History Main / TrappedByGamblingDebts

* On ''Series/{{Banshee}}'' a criminal owes the local Indian casino thousands of dollars so the new tribal chief offers to forgive the debt in exchange for [[spoiler:murdering Kai Proctor]].

* The VictimOfTheWeek on "The River" episode of ''Series/ColdCase'' was so much this that he pays a friend to kill him and [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident make it look like a random mugging]] so that his wife and son can get the insurance money.

* This is the plot of the ''Anime/OnePieceFilmGold''. The ''Gran Tesoro'' is a massive ship carrying a city-sized casino resort, but most of the workers are former customers who end up slaves trying to work off their debts from lost bets. And good luck trying to escape, because the BigBad, Gild Tesoro, has gold-controlling Devil Fruit powers and makes sure everyone is coated with a little gold dust. The Straw Hats end up in the same predicament and the rest of the movie is TheCaper to steal Tesoro's money and pay the debt [[spoiler: which is actually a ruse to distract the villains so Franky can pump seawater onto the ship and wash off the gold dust, giving them the freedom to fight back.]]

* ''Film/TheDry'': [[spoiler: Scott Whitlam is TheGamblingAddict who fled Melbourne to a remote country town to escape his debtors. However, the people he owed money to pursued him and winds up committing embezzlement to pay them off, and then commits murder to hide the embezzlement.]]

* Most of the plot of ''Film/{{Tomcats}}'' revolves around the protagonist owing money to a casino because of a major dice roll bet that he did not even do (he handed the dice to a woman and turned to talk to someone else and the woman made the bet. The casino owner makes pretty clear that it does not matters - it was his turn, it's his loss, now fork over the money or we'll break your legs) and thus the protagonist being forced to manipulate his friends in order to get the money from the only place he can get such a sum - from a {{Tontine}} they had set together with the winnings going to the last ([[AllMenArePerverts male]]) friend to get married. A RunningGag also involves [[RidiculousRepossession the owner sending repo men to take literally everything the protagonist owns, piece by piece, to keep as collateral]].

* In ''The Dry'' by Jane Harper, this turns out to be the motive of [[spoiler: the actual murderer, complete with toughs threatening his family with a nail gun. When a colleague finds him committing fraud to pay them, he kills her whole family and makes it look like a PaterFamilicide.]]

* [[spoiler: Ludovic Bagman]] in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' is suspiciously generous to Harry during the Triwizard Tournament, always offering him tips and pointers and giving him consistently high marks. In the end, it's revealed he's in massive debt to goblins and was trying to help Harry because he put a massive bet on him to win the tournament. It doesn't work because [[spoiler: the goblins argue that Harry drew even with Cedric Diggory ([[SacrificialLion never mind the latter ending up dead]])]], so [[spoiler: Bagman]] goes on the run [[LongBusTrip and is never seen again]].

* ''Series/TheDoctorBlakeMysteries'': In "Against the Odds", a jockey is seriously in debt to a bookie. The bookie agrees to wipe the slate if the jockey - who is riding the favourite in the Ballarat Cup - [[FixingTheGame throws the race]].

* In "Hong Kong Nights" of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'', this is how Fu Dog was before meeting Lao Shi, Jake's grandfather in the '70s- a petty thief forced into the life by his debts.

** A later episode has Krusty's gambling debts to the Mob get so bad that he's forced to open a clown college and (when he blows all the money from that [[TooDumbToLive betting against the Harlem Globetrotters playing the Washington Generals]][[note]]the joke being that the Generals ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Generals always]]'' deliberately lose[[/note]]) fleeing to Europe. [[spoiler: His debts turn out to amount to $48. The mob even gives him change for a $50.]]

* The reason why background checks on law enforcement and intelligence personnel (and for that matter most mid- to high-level government employees) always include financial audits. Being in debt isn't so much of a problem ''per se'' (everybody, even the average cop or spy, runs into financial trouble from time to time - if nothing else, most people couldn't pay cash for a new car or a home even if they wanted to) as the reason ''why'' you're in debt (are you paying off your kid's orthodontist bill, or did you place some bad bets at the track?), your ability to make payments on those debts, where you're getting your money from, and your likelihood of ''habitually'' incurring large or long-term debts.

A common reason why GamblingRuinsLives. Often happens to TheGamblingAddict, especially after an AbsurdlyHighStakesGame. May be the victim of the ProfessionalGambler, as well as TheMafia. Compare BoxedCrook. For similar stock motivations without the tragic flaw, see HealthcareMotivation and TheCommiesMadeMeDoIt.

* ''Film/{{UHF}}'': George's Uncle Harvey, who won [=U62=] in a poker game, ends up $75,000 in debt to [[TheDon Big Louie]]. [[BigBad RJ Fletcher]] then calls up, and offers to buy [=U62=] so he can shutter it and prevent it from threatening his own TV station's ratings. To prevent this from happening, [[SaveTheOrphanage the [=U62=] staffers put on a telethon to raise the necessary cash.]] [[spoiler:Despite Fletcher's interference, they barely make the deadline and pay off Big Louie, saving [=U62=] and causing Fletcher to get hit with a load of LaserGuidedKarma.]]

* In [[MultipleChoicePast one of the origins]] of ComicBook/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.

* ''WesternAnimation/OliverAndCompany'': If one notices at the end, Fagin the hobo makes a bet with Winston and after losing it, tries to walk away, implying that this was how he got involved with LoanShark Sykes.

Often happens to TheGamblingAddict, especially after an AbsurdlyHighStakesGame. May be the victim of the ProfessionalGambler, as well as TheMafia. Compare BoxedCrook. For similar stock motivations without the tragic flaw, see HealthcareMotivation and TheCommiesMadeMeDoIt.

* The murder in the ''Series/DiagnosisMurder'' episode "''[[Recap/DiagnosisMurderS2E4TheBusyBody The Busy Body]]''" was ultimately brought about by this. [[spoiler:The killer, Ralph [=McReedy=] was trying to discredit the new security firm Norman had hired so that his father, Community General's security officer, would get his job back, therefore not retiring to his cabin, which Ralph needed to sell to pay off the people he owed[[note]] For the record, Ralph was initially trying to do this by stealing drugs from the hospital pharmacy and didn't set out to hurt someone, but when the victims stumbled across him, he killed him in a panic, then decided the murder would do much better for discrediting the security firm[[/note]].]]

* The murder in the ''Series/DiagnosisMurder'' episode "''[[Recap/DiagnosisMurderS2E4TheBusyBody The Busy Body''" was ultimately brought about by this. [[spoiler:The killer, Ralph [=McReedy=] was trying to discredit the new security firm Norman had hired so that his father, Community General's security officer, would get his job back, therefore not retiring to his cabin, which Ralph needed to sell to pay off the people he owed[[note]] For the record, Ralph was initially trying to do this by stealing drugs from the hospital pharmacy and didn't set out to hurt someone, but when the victims stumbled across him, he killed him in a panic, then decided the murder would do much better for discrediting the security firm[[/note]].]]

* In ''Film/LuckyNumberSlevin'', the Boss and The Rabbi rope Slevin into their war by mistaking him for Nick Fisher, a lowlife who owes them tens of thousands of dollars. [[spoiler:Of course, Slevin planned for the mobsters to mistake him for Fisher]].

* ''Series/TheSopranos'' features various examples throughout the series, as illegal gambling is one of the prime moneymakers of TheMafia. It is even the one aspect of his illegal career that Tony Soprano admits to his daughter Meadow when she confronts him, [[ConfessToALesserCrime while still denying the existence of the Mafia as a whole]]. (It helps here that UsefulNotes/NewJersey has long had the most permissive gambling laws of any state other than Nevada, so New Jerseyans tend to regard what gambling ''is'' illegal in NJ "not ''that'' illegal.")

* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', though not a ''gambling'' debt, Charlie Collins ends up being indebted to the Joker after he [[MuggingTheMonster cusses out the Joker]] for cutting him off in traffic. Joker "generously" decides not to kill him, in exchange for a favour...

* ''ComicBook/TheF1rstHero'': [[TheProtagonist Jake Roth]]'s friend, Cooper Bradshaw, is a compulsive gambler who's found himself deeply in debt to the mafia. One of the ways he's being forced to help them is to let them [[spoiler:run an illegal extrahuman cage match ring in one of his warehouses]]. He actually comes to Jake once he's back from Afghanistan in hopes of getting him to bail him out. [[spoiler:He evenmakes Jake take part in the fighting in the cage in hopes it'll get him out of his debt.]]

* The IneffectualSympatheticVillain in ''[[Film/NannyMcPhee Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang]]'' desperately tries to convince his sister-in-law to sell her half of the farm to him because he gambled his half away at a casino, and for incentive, the owner's two hitwomen are sent to collect either the deed, or the man's kidneys.

* In ''Film/NewTownKillers'', Sean discovers that his sister Alice owes twelve thousand pounds in gambling debts to dangerous people that are forcing her to travel to Amsterdam to traffic drugs.

* In "Hong Kong Nights" of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'', this is how Fu Dog was before meeting Lao Shi, Jake's grandfather in the '70s- a petty thief forced into the life by his debts.
-->'''Fu:''' Please don't hurt me! I've got a wife at home! And kids! Alright, so I don't have a wife, kids, or even a home! But I'm up to my neck folds in gambling debts and I don't know what else to doooo!
* ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' episode "Bookie" is all about this happening to Shake.

* Manga/{{Kaiji}} is constantly trying to find a way to pay off his debt. It usually ends up with him in worse debt.
* In ''Manga/{{Kakegurui}}'', students who can't afford to pay their dues to the AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil as a result of their gambling debts can have two fates. One, if the debt is only enough to land them in the bottom 100 on the wealth roster of the school, they end up being enslaved to the last person they lost against and are called Pochi/Fido if boys and Mike/Mittens if girls (the latter having a harder time due to the situation being exploited sexually at times). Two, if the debt is really outstanding even by the standards of a school where a 10 million yen debt is not that bad, the student in question gets a "life plan" made for them by the student council detailling what and where they will study, whom they will marry, how many children they will have and when, what their work will be. And they have to follow it to the letter unless they find a way to repay the debt or at least most of it before graduating.

* Since the nature of Faye's debt on ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' is not explained for several episodes, some characters assume it is this.

* ''Fanfic/HarryAndTheShipgirls'' makes Bagman arguably even worse than canon. He'll gamble his money away, then double down and use his winnings for more gambling instead of actually paying off his debts with it.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* The plot of ''Film/LockStockAndTwoSmokingBarrels'' 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. A debt that he has because Harry cheated in the game.

* In ''Film/LuckyNumberSlevin'', the Boss and The Rabbi rope Slevin into their war by mistaking him for Nick Fisher, a lowlife who owes them tens of thousands of dollars. [[spoiler:Of course, Slevin planned for the mobsters to mistake him for Fisher]].
* In ''Film/AKnightsTale'', William bails Creator/GeoffreyChaucer out of his gambling debts, and in return, Chaucer travels as Will's herald.
* On the second to last play of ''Film/TheReplacements2000'', Nigel, the field goal kicker, confesses to Shane that he has to throw the game in order to not lose his bar as a result of gambling debts. Shane decides to improvise instead, by pulling the ball very much like Lucy would do to Charlie Brown, and running the ball instead.
* ''Film/TheFlintstonesInVivaRockVegas'': [[RichSuitorPoorSuitor Chip Rockfeller and Fred Flintstone]] were rivals for Wilma's affections. Rockfeller lured Fred into a casino of his, where Fred got a debt of 1.4 million clams. Rockfeller then offered to cancel the debt if Fred agreed to get out of Wilma's life forever. When Fred refused, Rockfeller stole Wilma's pearl necklace and framed Fred, claiming Fred intended to sell the necklace to pay his debt. Ironic because he himself was trying to repay his debt to {{Loan Shark}}s.
* Some deleted scenes in ''Film/ThePunisher2004'' show how Howard Saint found Frank's hideout. He blackmailed Frank's FBI buddy into telling him, which he did because of his gambling addiction.
* In ''Film/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.

* Invoked by the heroes in ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006''. [=MI6=]'s entire plan was to send Bond in to bust out Le Chiffre so that he would be forced to come to them for protection from his creditors.
* In ''Film/TheKillingOfAChineseBookie'', main character Cosmo Vittelli celebrates finally paying off his strip club by getting into a poker game that ends up putting him in debt to the mob. They say he can pay off the debt by killing a rival Chinese bookie.
* In ''Film/HussarBallad'' that's the reason for Lieutenant Rzhevsky to visit the main character's house. His uncle covered his card debt but insisted that Rzhevsky finally marries.
* ''Film/GangRelated'': Detective Rodriguez is hounded by an EvilDebtCollector and his huge bodyguard because of outstanding gambling debts. [[spoiler:When the crimes he committed with his partner are about to be exposed he attacks them in a moment of rage and is shot to death.]]
* In ''Film/MurderAtTheBaskervilles'', Moriarty buys up Straker's debts and uses them to extort him into complying with his scheme to nobble Silver Blaze.

* ''Film/WildThings2'': Niles Dunlap was deep in debt to various Cuban gangsters, and was misallocating funds belonging to his company to feed his addiction.
* The IneffectualSympatheticVillain in ''[[Film/NannyMcPhee Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang]]'' desperately tries to convince his sister-in-law to sell her half of the farm to him because he gambled his half away at a casino, and for incentive, the owner's two hitwomen are sent to collect either the deed, or the man's kidneys.
* In ''Film/TheSlamminSalmon'', the owner of the titular restaurant is in debt to the Yakuza for about $20,000 and thus forces his staff to go all out on service to make some money quick. Near the end, it's revealed that [[spoiler:his debt is actually 20,000 in Yen (which amounts to roughly $190) and that he simply didn't know the difference between the two currencies]].
* ''Film/TheDry'': [[spoiler: Scott Whitlam is TheGamblingAddict who fled Melbourne to a remote country town to escape his debtors. However, the people he owed money to pursued him and winds up committing embezzlement to pay them off, and then commits murder to hide the embezzlement.]]

* Most of the plot of ''Film/{{Tomcats}}'' revolves around the protagonist owing money to a casino because of a major dice roll bet that he did not even do (he handed the dice to a woman and turned to talk to someone else and the woman made the bet. The casino owner makes pretty clear that it does not matters - it was his turn, it's his loss, now fork over the money or we'll break your legs) and thus the protagonist being forced to manipulate his friends in order to get the money from the only place he can get such a sum - from a {{Tontine}} they had set together with the winnings going to the last ([[AllMenArePerverts male]]) friend to get married. A RunningGag also involves [[RidiculousRepossession the owner sending repo men to take literally everything the protagonist owns, piece by piece, to keep as collateral]].

* In the Literature/LordDarcy novel ''Too Many Magicians'', uncovering one character's gambling debts and the associated blackmail forms a major subplot.
* Early in the ''Literature/GarrettPI'' series, Morley Dotes gets into trouble because of his addiction to water-spider races.

* This is how ''Literature/TheCallOfTheWild'' is set in motion: one of the servants of Buck's original owner has a lot of gambling debt to pay off, and steals Buck in order to sell him to mushers for money.
* ''Literature/JamesBond''
** The traitor in the Secret Service in ''Literature/NoDealsMrBond'' works for the Soviets thanks to "fast women and slow horses".
** A Naval Intelligence agent in ''Literature/{{Brokenclaw}}'' manages to get inside the eponymous villain's inner circle because of her father's gambling debts. She is presented to Brokenclaw as a payment, and he takes her as his lover.
* In ''Godshome'' by Creator/RobertSheckley, desperation when a "sure thing" stock market gamble goes wildly bad is what leads Arthur Fenn to try invoking old, forgotten gods.
* In ''The Dry'' by Jane Harper, this turns out to be the motive of [[spoiler: the actual murderer, complete with toughs threatening his family with a nail gun. When a colleague finds him committing fraud to pay them, he kills her whole family and makes it look like a PaterFamilicide.]]
* A subplot of the Creator/SidneySheldon novel ''Nothing Lasts Forever'' has Dr. Kat Hunter being roped into working for the mafia (tending to their injured underlings) to [[WorkOffTheDebt to pay back her brother's gambling debts]]. After she saves the life of the kingpin himself, he tells her that not only does he consider the debt repaid, but that her fiancé "[[IfYouEverDoAnythingToHurtHer better take good care of you, or he'll answer to me]]". [[note]] When her fiancé kills her so that he can marry a wealthy woman, he fulfills his promise and has him killed [[/note]]

* In at least one episode of the ''Series/{{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.
* One of Garibaldi's men is compromised this way in an early episode of ''Series/BabylonFive''. Garibaldi is smart enough to have him taken off duty to avoid the usual results of this. Then when he suddenly comes up with enough cash to repay his debts and be placed back on duty, Garibaldi is smart enough to see why ''that'' should be a red flag.
* ''Series/VeronicaMars'': Jacky's father is blackmailed into working security for a morally ambiguous casino owner in order to pay off his debt.
* ''Series/MiamiVice'' has an episode in the final season where Switek has to convince an aspiring football player to throw the BigGame to cover his massive debts.

* On ''Series/{{Banshee}}'' a criminal owes the local Indian casino thousands of dollars so the new tribal chief offers to forgive the debt in exchange for [[spoiler:murdering Kai Proctor]].
* On ''Series/PersonOfInterest'' a [=PoI=] is forced into participating in a money-laundering scheme because he owes a crooked casino owner a lot of money. However, Finch later discovers that the man accrued the debt not because he is TheGamblingAddict but because he is [[spoiler:a CardSharp who cheated the casino out of a lot of money to pay his wife's medical bills and could not pay it back when the casino owner found out what happened]]..
* On ''Series/{{Vegas|2012}}'' a crooked casino manager would extend credit to [[TheGamblingAddict hopeless gamblers]] and when they could not pay back, he coerced them into embezzling from their employers. He would then let them gamble more so they had to embezzle more. Ironically, his mobster bosses would not have approved of this scheme because they were making way more money from legitimate gambling and this type of petty scheme risked unwanted police attention.

* In the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode [[Recap/SupernaturalS02E20WhatIsAndWhatShouldNeverBe "What Is And What Should Never Be" (S02, Ep20)]], Dean pretends to be stealing his mother's good silver to cover a gambling debt. His brother believes him, but Dean actually needs the silver to kill a djinn.
* ''Series/AdamAdamantLives'': Happens to the Arab prince in "Allah Is Not Always With You". The entire scheme was a set-up to get him to sign an IOU that would allow the villain to blackmail him once he inherited the throne.

* ''Series/TheDoctorBlakeMysteries'': In "Against the Odds", a jockey is seriously in debt to a bookie. The bookie agrees to wipe the slate if the jockey - who is riding the favourite in the Ballarat Cup - [[FixingTheGame throws the race]].
* The VictimOfTheWeek on "The River" episode of ''Series/ColdCase'' was so much this that he pays a friend to kill him and [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident make it look like a random mugging]] so that his wife and son can get the insurance money.
* In the ''Series/MidnightCaller'' episode "Blood Red," an artist played by Creator/PamGrier is forced to create counterfeit paintings to pay off her gambling debts.
* Several episodes of ''Series/MissionImpossible'' have a team member deliberately end up like this as the opening move of a scheme against the person they owe money to.
* ''Series/{{Vera}}'': In "Home", the brother-in-law of the VictimOfTheWeek is deep in debt to a local gang boss who is currently in prison. His brother, the victim's husband, is a prison officer who is offered the chance to clear the debt by acting as a mule and smuggling contraband into the prison.

* ''Murphy's World''. In the adventure "Robyn's Summer Romance in Asgard", one way given to railroad the {{PC}}s into the scenario is force them to gamble and lose big, thus requiring them to go on the adventure to pay off their gambling debt.

* In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'', a Twi'lek laborer is so addicted to Pazaak that he gambled away his ''[[LostHimInACardGame girlfriend]]''. You can play the dealer to whom he owes the debt in order to bail out the girlfriend, or simply buy her freedom if you have the credits for it. Either she dumps her idiot boyfriend, or you order her to go with her idiot boyfriend, or you can take ownership of her yourself and keep her wages while telling the idiot boyfriend he's out of luck.
* Roman Bellic's gambling problems are why his cousin Niko ends up getting in trouble at the start of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV''.

* In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' if you have the "Debt Collector" and "Wang Dang Atomic Tango" quests active at the same time you can force [[LatinLover Santiago]] to work off his gambling debt to the Garret twins as a prostitute.

* The entire plot of ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}'' is kicked off when the titular character loses a bet at the Devil's casino. To save their souls, Cuphead and Mugman have to go out and collect the soul contracts of the Devil's other debtors who haven't paid their dues.

* In the climax of ''VideoGame/AlwaysSometimesMonsters'', [[spoiler:your old friend pisses away $10,000 gambling to buy an expensive honeymoon and both them and you are kidnapped by the casino's owner to settle the debt. You can either let them plagiarize your journal and kill your career to save their skin, leave them to dry (which results in them getting shot dead on the spot), or (if you're actually liquid enough) [[TakeAThirdOption pay off the debt on the spot with cash]].]]

* This played a weird role in the history of the record releases of Music/TheBeatles in America. Chicago indie label Vee-Jay Records had released "Please Please Me" and "From Me to You" to minimal sales in 1963, and were slated to issue the album ''Introducing...The Beatles'', a slightly-edited version of ''Music/PleasePleaseMe'', in the summer of that year, but financial problems led them to cancel. An enraged Creator/{{EMI}} accused them of breach-of-contract and pulled their Beatles rights. But late in 1963 the company discovered exactly what was causing those financial problems: one of their executives was embezzling money to pay off gambling debts. The company board felt sorry for him, so they didn't pursue criminal charges, but they still found themselves in a huge money hole. Then word started breaking in the music press that Creator/CapitolRecords, EMI's American affiliate, had agreed to take on The Beatles and planned to launch them with a huge promo campaign and a release of an album called ''Meet The Beatles''. Vee-Jay's board held an emergency meeting, where they discussed the fact that they had the matrixes and artwork for ''Introducing...The Beatles'' ready for printing, and were in a position to capitalize on the Beatle launch. They incorrectly assumed that ''Introducing...The Beatles'' was the same album as ''Meet The Beatles'' (the latter was actually a reworked ''Music/WithTheBeatles''). Vee-Jay's financial situation was so bad, they decided that it was worth releasing ''Introducing The Beatles'', even though they knew they would get sued over it, so there were two competing Beatle albums on the American market in early 1964.

* This played a weird role in the history of the record releases of Music/TheBeatles in America. Chicago indie label Vee-Jay Records had released "Please Please Me" and "From Me to You" to minimal sales in 1963, and were slated to issue the album ''Introducing The Beatles'', a slightly-edited version of ''Music/PleasePleaseMe'', in the summer of that year, but financial problems led them to cancel. An enraged Creator/{{EMI}} accused them of breach-of-contract and pulled their Beatles rights. But late in 1963 the company discovered exactly what was causing those financial problems: one of their executives was embezzling money to pay off gambling debts. The company board felt sorry for him, so they didn't pursue criminal charges, but they still found themselves in a huge money hole. Then word started breaking in the music press that Creator/CapitolRecords, EMI's American affiliate, had agreed to take on The Beatles and planned to launch them with a huge promo campaign and a release of an album called ''Meet The Beatles''. Vee-Jay's board held an emergency meeting, where they discussed the fact that they had the matrixes and artwork for ''Introducing The Beatles'' ready for printing, and were in a position to capitalize on the Beatle launch. They incorrectly assumed that ''Introducing The Beatles'' was the same album as ''Meet The Beatles'' (the latter was actually a reworked ''Music/WithTheBeatles''). Vee-Jay's financial situation was so bad, they decided that it was worth releasing ''Introducing The Beatles'', even though they knew they would get sued over it, so there were two competing Beatle albums on the American market in early 1964.

* One ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'' story involves a cop trying to pay off his gambling debts by passing off cocaine seizures to the mobsters.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Chassis}}'', Rothchild Billings is forced to call off his engagement to Chassis by gangsters who offer to pay off his debts. They hope the emotional distress will cause Chassis to lose her next race.