Goofs

When Lonnegan goes into the drug store, the "penny scale" to the right of the door shifts to the opposite side when Lonnegan leaves to place his wager. The pharmacy also goes from being in the shadow of nearby buildings to the sun shining on it despite only a couple minutes passing.

Kid Twist tells Boudreau that Gondorff is setting up a wire on the North side. Later in the film, Agent Polk tells Lt. Snyder that, "There's word [Gondorff]'s gonna run a con on the South side here."

Before handing Motolla the envelope with the money, Granger licks and seals it, but when Hooker goes through the contents of the handkerchief, the envelope is open.

When Gondorff is sobered up, his hair, position and the state of his soaked pants change between shots.

The wound makeup on Hooker's cheek varies: sometimes it's two distinct wounds, sometimes only one.

Hooker tells Lonnegan that he's from Five Points, on the east side of New York. Five Points was in far south Manhattan, between Chinatown and Tribeca.

The poker scene takes place aboard the 20th Century Limited, a luxury train that ran between New York and Chicago from 1902 to 1967. Arrival times in Chicago varied over the years, but they usually were between about 7 and 9 a.m. The train would not be arriving in Chicago in what appears to be the middle of the night, as happens in "The Sting."

In the wire room when Lonnegan is shut out from his bet, the odds quoted on the horse were 3-1, but when the race was over, the payoff was announced as $6. The payoff on a two dollar bet at 3-1 is $8. (The bettor gets their original $2 back plus the winning amount of $6.)

The exterior shot of the Twentieth Century Limited (models actually) shows cars lettered for the Louisville & Nashville. That train was the flagship of the New York Central and all the rolling stock would have been so lettered.

On the train, Hooker gives Gondorff two decks of cards for the game. He notes they are Tally Ho decks (one red, one black). Gondorff opens the black deck. He proceeds to do some fancy card manipulation, but card artist in the closeup scenes is using a standard Bicycle deck.

Even though Clemens calls the poker game as "table stakes" Lonnegan goes to the bank for more money in the final hand. Clemens is not one to challenge a man such as Lonnegan over a breach of etiquette though. And since the only other player "Shaw" is not objecting, Clements obliges Lonnegan.

In the poker game, no one buys any chips. "This is a gentleman's game, we assume you are all good for your debts." But later, the conductor has a great deal of cash, to pay people off who say: "Cash me in." This is when the last player besides Gondorff and Lonnegan is cashing out, and he claims to have broken even, implying the other Gentleman had lost, and their chips were on the table. The remaining cash the conductor has is the lost money from those other players for the excess remaining chips on the table besides those for Gondorff and Lonnegan's personal piles.

Hooker says he will pay Lonnegan back after the race out of his own pocket. When Lonnegan takes the money that is owed to him after the race Hooker is acting upset. This is part of the "con", to build Lonnegan's confidence that he is in control and like he can control "Kelly", while the con men are pulling his strings all along and expecting such things.

When Hooker is chased into the ally by Cole he escapes by hiding in a man-hole. However, it would take much longer to remove the heavy cast iron lid, step into it down the ladder and close the lid above him than the 10 seconds or so that Hooker is ahead of Cole.

During the poker game, which is being played on a moving train, the liquid in the glasses on the table remains completely still. The booze would be sloshing around slightly if the game was inside a moving train.

When Hooker wakes up in Loretta's apartment, the wound prosthetic on his cheek is peeling off.

Regarding the money that Hooker and Luther switch away from Motola. When Hooker goes to open the envelope in the alley, it is not sealed. It was sealed by Granger in the office before being given to Motola.

As Mattola rounds the corner from the alley, after Luther and Hooker perform the money switch, the taxi in the stand behind the taxi Mattola get in has no windshield wipers on it.

When the briefcase containing $100 bills is opened in extreme closeup, the bills have "modern, small-size" green Federal Reserve seals that are wrong for the 1930s. In that era the green seals would be much larger, and a very light green in color.

In fact the bills are Series 1969B, as can be identified by the signatures of the Treasurer (Dorothy Andrews Kabis) and the Secretary of the Treasury (John B. Connally).

The white over green bus seen in many shots is a 1959 Isuzu BA 741. This same bus can be seen in Rich Man, Poor Man (1976), Strange Bedfellows (1965), Night Gallery (1969), The Munsters (1964), and many others. It was used on the Universal lot for a long time.

1950s-era aluminum tube storefront windows are visible when Snyder chases Hooker towards the 'L' station after catching him in the phone booth.

The phone on Polk's desk is appropriate for the time, but it rings like a phone from the 1960s or later.

At the end of the Snyder-Hooker chase, as Hooker is running down the sidewalk, a red stop sign can be seen in the distance. Red stop signs did not appear until 1954. Prior to that time, stop signs were yellow.

In the bathroom, Hooker can be seen saying, "He didn't tell me you was a fuck-up either." This has been looped to replace it with the less profane "He didn't tell me you was a screw-up either." (The grammar error is scripted.)

When the banker is ordering props for the betting parlor, the prop salesman's sentence "If you want a counter and bar..." is obviously dubbed over.

When Hooker goes to visit Lonnegan at Lonnegan's hotel room, he walks from the elevator down a long hall to get to the room. While he walks, he makes the heel - toe clicking sound as if he was walking on a concrete sidewalk. The hallway however, is carpeted, and he would be virtually silent.

Just before hooker meets Billie, the camera crew is reflected in a passing vehicle.

The first con involved three protagonists and yet the mafia only goes after Luther and Hooker.

When telling the tale to Lonergan in his hotel room, Hooker says his partner works in the main Western Union office downtown. But when they meet the disguised Twist, the Western Union office where he works is clearly a small, subsidiary office. The painters even say that the supervisor was in recently and ordered the paint job.

The conductor announces the poker game to be Straight Poker, but what they actually play is Draw Poker. Straight Poker has no draws.

During "the sting", Twist is supposedly calling Lonnegan, as he always has, from the Western Union office. One sees earlier in the film that the office is across town. After the call is placed and Lonnegan goes to place his bet, Twist walks in and sits down next to him, yet Lonnegan doesn't pick up on the fact that Twist is in the betting parlor less than 5 minutes after getting a call from him from clear across town.

Hooker tells Lonnegan that the address of the Western Union office is 110 South Wabash, but the number on the building is 118.

When Gondorff calls Lonnegan's $10,000 raise, he puts a stack of yellow chips next to Lonnegan's. The yellow chips are established to be worth $500 each, which would mean 20 chips in each pile. There are more than 20 chips in each stack.

Hooker tells Lonnegan he's from the East Side of New York. Yet he doesn't even have the slightest trace of an accent.