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{{work|wppage=Casino (film)}}
[[File:casino_1.jpg|frame|<small>We just run [[Legitimate BusinessmensBusinessmen's Social Club|a small, legitimate business]], here.</small> ]]
 
{{quote| ''"No one stays at the top forever."''}}▼
 
▲{{quote| ''"No one stays at the top forever."''}}
 
A 1995 film starring [[Robert De Niro]] as Sam "Ace" Rothstein, [[Joe Pesci]] as Nicky Santoro, and Sharon Stone, who earned an [[Academy Award]] nomination for her role as Ginger.
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Until [[The Eighties|the early 1980s]], [[The Mafia]] had a huge stake in Las Vegas. But while they ran the casinos, they didn't run the town. They had to use fronts to get their men in to run everything. One of these men was Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, who unofficially ran three casinos for the bosses in Chicago. His work, and involvement with the fall of organized crime in Vegas, was the basis for this film.
 
The film is loosely based on the years between when he started running the casinos, and when he nearlyplay diedat in[https://casinoscroll.com/mobiilipelit/ amobile car bombingcasino]. Although the film isn't an exact account of what happened in that time (a lot of that is more [[Artistic License]] than [[Did Not Do the Research]]), it does provide a good overview of it.
 
It also got a lot of criticism for being, basically, ''[[Goodfellas]]'' {{smallcaps|[[Recycled in Space|IN VEGAS!]]}}, largely due to [[Martin Scorsese]] directing it the same way, Nicholas Pileggi adapting again one of his books, and for [[Joe Pesci|some characters]] having a [[Ax Crazy|really]] [[Hair-Trigger Temper|close]] [[Cluster F-Bomb|resemblance]] to similar characters in the last movie - though, in that respect, [[Reality Is Unrealistic|both men Pesci played really existed and acted even ''worse'' in real life]]. Being both significantly longer and more slowly paced didn't help either.
 
But on its own, it's definitely not bad. Just be prepared for some [[Padding]] at points.
 
----
{{for|the trope about a gambling establishment|The Casino}}
=== This film provided examples of: ===
 
{{tropelist}}
* [[Abusive Parents]]: Yeah, tying your daughter to the bed while she's asleep and leaving her alone so that you can visit your lover would qualify.
* [[All Girls Want Bad Boys]]: {{spoiler|Ginger}}
* [[And Now for Someone Completely Different]]: For a few minutes, the film gives ''Frank'' narration duties.
* [[And That's Terrible]]: The ending tries to paint the corporatisation of Las Vegas as a terrible thing, like the city losing its soul. This is after three hours of showing us people being beaten to death on behalf of old Las Vegas.
* [[Anti-Villain]]: Ace. Anywhere else in the country Sam is a bookie hassled by cops, but in Las Vegas all Ace wants to do is to make an honest living by running with efficience a legal casino for his mafia bosses back home in Chicago. But in doing so he is not above using ruthless methods or(such beas anthreatening enablerto asbreak Nickya doesman's mosthand, ofor thepossibly unavoidable''cut dirtyit dirty workoff''). StillHe's Acestill isa quitepretty decent guy overall, and compared to otherthe charactersdegenerates and sociopaths he's surrounded by he's practically a saint.
* [[Asshole Victim]]: {{spoiler|Ginger getting a deliberate drug overdose.}} {{spoiler|The Santoro brothers}} [[Buried Alive]] by Frank Marino and company.
* [[Ax Crazy]]: Nicky.
** As with [[Goodfellas|Tommy DeVito]], was disturbingly based on a real person.
* [[Badass Decay]]: Justified and discussed [[In -Universe]]. As Nicky gets more into drugs he begins to lose his edge, and Ace even remarks at one point that it took Nicky three punches to knock somebody out; when he was clean, it would have only taken one.
** [[Unreliable Voiceover]]: The three punches don't even knock the guy out, and isit's Nicky's brother who has to deliver more blows to makefinish himthe falljob.
* [[Based on a True Story]]: The story takes a few liberties, of course. For example, Artie didn't die of a heart attack while being arrested.
* [[Batter Up]]: The [[No -Holds -Barred Beatdown|sad, sad fate]] of {{spoiler|[[Hair-Trigger Temper|Nicky]] and his brother}}.
* [[Big Fancy House]]: The Rothstein's; it's on a golf course and so Seventies ''it hurts''.
* [[Black Comedy]]: What humour there is in the film is ''very'' dark.
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* [[Consummate Professional]]: [[Meaningful Name|Ace]]. The reason he gets promoted to manager; he is a money machine that "sleeps and breaths gambling", works 18 hours a day and cannot abide sub-par competence.
* [[Control Freak]]: Ace.
{{quote| '''Ace:''' From now on, put an equal amount of blueberries in each muffin.<br />
'''Chef:''' Do you know how long that's going to take?<br />
'''Ace:''' I don't care. An equal amount in each muffin. }}
* [[Cool Car]]: No matter what year it currently is over the course of the film, Sam will be driving a period-correct Cadillac Eldorado. A car that perfectly reflects the opulent, flashy gaudiness of Sam's surroundings and the life he leads within them.
* [[Corrupt Politician]]: The chairmen of the Gaming Control Board investigation, including a Commisioner and a Senator who enjoys free VIP treatment in the Casino but starts clashing with Sam after a nepotism issue.
** The senator (seen accepting Sam's "gift" of a prostitute earlier) is meant to be "Dirty" Harry Reid, who really does have mob ties, and who is currently ''still'' a senator for Nevada.
* [[Costume Porn]]: All the fancy clothes of course.
** Judging from his wardrobe, Sam Rothstein wanted to be [[The Joker]] when he grew up.
* [[Cowboy]]: County Commissioner Pat Webb (L.Q. Jones). It seems his ilk are running the whole state of Nevada.
{{quote| '''Ace''': Anybody with cowboy boots is a county commissioner or related to a county commissioner.}}
* [[Crazy Jealous Guy]]: Ace fires a young employee of his just for saying his wife is beautiful
* [[Darker and Edgier]]: ''Casino'' is far more violent and downbeat than ''Goodfellas''. The film has almost no lighter moments, and its killings are far more stomach churning.
* [[Death Byby Irony]]: Meta example; {{spoiler|Pesci's character is beaten to death by an actor he'd either viciously beaten or killed in ''two'' [[Raging Bull|previous]] [[Goodfellas|movies]].}}
* [[Determinator]]: Nicky, oh so much.
** According to Ace:
{{quote| '''Ace:''' No matter how big a guy might be, Nicky would take him on. You beat Nicky with fists, he comes back with a bat. You beat him with a knife, he comes back with a gun. And if you beat him with a gun, you better kill him, because he'll keep comin' back and back until one of you is dead. }}
** According to Nicky himself:
{{quote| '''Nicky:''' I think in all fairness, I should explain to you exactly what it is that I do. For instance tomorrow morning I'll get up nice and early, take a walk down over to the bank and... walk in and see and, uh... if you don't have my money for me, I'll... crack your fuckin' head wide-open in front of everybody in the bank. And just about the time that I'm comin' out of jail, hopefully, you'll be coming out of your coma. And guess what? I'll split your fuckin' head open again. 'Cause I'm fuckin' stupid. I don't give a fuck about jail. That's my business. That's what I do.}}
* [[Disposing of a Body]]:
** Nicky gives a very insightful lecture on the subject
{{quote| '''Sam''' It's in the desert where lots of the town's problems are solved. <br />
'''Nicky''' Got a lot of holes in the desert... and a lot of problems are buried in those holes. Except you gotta do it right. I mean, you gotta have the hole already dug before you show up with a package in the trunk. Otherwise, you're talking about a half hour or 45 minutes of diggin'. And who knows who`s gonna be comin' along in that time? Before you know it, you gotta dig a few more holes. You could be there all fuckin' night. }}
** In the end, Nicky provides {{spoiler|a graphical self-demonstration too}}
* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: Nicky repeatedly ''stabs a guy in the neck with his own pen'' after the guy tells Ace to 'shove it up his ass' when Ace politely tries to return it to him. Horrific enough by itself, but keep in mind that Nicky [[Hair-Trigger Temper|is not even responding to an insult]] [[Ax Crazy|directed at him]].
* [[Disaster Dominoes]]: "The Feds had all the pieces they needed. Everybody began to tumble, one after the other, like dominoes: Between Piscano complaining on the wire, between Nicky, Ginger, me and my license... We managed to really fuck it all up"
* [[Distracted Byby the Luxury]]: Basically how Ace gets Ginger to marry him.
* [[The Ditz]]:
** Ward, who happens to be the cousin of a Commisioner and has a job in the casino [[Screw the Rules, I Have Connections|because of that]] {{spoiler|...for a while.}}
** Piscano, ''this guy can fuck up a cup of coffee.''
* [[Do You Trust Me?]]:
** Sam opens an account to his wife and gets asked by a surprised bank manager if he trust his wife, as his deed is very rare in a client.
** Reversed later when Ace asks Ginger, several times "Can I trust you?" . She says yes, {{spoiler|but she is lying.}}
* [[Drugs Are Bad]]: Both Nicky and Ginger suffer hard for their drug use.
* [[The Dragon]]: Nicky, and he evolves into [[Dragon Withwith an Agenda]]
* [[End of an Age]]: The end of the film showcases the transition of ownership of Las Vegas from the mob bosses to the corporations. Sam makes clear his disgust of the new Las Vegas, which caters to families instead of gamblers.
{{quote| '''Sam:''' The town will never be the same. After the Tangiers, the big corporations took it all over. Today, it looks like Disneyland. And while the kids play cardboard pirates, Mommy and Daddy drop the house payments and Junior's college money on the poker slots. In the old days, dealers knew your name, what you drank, what you played. Today, it's like checkin' into an airport. And if you order room service, you're lucky if you get it by Thursday. Today, it's all gone. You get a whale show up with four million in a suitcase, and some twenty-five-year-old hotel school kid is gonna want his Social Security Number. After the Teamsters got knocked out of the box, the corporations tore down practically every one of the old casinos. And where did the money come from to rebuild the pyramids? Junk bonds...But in the end, I wound up right back where I started. I could still pick winners, and I could still make money for all kinds of people back home. And why mess up a good thing? And that's that.}}
* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]:
** Nicky reacts very angrily when Ginger flippantly asks him to get someone to kill Ace; while relations between the two are at a low and he's been considering it himself, the guy was still like a brother to Nicky so he's not going to do it without a lot of thought. {{spoiler|It's implied that the car bomb Ace barely survives was a parting gift from Nicky, though, and that he eventually made his mind up.}}
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** The 'old-timers' capos "don't like any fucking around with the other guys` wives".
* [[Everybody Smokes]] / [[Smoking Is Cool]]
* [[Everything's Sparkly Withwith Jewelry]]: A million dollars worth just for Ginger.
* [[Expository Hairstyle Change]]: Ginger's transition from high class hooker to full-time junkie bitch is marked by her trading in her long hair for a truly ugly 80s mop.
* [[Eye Scream]]: The scene with the vise.
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* [[Karmic Death]]: {{spoiler|Nicky, viciously beaten along with his brother and dumped into a hole ''alive'', and Ginger, who's possibly murdered via deliberate drug overdose}}.
* [[Kill Them All]] :
** {{spoiler|At the end, the bosses are facing charges so everyone connected to the skimming operation is taken care of. Some bosses would rather spare a few, but as Remo puts it [[ItsIt's the Only Way Toto Be Sure|"why take a chance?"]].}}
** {{spoiler|Ginger's and Nicky's life mistakes catch up to them, and Piscano dies of a [[Hollywood Heart Attack|Heart attack on the spot]]. Only Ace survives because he is a big earner, too valuable to waste.}}
* [[Lady Drunk]]: Ginger.
* [[Legitimate BusinessmensBusinessmen's Social Club]]:
** Nicky, the number one jewel thief of the town opens a jewelry called "The Gold Rush" as a front. It gets bugged pretty quickly.
** It's written on the wall that The Tangiers is mob controlled, the local authorities happily tolerate it as long as the managers stay in line and play ball.
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* [[Loophole Abuse]]: Ace's criminal record makes him inelegible for a gambling license, but the only thing he has to do is to ''apply for one''. The state law says that he can work in a casino while the application is being processed, so after a while he changes his nominal job; rinse and repeat. Since his corporation is pouring a lot of money into Las Vegas [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money|the authorities have no reason to be inquisitive or do things by the book]] ... Sam gives them reasons later, [[Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught|though]].
* [[Love Redeems]]: Brutally proved by the fact ''no one'' really loves each other and it's a ''disaster''. As Ace narrates as the first lines of the film:
{{quote| '''Ace:''' When you love someone, you've gotta trust them. There's no other way. You've got to give them the key to everything that's yours. Otherwise, what's the point? And for a while, I believed, that's the kind of love I had. }}
* [[The Mafia]]: Nicky and all the people Nicky and Sam report to. Notably, the main character, Sam "Ace" Rothstein, isn't a "made man" (formal member) and, being Jewish, isn't even eligible.
* [[Mafia Princess]]: Amy, Sam and Ginger's daughter.
* [[Make an Example of Them]]:
** Discussed by Sam when he orders the physical punishment of a cheater with a hammer. Ace is [[Downplayed Trope|rather lenient]] with his other accomplice, letting him choose between the money plus the hammer or just walking out, a subverted [[Sadistic Choice]] if Sam meant to be true to his word. The first cheater [[Mutilation Interrogation|is threatened with a saw]] but ends up 'only' with a [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/[Fingore |'hammered' hand]].
** Remo instructs Nicky to pull no punches to enforce te trope after a mob bar is assaulted. The offender was the ''vise-guy'' ...
** The reason why the Santoro brothers {{spoiler|are buried alive.}}
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** Multiple levels of this. Green is the official head of the Tangiers Corporation, but he takes orders from Andy Stone, the head of the Teamsters' Pension Fund (which put up the money to buy the casino). Stone in turn takes orders from [[The Mafia]] bosses who actually control the Teamsters' Union. Billy Sherbert is the Casino Manager, but he takes all his orders from Ace, who was given that position by Stone, and so on.
** [[Lampshaded]] by Ace on the casino security system:
{{quote| '''Ace:''' In Vegas, everybody's gotta watch everybody else. Since the players are looking to beat the casino, the dealers are watching the players. The box men are watching the dealers. The floor men are watching the box men. The pit bosses are watching the floor men. The shift bosses are watching the pit bosses. The casino manager is watching the shift bosses. I'm watching the casino manager. And the eye-in-the-sky is watching us all.}}
* [[Manipulative Bastard]]:
** Lester has Ginger completely wrapped around his finger for much of the movie. However, Ace trumps him as a [[Magnificent Bastard]] and easily neutralizes him when he actually confronts him.
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* [[Narrator|Narrators]]: Ace and Nicky, as well as {{spoiler|Nicky's eventual killer}}.
* [[Nepotism]]: Las Vegas apparently runs on this trope. Ace is forced to keep an imbecilic 'local cowboy' hired in a cushy position because his brother-in-law is an influential local civil servant. When he finally gets sick of the guy's incompetence and justifiably fires him, the sky begins to fall in...
* [[Nice to Thethe Waiter]]: Nicky abuses the croupiers, who have to take it stoically.
* [[No -Holds -Barred Beatdown]]: {{spoiler|Done to Nicky and Dominick by Frank Marino and company, just before they're both [[Buried Alive]].}}
* [[Nothing but Hits]]:
** The soundtrack, which goes from the late Sixties to the Eighties, is amazing.
** As is the use of Bach's ''The Passion of St. Matthew'' in the opening and closing of the film.
* [[Pants -Free]]: Sam in his office. Revealed when he moves away from his desk.
* [[The Pen Is Mightier]]: ''Jesus Christ.''
* [[Persona Non Grata]]: Nicky gets his name in a ''Black Book'' and is banned from the casinos. [[Cassandra Truth|Sam warns him beforehand]] but Nicky mocks the issue as the book only has two names and one of them is still [[Al Capone]] and continues to generate waves. Then he laments, as the ban hurts his operations.
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** Also, Frank Marino lies to one of the Mafia bosses to protect Nicky, Ace and Ginger- all the while knowing that he'll be killed as well if the truth is discovered.
* [[Playing Against Type]]: Don freaking Rickles in a Scorsese movie? Playing an intimidating mob collaborator?
* [[Plot -Driven Breakdown]]: Sam schemes a fake airplane breakdown in order to retain a ''whale'', a high-stakes player and [[The Scrooge|billionaire cheapskate]] who wins a lot of money in the casino. He returns, and he loses the earnings plus more.
* [[Posthumous Narration]]: Given that the first thing we see is Ace -- one of the two primary narrators of the film as a whole -- get blown up by a car bomb, this is a reasonable assumption to make. {{spoiler|It's subverted; by freak chance and a [[Good Bad Bug]], Ace survives the bomb and is one of the only characters to survive the whole clusterfuck at the end of the movie. Played with by Nicky, who's own narration is ''interrupted'' by his being beaten to death, suggesting he was delivering it up to the point where he died.}}
* [[Professional Gambler]]:
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* [[Screw the Rules, I Have Connections]]: The reason the incompetent employee Ward is on Sam's payroll. Discussed and ultimately subverted
* [[Shock and Awe]]: The casino uses a stun gun to simulate a heart attack on a casino cheater and get him back to the back room for some [[Fingore|disincentivizing]].
* [[Shoot Him! He Has a Wallet!]]: A cop shoots {{spoiler|Bernie Blue}} thinking his sub sandwich wrapped in tinfoil was a gun.
* [[Show Within a Show]]: ''Aces Hiiigh!"
* [[Skunk Stripe]]: Nicky develops one as he ages.
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* [[Spiritual Successor]]: to ''[[Goodfellas]]'', another Scorsese film about mid-level Mafia men which was also based on real events and starred De Niro and Pesci.
* [[Spiteful Spit]]: Nicky's brother runs a restaurant and he personally adds some... salival flavour to the sandwiches prepared for the cops.
* [[Surveillance Asas the Plot Demands]]:
** Justified, Las Vegas is a virgin territory at first, but Nicky draws so much heat that he manages to attract many kinds of surveillance; wiretapping, lip reading, electronic bugs, car chases, aerial vigilance...
** Nicky is [[Genre Savvy]] and gets away implementing anti-surveillance devices and tactics for a while, but he is bested when the Feds put a wire inside an adjacent wall.
* [[Taking the Kids]]: [[media:casino_00341.jpg|Ginger attempts to do this]], but she comes back, knowing what could happen.
* [[Teeth -Clenched Teamwork]]: Sam and Nicky start as complementary partners working under the mid-west bosses and mutually beneficial, but after a while their agendas diverge and collide, one simply wants to peacefully rule the casino while the other aims to become the big boss of Las Vegas.
* [[Trunk Shot]]: Done when the police finds two corpses inside a car.
* [[Twisting the Words]] "I'm the boss".
* [[Understatement]]: Remo has a tendency to use euphemisms, mild words and conditional forms when he wants to be imperative or inquires about major problems.
** Lampshaded by Andy Stone
{{quote| '''Stone''' The old man said maybe your friend should give in. And when the old man says "maybe" that's like a papal bull. Not only should you quit, you should run.}}
** Several characters reiterate that an infidelity could end with everyone involved in it dead, including the ones who cover it up, as this is a big no-no for the old timers. Boss Remo downplays all that in the actual question.
{{quote| '''Remo''': Frankie, be straight with me; is the little guy fucking the Jew's wife? Because if he is, that could be a problem.}}
* [[Unwinnable]]: [[Unwinnable Byby Design|By design]]
{{quote| '''Sam :''' It's all been arranged just for us to get your money. That`s the truth about Las Vegas. We're the only winners. The players don't stand a chance. [...] In the casino, the cardinal rule is to keep them playing. The longer they play, the more they lose. In the end, we get it all}}
** Later on an incompetent employee is so clueless after a triple jackpot in 20 minutes that he makes Sam wonder if he's just dumb or an accessory to the scam.
{{quote| '''Ward''': It's a casino. People gotta win sometimes.<br />
'''Sam''': Ward, you're pissing me off. Now you're insuIting my intelligence. [...] The probability on one machine is a million and a half to one, on three machines in a row it's in the billions [...] Get your ass outta here" }}
* [[Utopia]]: "Las Vegas is Paradise on Earth, it`s like a morality car wash. It does for us what Lourdes does for humpbacks and cripples". Sam's activities are not only legitimate but sponsored; he gets to manage a very profitable Casino, be a respected citizen and have a beatiful and socially loved wife. And for Nicky is a virgin territory ripe for his criminal enterprises, he can roam virtually free from the Mid-West mob tutelage and rob people blind.
** [[Foregone Conclusion|"But in the end we fucked it all up"]]
* [[Viva Las Vegas]]: Well, yeah.
* [[Villain Withwith Good Publicity]]: Zig-zagged: At first Sam builds an entrepreneurial reputation, is given awards and social recognition, but after a while things go sour and he is surrounded by great media controversy regarding his license problem and his association with Nicky, who is a well-known ruffian that almost lives inside a courthouse by then. As a reaction, Sam starts his own talk-show [[Principles Zealot|to make a stand and defend himself and his image]]. He gets rebued by the wiseguys as this flamboyant crusade draws unwanted attention.
* [[Villain Protagonist]]: Ace, [[Anti-Villain]]. Nicky, [[Ax Crazy]] [[The Sociopath|sociopath]].
* [[Villainous Breakdown]]: '''''EVERYONE'''''. Ace, Nicky, Ginger, the mob bosses, ''everyone''.
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** Sam is admonished by Andy Stone -- on behalf of Remo -- for his extravagant television stunts and his crusade to appeal to the Supreme Court. Nicky reprimands Sam too, as he gets calls from home asking if Sam has gone batshit.
** Nicky gets reprimanded by Sam when the former extorts Sam's banker, who being a square guy is likely going to run for cover to the FBI.
* [[What Happened to Thethe Mouse?]]?;
** Lester's fate is never shown, he just kinda disappears after {{spoiler|he attempts to kidnap Ace's daughter}}. In the original script, Lester was supposed to be shot in the desert by Nicky as a favor for Sam.
** Frankie mentions that his lie to Remo about Nicky and Ginger could get him killed if the bosses found out. By the end of the movie, there's no way they haven't found out about the affair. It's never stated if the mob bosses punished Frankie for lying about it though his penance might have been {{spoiler|having to kill Nicky and Dominic himself.}}
* [[Your Cheating Heart]]: Ginger and Nicky begin having an affair. When Ace finds out, he is less angry than terrified, because if things go sour there's a very real chance that Nicky will kill them both. And because of this, a very real chance that the bosses will kill ''all'' of them if ''they'' find out:
{{quote| '''Remo''': Frankie, be straight with me; is the little guy fucking the Jew's wife? Because if he is, [[Understatement|that could be a problem]].}}
* [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness]]: Once everything starts going belly-up, people start getting assassinated. {{spoiler|Including Nicky. Inverted with Ace, who specifically notes at the end that he's still alive because he can still make money for the bosses.}}
* [[Xanatos Gambit]]: Nicky pulls a very simple one: If he wins, he collects, if he loses he either doesn't pay or just strong-arms to recover the money. It's implied later that it only works with bookies and underworld people; an alarmed Sam points out that a square guy like a banker is gonna run to the FBI after being threatened by Nicky.
{{quote| '''Sam''' It wasn't very scientific, but it worked [...] What were they going to do, muscle Nicky? Nicky was the muscle.}}
 
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Casino]]
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