One of the popular nightspots in Casablanca was Rick's Café Americain. Another way - a method available to attractive young women only - was to engage in sexual intercourse with the corrupt and lascivious chief of police, Captain Renault. One way to obtain an exit visa was to purchase one on the black market. To get from Casablanca to Lisbon, however, one needed an exit visa, which was not easy to obtain. For one lucky young couple, the roulette wheel provided the ticket to freedom.įor many refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe, Casablanca was a way station on the way to Lisbon, Portugal, and thence to America. One of the most famous (albeit fictional) roulette games in history took place in Rick's Café Americain in Casablanca, Morocco, in 1942.
Humphrey Bogart's Rick Blaine uses a rigged roulette wheel to help people win using a 22 Black bet in 'Casablanca'. The film garnered eight Academy Award® nominations and won three Oscar statuettes including Best Picture. 'Casablanca' the 1943 film which won the Oscar for Best Picture, starred by Paul Henried, Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart.
