History Main / TrappedByGamblingDebts

* In ''TheCooler'', the reason why Bernie Lootz works for the casino as a "Cooler" (he so unlucky that he can "cool off" other people's winning streaks) is because he owes the casino over a hundred thousand dollars in gambling debts.

* Ludovic Bagman in ''HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire''.

* In at least one episode of the ''{{Poirot}}'' series of Creator/AgathaChristie adaptations starring David Suchet, a character was persuaded to get involved in a jewel robbery to pay off a gambling debt.

* Black Library novel ''Hammers of Ulric'' has Anspach the Templar and his debts to the head of the criminal organization in Middenheim.

* In the ''VisualNovel/AceAttorney'' series, [[spoiler:Glen Elg]] fits this trope.

* One of Garibaldi's men is compromised this way in an early episode of ''Series/BabylonFive''.

* In [[MultipleChoicePast one of the origins]] of TheJoker, he was a poor schlub who needed to pay off his gambling debts so he got roped into being the Red Hood (the alleged head of a gang but really just a guy the rest of the gang hires to be [[FaceOfTheBand The Face of the Gang]]), then fell in a vat of chemicals and became the Joker.

* Subverted by Tsunade in ''{{Naruto}}'', who uses her jutsu to change her looks from an old woman to a young girl and everything in between, and is always on the move with Shizune, to escape her creditors, with IOU note in tow. (This aspect of her character may be inspired by the {{Tanuki}}.)

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* One of Garibaldi's men is compromised this way in an early episode of ''{{Babylon 5}}''.

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* In the ''AceAttorney'' series, [[spoiler:Glen Elg]] fits this trope.

* [[GrandTheftAutoIV Roman Bellic's]] gambling problems are why his cousin Niko ends up getting in trouble at the start of of the game.

* ''24 Hours in the Life of a Woman'' has a man ready to comit suicide because he lost all his money. The title woman saves him, gives him money for a fresh new start... and he wastes it gambling again.

* A series of ''{{Get Fuzzy}}'' comic strips had Bucky facing the threat of getting killed by another cat, because Bucky lost a bet on a baseball game and didn't have enough money to pay the debt. [[spoiler:The team that Bucky bet on was the Mariners, but he lost that bet because one of their players had retired before he even made the bet.]]

* The plot of ''{{Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels}}'' is driven by the main character's need to pay off a massive gambling debt owed to the gangster Hatchet Harry. Harry's hoping to use the debt to force the guy's father to hand over his pub.

* {{Truth In Television}} as far as the Mafia were/are concerned. A favourite way for them to get their hooks into a business was to let a gambling-addicted owner run up impossible debts with a mob bookie.
* One of the reasons Marc Anthony was so loyal to GaiusJuliusCaesar was that the latter covered the former's gambling and prostitute debts that in modern terms [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Antony stacked up to about US$5 million]].

* In ''MagicTheGathering'', Liliana Vess made a {{Deal with the Devil}} with four archdemons in order to gain eternal youth. Being the selfish woman she is, she decides to try to get out of it by killing them. She's halfway there.

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* Early in the ''GarrettPI'' series, Morley Dotes gets into trouble because of his addiction to water-spider races.

* In ''MagicTheGathering'', Liliana Vess made a {{Deal with the Devil}} with four archdemons in order to gain eternal youth. Being the selfish woman she is, she decides to try to get out of it by killing them. She's one-fourth of the way there.

* In at least one episode of the ''{{Poirot}}'' series of AgathaChristie adaptations starring David Suchet, a character was persuaded to get involved in a jewel robbery to pay off a gambling debt.

* The male protagonist of ''HayateTheCombatButler'' is trapped by his parents' debts.

* [[TheKillingJoke In]] [[MultipleChoicePast one of the origins]] of TheJoker, he was a poor schlub who needed to pay off his gambling debts so he got roped into being the Red Hood (the alleged head of a gang but really just a guy the rest of the gang hires to be [[FaceOfTheBand The Face of the Gang]]), then fell in a vat of chemicals and became the Joker.

* [[The Killing Joke In]] [[MultipleChoicePast one of the origins]] of TheJoker, he was a poor schlub who needed to pay off his gambling debts so he got roped into being the Red Hood (the alleged head of a gang but really just a guy the rest of the gang hires to be [[FaceOfTheBand The Face of the Gang]]), then fell in a vat of chemicals and became the Joker.

* In [[MultipleChoicePast one of the origins]] of TheJoker, he was a poor schlub who needed to pay off his gambling debts so he got roped into being the Red Hood (the alleged head of a gang but really just a guy the rest of the gang hires to be [[FaceOfTheBand The Face of the Gang]]), then fell in a vat of chemicals and became the Joker.

* In ''AKnightsTale'', William bails GeoffreyChaucer out of his gambling debts, and in return, Chaucer travels as Will's herald.

* Subverted by Tsunade in ''{{Naruto}}'', who uses her jutsu to change her looks from an old woman to a young girl and everything in between, and is always on the move with Shizune, to escape her creditors, with IOU note in tow. (This aspect of her character may be inspired by the {{Tanunki}}.)

* Subverted by Tsunade in ''{{Naruto}}'', who uses her jutsu to change her looks from an old woman to a young girl and everything in between, and is always on the move with Shizune.