlling the gambling industry in this city for a long time. Australian gamblers are often visitors in Macau’s casinos and because of that this documentary also investigates how Australian players have been affected by the people who run this industry from the shadows.

In the past, Macau had violent episodes because of the conflict between organized crime groups who were fighting for superiority in Macau and who wanted to take over the control of Macau’s gambling industry. This documentary provides evidence that proves that some of the most important figures in Chinese triads have been controlling the gambling industry in Macau.

15. All In: The Poker Movie

Year: 2009
Author: Douglas Tirola
Country: the United States
Cast: Karen Abbott, Peter Also, Nick Brancato, Eric Morris, Matt Damon, Joe Cada,
Theme: The exploration of reasons why poker became widely popular and a part of popular culture

Before the 2000s, poker was a game that was reserved for dark rooms of underground gambling sites or halls of the casinos in Las Vegas and other cities around the world. However, with the turn of the millennium, poker became widely popular and in a very short period of time, it became a part of the mainstream popular culture.

The All in: The Poker Movie explores this revolution in the gambling industry and the reasons why poker became so popular.

During those years, the best poker players became superstars all over the world and the fact that some of the Hollywood’s biggest stars have been playing poker made it even more popular in the entire world.

The rise poker’s popularity also meant the rise of gambling industry and poker from the 2000s was one of the main reasons why gambling industry gained so much power in the entire world. This documentary tries to understand the reason that made poker the most popular gambling or casino game in theentire world.

16. The Legend of Jimmy the Greek

Year: 2009
Author: Fritz Mitchell
Country: the USA
Cast: Jimmy ‘The Greek’ Snyder, Rich Podolsky, Brent Musburger, Hank Goldberg, Dan Rather, and others.
Theme: The testimony of Jimmy the Greek’s life and his contribution to the legalization of betting in NFL

When it comes to sports betting, Jimmy Snyder is one of the most important people as well as one of the most popular oddsmakers in the United States. Majority of people recognize Jimmy the Greek as one of the best sports commentators in the country but his rise to stardom started even before his sports commentators’ career.

He had some legal problems in his life and he was arrested several times for betting outside the state borders. In this documentary, viewers will have the opportunity to see the other side of Jimmy the Greek’s life.

In the world of sports betting, Jimmy the Greek is famous for coming up with the new principle of determining the right way to assign points spreads during the pre-game show and he would often use this principle while commentating NFL games.

In that way, Jimmy the Greek brought sports betting closer to millions of people who had the opportunity to learn the system that one of the most popular oddsmaker in the world has been using.

17. Modern Marvels: Las Vegas

Year: 1994
Author: Andrew Thomas
Country:the United States
Cast: Wayne Newton, Jack Perkins, Debbie Reynolds
Theme: The influence of gambling industry on the development of Las Vegas

Over the years, Las Vegas became one of the biggest and most important centers of the gambling industry. The documentary called Modern Marvels: Las Vegas is the story about the historical development of Las Vegas and the influence that gambling industry had on that development.

This documentary takes the viewers to the very start of Las Vegas story and it leads them towards modern times by showing different stages of the city development.

This documentary puts development of Las Vegas in historical context by comparing it to some of the biggest historical events in the United States history such as the attack on Pearl Harbor and in that way, it depicts events that happened in Las Vegas while the rest of the country was going through some other events that proved to be crucial for the development of the entire nation.

18. High Stakes: The Story of Sam Trickett

Year: 2013
Author: Richard Adams
Country: the United Kingdom
Cast: Sam Trickett
Theme: The exploration of Sam Trickett and how he became the most successful poker player at one time in his career

Poker fans will immediately recognize the name of Sam Trickett who has been one of the most successful poker players in history for a long time. Sam Trickett is still very active poker player but his biggest success in career happened several years ago and this documentary explores that side of his career.

Throughout his career, Sam Trickett has been famous for high stakes that he bet while playing poker. Some people might say that is a risky move. However, Sam Trickett became very successful with those high stakes bets.

Besides telling the story of Sam Trickett’s career, this documentary also explores the dark side of his career. This part of the documentary provides an insight into the part of Sam’s life when he was struggling with depression and many other problems.

It also depicts his struggle with those problems and how he managed to overcome all those problems and return to playing poker professionally. High Stakes: The Story of Sam Trickettis a great documentary about the life of professional poker players as it explores all the difficult and good times that they go through in their careers.

19. Modern Marvels: The History of Casino Technology

Year: 1999
Author: Bruce Nash
Country: the United States
Cast: Daniel Eitnier, Marshall Fey, Don King, Lloyd Sherr, Bill Weidner
Theme: The development that casinos use to provide casino game as well as surveillance of their space

Modern Marvels: The History of Casino Technology depicts how technology used by casino developed over time. This documentary also takes a look at the development of certain technology that enabled casinos to organize and provide different casino games for the players.

This documentary focuses on Foxwoods Resort Casino that at the time of shooting of this documentary was the biggest casino in the entire world and it explores all technological solutions that this casino is using mostly for the surveillance.

Today, that technology might not be that relevant as the technology has advanced significantly in the last five years. Despite that, it is very interesting to see how casinos were handling the issue of security back in the day when technology did not offer that many options. Besides that, this documentary is also a great insight into the gambling industry at the turn of the century.

20. Now Place Your Bets

Year: 2017
Author: James Bernardo
Country: the United States
Cast: Pete Rose, Dennis Tobler, Dave Oancea, Jessica Davis, Professor Richard Davies, Joe D’Amico, and others
Theme: This documentary explores the role of Las Vegas had in the development of sports betting industry

Now Place Your Bets is one of the best documentaries currently available that deals with the issue of sports betting industry. Throughout the entire movie, this documentary explores the rise of sports betting industry in the United States and especially in Las Vegas, where sports betting is legal.

Through in-depth interviews, archive video recordings and photographs, this documentary provides an insight into this industry that is currently world hundreds of billions of dollars.

This documentary also explores the role of Las Vegas in the historical development of sports betting and how this city became the biggest center of sports betting industry in the United States.

This documentary features interviews with some of the most legendary journalists, oddsmakers, pioneers of sports betting and many other important individuals who had atremendous influence on sports betting. Besides that, this documentary also takes a look at the sports betting as a part of the culture in the United States and how sports betting has become a very important part of the society in the United States.

21. Uncommon Knowledge: Building Las Vegas

Year: 2017
Author: Peter Robinson
Country: the United States
Cast: Steve Wynn
Theme: The contributions of Steve Wynn on the development of gambling industry and the city of Las Vegas

When it comes to the gambling industry in Las Vegas, Steve Wynn is one of the most important people ever as he managed to transform Las Vegas from a small place in Mojave desert to one of the biggest gambling centers in the entire world.

Steve Wynn is known as one of the biggest casino developers in the entire world and his casinos are located all across the United States. Throughout the entire documentary, Steve Wynn discusses the circumstances and life choices that led him to build such an empire at the time when nobody thought that gambling will have a place in the US society.

This is a rather different look at the development of gambling industry as it provides an inside look at what rarely anyone had the opportunity to witness. In this documentary, Steve Wynn entangles what many would call a complicated history of Las Vegas and its historical development.

22. ‘Anything to Win’ – Amarillo Slim

Year: 2006
Author: Kev Stovall
Country: the United States
Cast: Doyle Brunson, Todd Brunson, Kathy Liebert, J.V. Martin, ‘Amarillo Slim’ Preston
Theme: An insight into the career of Amarillo Slim who was one of the best poker players in the United States

Rarely any poker player in the world has gotten so much attention as Amarillo Slim who many claim is the best poker player in the entire history. Whether or not he is the best poker player in history, Amarillo Slim is one of the most important people in the development of poker as we know it today.

This documentary explores the life of Amarillo Slim and through the interviews with some of the closest people to Amarillo Slim, this documentary explores the society of that time and the state of thegambling industry.

The movie depicts how Amarillo Slim brought poker matches from the illegal scene to the floors of some of the biggest casinos in Las Vegas. Besides that, this documentary also depicts the life of poker players during the 1960s and how they were struggling as they were some of the most common targets of robberies during those years and their inability to do anything against that as poker matches were illegal at that time.

23. The Player: Secrets of a Vegas Whale

Year: 2014
Author: Trish Regan
Country: the United States
Cast: Don Johnson
Theme: Detailed scoop of Don Johnson story of success and his rise to glory

Las Vegas is full of individuals who at one point in their career has achieved a lot of success. However, rarely any of those individuals have been as successful as Don Johnston who is known in the gambling circles as Vegas Whale.

Throughout his entire career, Don Johnson managed to win more than $15 million. This documentary also explores the accusations that he might be counting cards. However, none of those claims has ever been proven as casinos have tried to bust Don Johnson but he never cheated.

The later stages of this documentary feature interviews with the heads of some of the biggest casinos in Las Vegas and they talk about their relationship with Don Johnson and how he has helped them to further develop their business simply by playing in their casino. This documentary also reveals the depths that casinos will go through in order to bring in a high-caliber player to play in their casino.

24. 60 Minutes: Sports Betting

Year: 2011
Author: 60 Minutes
Country: The United States
Cast: Billy Walters
Theme: The life of Billy Walters, the most successful sports bettor in the United States

When it comes to the sports betting in the United States, rarely any bettor is not aware of who Billy Walters is. Today, Billy Walters is one of the most successful sports bettors in the United States who has accumulated huge wealth from his bets.

Throughout his career, Walters was not very keen on media presence and because of that, he did not appear in media a lot of times.

This episode of 60 Minutes features an interview with Billy Walters and throughout the entire episode of the show, Walters takes the viewers on the trip down the memory lane and how everything started in this case. At the moment of theshooting of this episode, Billy Walters was working with a team of people on finding the right bets but he states in this movie that it was not like that for thehuge majority of his career.

In this movie, Billy Walters reveals that he does not make successful bets all the time and that he loses money as well which is a reality of sports betting. This movie also features interviews with people who were close to Walters at different stages of his career.

25. History of Poker

Year: 2009
Author: History Channel
Country: the United States
Cast: Tom McEvoy, Dave Schwartz, Jennifer Harman, Doyle Brunson, Mason Malmuth
Theme: The historical development of poker

History of Poker is a documentary that explores the historical development of poker through the eyes of some of the world’s best poker players ever. One of the issues that this documentary deals with is the rise of Texas Hold’em Poker and how it became one of the most popular casino games in the entire world.

Besides looking generally at the development of poker, this documentary also explores the individual contributions of some of the leading figures to the development of poker.

This documentary features interviews with Doyle Brunson, Dave Swartz, Tom McEvoy and many others in order to figure out under what circumstances the poker developed into such a popular game. It also deals with the period in the United States’ history in which gambling was prohibited across the entire country and how poker players dealt with that issue. This documentary is a great testimony to past time and individuals that made poker mainstream.

26. Vegas Surveillance – Cheats and Scams

Year: 2007
Author: Paul Abeyta, Peter Kaikko
Country: the United States
Cast: Jessie Beaudoin, Eric Powell, Tom Pohlman, Bill Zender, Derk Boss, Sal Piacente
Theme: Exploration of cheating methods and the surveillance efforts to stop those cheaters

For a long time, casinos in Las Vegas but also in other parts of the world as well have been struggling with cheaters who have been using illegal methods to win money while playing different casino games. The Vegas Surveillance – Cheats and Scams documentary explores the measures that casinos are taking in order to prevent players from cheating.

Besides that, this documentary also reveals some of the most often cheating techniques that players use in order to win money. Several professionals are exposing those methods which gives players an opportunity to see what not to do and what might be the consequences in case a cheater gets caught cheating while playing certain casino game.

27. $10 to $1,000,00 Documentary Series

Year: 2016
Author: Trademate Sports
Country: Norway
Cast: Jonas Gjelstad
Theme: A testimony to the life and career of Jonas Gjelstad who is one of the most successful sports bettors in the world

$10 to $1,000,000 is a short documentary divided into several short episodes that follow Jonas Gjelstad a day in his life. For those who are not aware, Jonas Gjelstad is one of the most successful sports bettors in the entire world. Because of that, it is really interesting to see how he makes his bets and what tactics or methods is he using.

This documentary provides an insight into the personal side of Jonas Gjelstad that people do not have the opportunity to see that often.

In this documentary, Gjelstad talks about the difficulties of being a professional sports bettor and what are the dangers of that kind of life. Besides that, this documentary also takes a more general look at sports betting in Norway and how does the sports betting industry influence the society in this country.

28. The Million Dollar Deal

Year: 1999
Author: John Butler
Country: Ireland
Cast:Andrew Black, Donnacha O’Dea, Mike Magee, ‘Mad’ Marty Wilson, Mark Napolitano, Amarillo Slim, Scotty Nguyen, Dave ‘Devilish’ Ulliott, Matt Damon
Theme: The story of six poker players and their performance at the 1998 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas

In 1998, World Series of Poker was the biggest poker event in the entire world and it turned out to be a very interesting tournament. The entire documentary The One Million Dollar Deal is focusing on that event, six poker players, and their road to the tournament.

This documentary features the best poker players at that time and they are all talking about the poker in general and their preparations for the biggest poker tournament.

This documentary witnesses the struggle that players go through while preparing and playing this tournament as it is known for lasting for several weeks. It also deals with the physical and especially psychological struggles that each world-class player faces at this tournament.

The stakes were high and in the end, Scotty Nguyen was the winner of the tournament. In this documentary, viewers have the opportunity to see an interview with the winner and how much the win means to him.

29. Breaking Vegas – The Dice Dominator

Year: 2005
Author: Ted Schillinger
Country: the United States
Cast: JT Mollner, Barry Sigismondi
Theme: The story about Dom LoRiggio and how he got the nickname ‘Dice Dominator’

Dom LoRiggio is one of the best crabs players in the entire world. Breaking Vegas – The Dice Dominator is a documentary about the life and career of this player. In this documentary, we have the opportunity to see the beginning of LoRiggio’s gambling career.

At that time he was a Blackjack player and he did not have a lot of success. However, things will change when he turns his attention to another casino game, crabs. Dom LoRiggio did not acquire crabs knowledge on his own and he had a mentor who taught him everything.

In this documentary, we get to see his experience as a beginner in playing crabs and how his mentor and other players from their group managed to achieve great success. Over the years, LoRiggio got into a lot of troubles with casinos and this documentary also explores that side of the story.

30. Money Talks – Sports Handicapping Reality TV Show

Year: 2014
Author: CNBC
Country: the United States
Cast: Steve Stevens, Chris Pirelli
Theme: Reality show about Steve Stevens and his business as professional sports betting advisor

Money Talk was a reality show that caught a lot of attention from the viewers as it dealt with the issue of sports betting industry and Las Vegas as a center of that industry. During his career, Steve Stevens was nicknamed ‘bookie-killer’ as he was able to win huge sums of money by making bets on sports events.

This reality show follows Steve Stevens in his line of work and it explores how sports bettors are making money in this industry.

This reality show features both sides of the story – the one where Steve Stevens is very successful sports bettor and the other where Steven Stevens is not that successful. Because of that, we have the opportunity to see how Steve Stevens reacts to good and bad news as well as how sports betting affects the entire family and other people around sports bettors.

31. Piers Morgan on Las Vegas

Year: 2010
Author: Piers Morgan
Country: the United States
Cast: Steve Cyr, Terry Fator, Piers Morgan
Theme: The exploration of the effects that global economic crisis had on Las Vegas and other problems that this city is facing in recent history

This documentary is the story about Las Vegas in a way that it was never approached before. Piers Morgan takes us on a road of exploring the problems that the city of Las Vegas is currently facing. Besides that, Piers Morgan also investigates how 2008 global economic crisis affected the gambling industry in this city and with that the entire city.

One of the problems that Piers Morgan focuses in this documentary is the problem of water supply. In a couple of years, Las Vegas will have no water reserves which will endanger not only gambling industry in the city but the entire population of this city.

Another problem explored in this documentary is the problem of drug addiction that more and more people are facing in this city. This documentary is a great insight into the story about Las Vegas that often does not reach mainstream media.

The gambling industry is a huge contributor to the existence of Las Vegas and this documentary also explores the possible scenarios for the city in case gambling industry would to fail.

32. Jennifer Harman: Poker Queen

Year: 2015
Author: Jennifer Harman
Country: the United States
Cast: Jennifer Harman, Howard Lederer,
Theme: Documentary about Jennifer Harman who was one of the most successful female poker players at her time

It does not happen often that we hear stories about female poker players and the success they had in the tournaments. However, the documentary called Jennifer Harman: Poker Queen is one of the rare opportunities for viewers to see that women are also a big part of the poker community.

In this documentary, viewers will have the opportunity to see Jennifer Harman in action and how she handled matches against legends such as Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu.

Unlike many other poker players, Jennifer Harman managed to maintain ahigh consistency of her play throughout her entire career and this documentary tries to give answers to the question of how does she manages to do that.

This documentary also takes a look at the issue online poker and the influence it had on a number of poker players in the entire world. Another aspect of this documentary is also very interesting and that is the clash between old generation of poker players with Jennifer Harman among them and the new generation that learn to play poker online.

33. Las Vegas – The Mirage Out West

Year: 2016
Author: Pierre Brouwers
Country: the United States
Cast: Pierre Brouwers
Theme: A different look at the city of Las Vegas that became entertainment center of the world

Las Vegas – The Mirage Out West is the documentary about the other side of Las Vegas. In this documentary, the author explores the architecture of the city and what inspired architects who build monumental casinos in the city.

This documentary also explored the motivation of creating casinos that reflect great monuments of other cities and what tactics are casinos using to attract new players to their casinos.

This kind of story is not seen that often and because of that the value of this documentary is great. While the rich and fabulous side of Las Vegas is featured in many documentaries and media reports, this documentary takes a step back and looks at the people that are not so lucky and who are struggling with different kinds of problems.

34. FRONTLINE with Jessica Savitch

Year: 1983
Author: Jessica Savitch
Country: the United States
Cast: Jessica Savitch
Theme: Exploring the connections between NFL and organized crime and the match-fixing of Super Bowl 50

Jessica Savitch was one of the most famous news anchors in during the 1980s and her documentary series has been praised for a long period of time. One of the episodes of that series was dealing with the NFL, Super Bowl 50, and the connection between NFL and organized crime that has been trying to fix the final match of the Super Bowl 50 in order to win huge sums of money from sports bettors.

Jessica Savitch managed to interview some of the leading figures in this industry as well as from NFL for this documentary which gives it credibility among the audience. In the movie, Jessica Savitch investigates the connections that organized crime groups have with the leadership of sports organizations such as NFL.

This documentary has been seen through a different set of eyes once it was revealed that Jessica Savitch was killed in a car accident only a couple of days after this documentary was aired on television.

35. Poker Kings

Year: 2004
Author: MaciekWszelaki
Country: the United States
Cast: Gary Bush, Carlo Citrone, Phil Hellmuth Jr., Mike McGee, Chris Moneymaker, Daniel Negreanu, Simon Trumper, David Devilish Ulliott, Olga Varkony, RoberVarkonyi
Theme: The path and the struggle of five players to win the World Series of Poker and $2.5 million

Poker Kings is a documentary that was in the making for more than two years. It follows five players, Simon ‘Aces’ Trumper, Garry ‘Whacker’ Bush, Carlo Citrone, Robert Varkonyi, and Phil Hellmuth as the try to win the main prize at the 2003 World Series of Poker.

This documentary is a story about those five players and their preparation for what turned out to be one of the most interesting poker tournaments ever. The director of this documentary has made such as the effort to depict the lives of poker players as they truly are as he was following those players to different parts of the world just to see and record them playing poker at different tournaments.

According to his worlds, he wanted to show how much desire, attention, devotion, preparedness, bravery, skill, and ambition it takes to became a true poker champion which is not an easy task and each player featured in this documentary will testify to that.

36. Getting Rich in Las Vegas

Year: 2006
Author: Travel Channel
Country: the United States
Cast: Max Rubin, Wendy Llambias, Jacque von Staden, Michael Gaughan, Anthony Curtis
Theme: The rich life of Las Vegas and why people would do everything to make in this city

Getting Rich in Las Vegas is a documentary about the rich life of Las Vegas that attracts a huge number of tourists every year. Besides that, this documentary is also great at painting a picture of the tactics and methods that casinos use in order to make people spend a lot of money playing different casino games.

Additionally, this documentary also takes a look at the casinos and the latest trend of bringing in some of the world’s richest people and what casinos have to provide those players in order for them to play in certain casinos.

On the other side of the spectrum are low rollers who do not have the opportunity to enjoy perks that rich people get when they come to certain casinos. According to the people featured in this documentary, low rollers are crucial for thesurvival of those casinos and that bringing in rich people from all over the world is just an advertisement method used to attract low rolling players.

37. 2 Months $2 Million – Reality Show

Year: 2009
Author: Brandon Gross, Paul Reitano, Terrence Sacchi
Country: the United States
Cast: Jay Rosenkrantz, Dani Stern, Emil Patel, Brian Roberts
Theme: Areality show about poker players attempting to win 2 million dollars in 2 only two months on online poker while cameras follow their every move

2 Months $2 Million is an interesting concept for a reality show that featured four online poker players who had the mission of earning two million dollars in only two months while playing online poker. All four of the players in this reality show have already proven to be very good players as they were able to win huge sums of money.

Because of that, all four of them have emphasized that this is a very good challenge for them and their abilities for playing poker. Viewers need to take into consideration that this is a reality of theshow and that some parts of the show are scripted.

However, despite that, this show is truly a very good insight into the minds of poker players and great opportunity to see how the mind of those players functions under great pressure. Besides that, viewers are also able to see that playing online poker and playing table poker is not the same and that online poker might be a lot easier.

38. Breaking Vegas: The True Story of the MIT Blackjack Team

Year: 2004
Author: Bruce David Klein
Country: the United States
Cast: Jon Hirschtick, Ben Mezrich, Mr. M
Theme: The story of MIT Blackjack Team and their card counting efforts

One of the biggest stories in the last 15 to 20 years that occurred in Las Vegas was the story about the team of Blackjack players from MIT that tried to cheat their way to big earning in Las Vegas.

This documentary explores how a group of students was able to come up with the best possible card counting strategies and how they were able to use those strategies in casinos.

A lot of time in this documentary is devoted to Mr. M who has been the brain of the entire operation and the leader of the entire MIT team. This documentary features interviews with former members of that team in which they reveal their side of the story and how they were able to avoid casino surveillance for so long.

It also depicts how elaborate those techniques had to be and how this team influenced the development of surveillance technology that many casinos started using after MIT Blackjack team was exposed.

39. One of a Kind: The Rise and Fall of Stu Ungar

Year: 2006
Author: Al Szymanski
Country: the United States
Cast: Jason Blaine, Rusty Goehringer, Nicholas Sireci, Lyn Spencer
Theme: Documentary about the life and career of Stu Ungar who is considered to be the best poker player in history

Rarely any other poker player in the world has managed to achieve such success and have such impact on the world of poker than Stu Ungar. One of a Kind: The Rise and Fall of Stu Ungaris a documentary about the life and career of that player who has been characterized as the best by many poker players from all over the world.

Stu Ungar had a very troubled life and this documentary explores some aspects that influenced his personality. This documentary explores the struggle that Stu Ungar faced with the drug and alcohol addiction and how those addictions caused him to commit a suicide when he was only 45 years old.

This documentary is a great insight into one of the greatest minds of poker ever and in a way it is a monument to Stu Ungar and his achievements in the poker tournaments.

40. Casino Wars – Betting Vegas

Year: 2011
Author: Brendan Goeckel
Country: the United States
Cast: Joey Aliano, Stephen Miles, Sal Piacente, Travis Lance Sosa, Shawn Wilson
Theme: Anti-cheating measures imposed by casinos in Las Vegas

The biggest issue that casinos in Las Vegas and other parts of the world have been facing for a long time were players who cheated. This documentary, Casino Wars- Betting Vegas, explores the techniques that many players tried to use in order to cheat their way to some big earnings in casinos.

Because of those cheaters, casinos from all over the world have been improving the technology that they are using but cheaters still manage to find new methods to cheat. This documentary features an interview with a man called Mr. D who has been characterized as former slot machine cheater.

He talks about the methods that players use in order to cheat casinos and he has also said that he has been very successful with his cheats as he has managed to win more than $1 million by using devices programmed for slot machine cheating.

Besides that, this documentary also includes the other side of the story, the one from casinos. It explores measures that they are using in order to detect cheaters and to prevent cheaters from ever using an opportunity to use those methods.