$3,000 in today's dollars
So Hooker lost $51,418? I never understood why a smart guy would do that.
"I will not go down in history as the greatest mass-murderer since Adolf Hitler!" - Merkin Muffley
He was impulsive. And he wanted to show off.
shareSorry for posting again, but further down the board, someone says that the roulette wheel croupier was a friend of Hooker's and he expected the guy to let him win. All the times I've seen this movie, I never knew that!
shareI dunno. Where does that information come from? I got the impression they were chummy, but Hooker really put him on the spot. It was a rigged game. Why would Hooker expect the croupier to suddenly make it an honest chance? As he said, "A fellow can get into big trouble around here, losing a bet like that." A surprisingly naive move for a supposed sharp operator.
shareNot sure exactly which thread I saw that in, about them being friends. But I always thought it was an incredibly dumb move. He went there enough that the croupier knew him by name. Why would he expect an honest game? His anger at losing surprised me too. The whole scene made no sense.
Maybe it was just a plot device to put Lonnegan's men onto him? And to give Luther something to yell at him about?
It makes perfect sense if you take into account the implied backstory that Hooker was impulsive, flashy, and a gambler. I agree that it was an incredibly dumb move, and naive like Mitch says, but completely understandable for the kind of person Hooker was shown to be. As to why he would expect an honest game, think about this. They wouldn't fix the outcome every time. If no one ever won, why the hell would people still gamble there? My take on it is that he'd played there and won before, but for much smaller stakes. Remember how he and Luther reacted when they saw how much they got from Mottola. He'd probably never seen that much money at one time. And that kind of thing can go to your head like it obviously did with Hooker. He may have had no idea the game was fixed until the pit boss or whatever signaled for the screw job. I think that's why he got angry. Not because he lost, but because until then he hadn't realized the wheel was rigged. That's how I always made sense of the scene anyway.