Croupier Film Essay

The 1999 film, “Croupier,” tells the tale of an experienced gambler who becomes a croupier to gain inspiration for his novel. Actor, Clive Owen, portrays an aspiring writer, Jack Manfred, who gambles in decisions within his life based on statistics to perfect the outcome. The film is set in late 1990’s London shortly following the establishment of the National Lottery in the UK in 1994 (Grun, L., & McKeigue, P. (2000)), which also corresponds to McGowan’s fourth wave of gambling, the rise of casinos (McGowan, R. (2012)). During the film, the main character, Jack, gets a job at the Golden Lion Casino after his father puts in a good word with management. Soon after taking the job, Jack starts to change his appearance and the style by which he acts. He soon encounters a South African gambler, Jani de Villiers, who convinces Jack to take a $10,000 bribe to catch someone cheating so that it may serve as a distraction to rob to casino. Jack plays all of the odds of things going wrong and agrees to the deal. His then girlfriend finds the money and threatens to put him in jail if he doesn’t quit being a croupier. Towards the end,
This essay will explain how “Croupier” presents the back-office nature of the industry of the casino and the gambling enterprise, it will also dive into the underground world of drug dealers and influential people residing within this environment, and it will portray the inside perspective of the everyday life of a casino. The analysis of this film will also exemplify the unfairness nature of casinos and gambling in general along with the portrayal of two popular forms of gambling: Blackjack and Roulette. Ultimately, this paper will focus on the impact of gambling on the main characters and how their lives are altered by this billion-dollar