How factually correct was Last Vegas?

Last Vegas is a 2013 American comedy film directed by Jon Turteltaub starring Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline. The film tells the story of three friends who take a break from their day-to-day lives to throw a bachelor party in Las Vegas for their last remaining single pal.

Billy (Douglas), Paddy (De Niro), Archie (Freeman) and Sam (Kline) are childhood friends now living in their senior years. Sam and his wife Miriam are living mundane lives in Florida. Twice divorced Archie is recovering from a minor stroke and lives with his over-protective son Ezra in New Jersey. Paddy lives alone in Brooklyn, grieving for his late wife Sophie. Billy is a successful entrepreneur living in Malibu with his 31-year-old girlfriend Lisa. Billy proposes to Lisa and finds a bottle of Scotch he and the gang stole in their childhood days. Billy calls Sam and Archie who immediately propose a bachelor party in Las Vegas the weekend before the wedding. Three years on, we take a look at the $134 million blockbuster, and analyse how correct it was.

There is a scene where Archie buys in at the blackjack table for $15,000. This would not have been possible in real life as the pit boss would have stopped the transaction and asked him for ID and his social security number. It is strict casino law that any cash transaction over the amount of $10,000 requires these as standard. If Last Vegas got you in the mood, you can bring the casino to you with mFortune casino. Also, it would seem that the production crew didn’t do much research ahead of the film. After the gang discover that Binion’s has not rooms, they head to the Aria, in the next they are walking with their luggage on the strip and heading north away from Caesar’s Palace. The Aria is in the other direction, south of Caesar’s Palace. Similarly, later in the film, the group gets out of the taxi after getting stuck in traffic on the Las Vegas strip in order to walk to the Aria. They get out in front of the Mirage and begin walking north, however, Aria is south of the Mirage.

There was instance of a logistical error early on in the film. Billy hosts a conference call with his friends to tell them of his engagement. Billy is the one who ends the call but Archie and Sam seem to still talk to each other afterwards. This could not have been possible since the conference call host ended the call. After Archie leaves his house for Vegas, the audience sees an aerial view of Brooklyn. The eagle-eyed viewer will notice the shadow of the helicopter used to film the shot, but also they’ll notice that the footage is being played backwards as the helicopter is floating backwards.