The Gambler

Mark Wahlberg plays Jim Bennett, a Los Angeles literature professor who uses gambling as a way of self-destruction. He owes $260,000 to Lee and another $50,000 to Neville Baraka, a loan shark. After class, Jim visits his mother Roberta at the family's luxury estate, but she says that she will not give him any more money. He convinces her to give him enough to pay off his debts, then gambles it all away in a casino with Brie Larson's character, Amy Phillips.