The Gambler is a 2014 American crime drama movie starring Mark Wahlberg as a literature teacher, Jim Bennet, who has a compulsive gambling habit that spirals out of control and gets him into serious trouble with a local gangster.
Here is a closer look at some of the gambling strategies he uses to try and get himself out of trouble.
What is The Gambler about (includes spoilers)?
The Gambler is a remake of the classic 1974 movie of the same name. It’s about a compulsive gambler who ends up borrowing money from various people, one of whom is local gangster Frank (played by John Goodman), and the other is a local loan shark, Neville Baraka (played by Michael Kenneth Williams).
Also starring in the movie are Jessica Lang, Brie Larson, and George Kennedy, to name a few.
The main protagonist, Bennett (played by Wahlberg), is a self-destructive gambler who, instead of using his money to play the best mobile casino games at a licensed and regulated online bookmaker, goes to an illegal underground gambling den.
Although he initially wins, he ends up losing it all.
While there, he borrows $50,000 to pay back the house but only gives $40,000 to Lee, the owner, and uses the remaining $10,000 he borrowed to gamble even more and try to win back what he owes.
He uses his card-counting skills at the blackjack table and wins big, so then he decides to try his luck at roulette to win even more.
He bets his entire blackjack winnings on black but loses. He then has one week to pay up or die!
His mother initially decides not to loan him the money, so he borrows even more, this time from Frank (Goodman). His mother also then reluctantly lends him even more money.
Bennett manages to convince one of his students, Amy, to go with him to a casino with the money he has borrowed, where she watches as he keeps on winning, only to lose it all as he always does when he goes ‘All-In.’
Unable to repay his debts, he gets kidnapped and tortured and is forced into coercing another of his students to fix a basketball match, offering him $150,000 if he will do it. At this point, he has just two days left to pay off the debt to the underground casino owner, Lee.
Frank loans Bennett the money to pay off Lee but says that if he doesn’t repay him, everyone he has ever loved, including Bennett, will die. Despite all this, Bennett borrows even more money from Lee to gamble, saying it is the only way he can pay him off.
The money is then used in a Las Vegas sports betting casino to bet on the basketball match he asked the student to fix, hoping the player does what he was paid to do. The match is fixed, and Bennett wins, using some of those winnings to pay off the loan shark who tortured him.
Now that his time has run out, the only way he can pay back both Lee and Frank is to gamble, so he invites them to a gambling den in Koreatown. He places everything he has on one roulette spin and wins everything he owes Frank and Lee, and more, meaning he is now completely debt-free.
What were the main strategies in The Gambler, and were they effective?
Looking back at some of the gambling strategies Mark Wahlberg used in the movie, we can see many strategies commonly used by gamblers in the real world. Some of these strategies are recommended by the pros, and others aren’t. They included the following:
- Game: Roulette: Strategy: Betting entire bankroll on one colour. Recommended: No. It’s never recommended to bet your entire bankroll on one bet
- Game: Blackjack: Strategy: Counting cards. Recommended: Yes, and no. In most casinos, you can get kicked out if you are caught counting cards. Plus, it’s an extremely difficult strategy to learn. Also, counting cards playing computer-generated or live dealer blackjack at online casinos is impossible
- Game: All games: Strategy: Chasing losses. Recommended: No. Experts NEVER recommend chasing your losses immediately after losing, especially placing large wagers if you do chase your losses, because it will often result in losing more
- Game: All games. Strategy: Borrowing money. Recommended: No. Experts NEVER recommend borrowing money just to continue gambling because it will often result in losing even more money
- Game: All games: Strategy: Play high-stakes tables. Recommended: Yes, and no. You should only ever play at high-stakes tables if you can afford it. Always stick to tables with limits that best correspond to your budget
Final thoughts
Anyone with an addictive personality who is considering gambling their hard-earned money should watch The Gambler first.
There are many lessons to be learned from the movie, and it could prevent many at-risk players from going down the same route as Jim Bennett, who fortunately got lucky in the end, but things could have turned out a lot worse for him.