The Killing of a Chinese Bookie

The film, set in California, opens with Cosmo Vittelli (Ben Gazzara) making the final payment on a longstanding gambling debt to a sleazy loanshark. It turns out, that the person who Vitelli had just repaid his debt to is associated with the mob and sets up him by bringing larger fish gangsters to his artistic club. The evening culminates in a poker game in which he loses $23,000 (2016, $97,500 equivalent) returning him to the debtor's position.