Molly’s game is poker. And her game attracted any number of celebrities, high rollers and corporate executives. And then, over time, this attracted the Russian mob.
And we know all this because Molly’s game is based on a true story. Molly Bloom’s story: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Bloom_(author
A rather extraordinary life to say the least.
Anyway, Molly’s game was eventually busted by the FBI. Why? Because, along with the Russian mob, gambling itself is construed by different people in different ways. And while in some parts of the world it is all perfectly legal, in other parts it’s not. Even within any particular country there conflicting jurisdictions.
And the laws here are often all over the board. What exactly can you do and what exactly can’t you do? Even the lawyers themselves can be flummoxed at times.
Anyway, gambling it seems is a pursuit that some take to in a big, big way. It can take over their life. It can steer it in any number of ominous directions. It can even destroy it. Whereas, for folks like me, I don’t get it. I’ve never been attracted to it all. And I really don’t understand the mentality of those who are. And I’m not alone:
Jessica Chastain knows very little about gambling and has no interest in it. IMDb
And then the part where gambling gets intertwined in a post modern technology the authorities now have access to. Who really knows what information can be garnered from what device.
A lot of narrating here. And while some will find it annoying, I rather enjoyed it. Not much you won’t learn about the world of high-stakes poker. And, as with other worlds of this sort, there are a lot of things that most of us don’t really know at all. On the other hand, as a few reviewers point out, the movie is really just a “dumbed down” version of the book.
IMDb
[b]Molly Bloom is banned from Canada because she pleaded guilty to a federal crime in the United States. She was granted a 48-hour pass to visit Canada for the movie’s premiere at TIFF. Ironically, the film was shot in Canada.
According to Molly Bloom, the most money she’d ever seen lost in a card game session in one night was $100 million. The losing player settled the debt the following day.
All of the extras in the card games are professional poker players. First-time director Aaron Sorkin wanted realism, right down to the way players handled cards during games.
The amount of money that the FBI took from Molly, and the fine she paid, was substantially larger in the movie.[/b]
trivia at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt4209788/tr … tt_trv_trv
at wiki: youtu.be/Vu4UPet8Nyc
trailer: youtu.be/Vu4UPet8Nyc
Molly’s Game [2017]
Written and directed by Aaron Sorkin
[b]Molly [voiceover]: A survey was taken a few years ago that asked 300 professionals one question: “What’s the worst thing that can happen in sports?” Some people answered losing a Game 7. And other people said getting swept in four. Some people said it was missing the World Cup. But one person answered that the worst thing that can happen in sports was fourth place at the Olympics. This is a true story, but except for my own, I’ve changed all the names and I’ve done my best to obscure identities for reasons that’ll become clear.
…
Molly [voiceover]: I have a BA in Political Science from the University of Colorado where I graduated Summa Cum Laude with a 3.9 GPA. The median L-SAT score at Harvard Law School is 169. My score: 173.
…
Molly [voiceover]: When I was 12 years old, for no particular reason, my back exploded. Less than ten minutes later, I was in the back of an ambulance. I had what’s called rapid onset scoliosis. My spine was curved at 63 degrees and I’d need a 7-hour surgical procedure that involved straightening my spine, extracting bone from my hip, fusing 11 vertebrae together and fastening steel rods to the fused segments.
…
Molly [voiceover]: My boots are basically welded to my skis. Right…so how does this happen? It happened because I hit a pine bough that had become frozen in the snow. And I hit it so precisely that it simply snapped the release of my bindings. Right in that moment, I didn’t have time to calculate the odds of that happening because I was about to land pretty hard on my digitally remastered spinal cord which is being held together by spare parts from an Erector Set…None of this has anything to do with poker. I’m only mentioning it because I wanted to say to whoever answered that the worst thing that could happen in sports was fourth place at the Olympics…seriously, fuck you.
…
Larry [Molly’s father interviewing her as a child]: Who are the heroes or heroines in your life? Who uh, who do you really respect?
Molly: I don’t have any heroes.
Larry: You don’t have any heroes.
Molly [voicover]: How’s this for hubris? I don’t. Because if I reach the goals I’d set out for myself, then the person I become, that’ll be my hero. Even by teenage girl standards, I would appear to be irrationally angry at nothing in particular. It would be another 22 years before I’d find out why.
…
Molly [voiceover]: Like I said, the day started by being about bagels. But that would abruptly change.
Dean: My weekly poker game’s moved to the Cobra Lounge. Tomorrow night and then every Tuesday night. You’ll help run it. Take these names and numbers. Tell 'em to bring 10 grand in cash for the first buy-in, the blinds are 50-100.
…
Molly [voiceover]: I’d regarded Dean as a nitwit when I regarded him at all. But on that pad were nine names along with phone numbers of some of the most wealthiest and most famous people in the world.
…
Molly [voiceover]: I’d just finished counting out $90,000 in cash. I was in a room with movie stars, directors, rappers, boxers. They were going all-in all the time, burning through their buy-ins over and over. I Googled every word I heard that I didn’t know. Flop, river, fourth street, tilt, cooler, boat, nuts…
…
Charlie [a lawyer]: I read your indictment after I got your call last night and I bought your book. I’m only on page 112, but Molly, did you commit a felony and then write a book about it?
Molly: I haven’t run a game in two years. Not to spoil the ending, but that’s when the government raided my game and took all of my money, assuming all of it was made illegally which it wasn’t.
…
Charlie: Have you seen the other names in your indictment? Nicolas Koslovsky, Peter Druzhinsky, Peter Antonovich, the Gershen brothers, I mean, come on, Molly, just how deep into the Russian mob were you? Because your book doesn’t say.
…
Molly: I’ve never hurt anyone in my life.
Charlie: Your friends have.
Molly: I’ve never heard of 90 percent of the names in the indictment.
Charlie: And the other 10 percent?
Molly: I didn’t know they were connected. I had no idea who they really were.
…
Charlie [to Molly]: We regularly lend out our best litigators like me to the ACLU, Southern Poverty Law Center, veterans groups, but I don’t think I can convince my partners to take a flyer on the Poker Princess.
…
Molly [voiceover]: The game had regulars and the game had guests. And four of the regulars were famous actors. And I’m gonna call one of them Player X. Player X subscribed to the belief that money won was twice as good as money earned. He lived to beat people and take their money.
…
Molly [voiceover]: Player X was the best player at the table and tonight this guy was the worst. He’s staring at his cards. Even a reasonably good amateur would know it was mathematically the best hand which in poker is called the nuts. There was $47,000 in the pot and the guest was holding the nuts but he was starting to get confused because a movie star was talking to him.
…
Molly [voiceover]: A fish is a particular kind of player. A fish has money. A fish plays loose and doesn’t fold a lot. A fish is good but not too good.
…
Molly [voiceover]: My job security was gonna depend on bringing Player X his fish. But where would I find people with a lot of money who didn’t know how to spend it and liked to be around celebrities?
…
Molly [voiceover]: Poker was my Trojan horse into the highest level of finance, technology, politics, entertainment, art. All I had to do was listen.
…
Charlie: You extended credit. You’re destitute and you leave two and a half million dollars on the street?
Molly: I had to.
Charlie: Didn’t anyone try to buy your debt sheet?
Molly: Everyone tried to buy my debt sheet, is this the right time…?
Charlie: Why didn’t you sell it like you sold your clothes?
Molly: I couldn’t.
Charlie: Why?
Molly: I couldn’t be sure how they were gonna collect.
Charlie: I was afraid you were gonna say that.
…
Molly [voiceover]: There was a track star in the 1930’s named Matthew Robinson. Matthew Robinson shattered the Olympic record in the 200 at the Berlin Games in 1936. Absolutely shattered the Olympic record…and came in second. The man who came in first was Jesse Owens. Jesse Owens went on to be a legend. Matthew Robinson went on to be a janitor at a whites-only middle school in Pasadena. The difference was four-tenths of a second. As if that wasn’t enough, Matthew Robinson had a little brother who was also an athlete. His name was Jackie.
…
Larry: What did everyone learn in school today?
Molly [as a highschooler]: Uh, I learned that Sigmund Freud was both a misogynist and an idiot and anyone who relies on his theories of human psychology is a quack.
Larry: I don’t know why you’d say that.
Molly: You asked me what I learned in school today.
Larry: Is this Mrs. Linwood?
Molly: Yep.
Larry: Did she happen to mention anything about his work on the unconscious mind?
Molly: His dream analysis has the credibility of a horoscope, but what got my attention was that he opposed the women’s emancipation movement. He believed that a woman’s life is about her reproductive function.
Larry: So you’re really getting to the nuts and bolts of why middle-class suburban white girls have been oppressed for centuries.
Molly: Mrs. Linwood was just teaching us…
Larry: Barbara Linwood doesn’t like men, Molly.
Molly: She doesn’t like dicks, Dad, there’s a difference.
…
Dean: Is he cheating?
Molly: No.
Dean: How would you know?
Molly: I’d know.
Dean: He and Diego aren’t in bed together?
Molly: No.
Dean: What about him and you?
Molly: A 52 card deck produces hundreds of millions of random patterns but every time one of you loses two weeks in a row, you’re sure something fishy’s going on?
…
Molly: You’re gonna stop paying me to do that job because I’m making too much money doing my second job and if I say no I’ll lose both jobs because “it doesn’t seem fair”?
Dean: Business is bad right now. Welcome to the real world.
Molly: All right, here it is. Banks are loaning you money and they shouldn’t. You’re a bad risk, they know it. So the debt service on your loans is close to 20 percent which is crazy. 20 percent is barely survivable if it’s a bridge loan but like, for instance, it’s taken you ten years to build seven houses, all of which are worth less than they were before you built them because the housing market is on a downward trajectory for the first time in the history of houses and that’s why business is doing bad, not because you’re paying me $450 a week.
…
Player: Where’s Dean?
Molly: I’ll be hosting a game in this suite every Tuesday night. If you play tonight, you’ll be guaranteed a chair for a year. If you prefer to play at the Cobra Lounge, there’ll be no hard feelings.
…
Molly [voiceover]: The game was mine now.
…
Lawyer: Are you taking a rake?
Molly: No.
Lawyer: Then you’re not breaking the law. Can I give you some advice?
Molly: Please.
Lawyer: There’s a saying in my business. Don’t break the law when you’re breaking the law. Molly: What do you mean?
Lawyer: No drugs, no prostitutes, no muscle to collect debts.
Molly: Oh, I don’t do anything like that. But you just said I wasn’t breaking the law.
Lawyer: Keep it that way, because you don’t want to break the law when you’re breaking the law.
Molly: Am I breaking the law?
Lawyer: Not really.
Molly: We’re able to find out for sure, aren’t we? Laws are written down.
Lawyer: You’re not taking a percentage of the pot?
Molly: No.
Lawyer: You’re running a square game.
…
Player X: Are you fuckin’ nuts? Donnie Silverman won the World Series of Poker.
Molly: You can watch it online. He took 11 hands at the final table. But he had the nuts on eight of them. And three of those…three were two-outers with four players still in the hand. He ran hot. He doesn’t lock his chips down, he’s reckless, he gives tons of action, and he’s got 12 million dollars.
Player X: You know, I don’t like playing poker.
Molly: Why do you play?
Player X: I like destroying lives. Give him a chair.
…
Molly [voiceover]: Bad Brad had raised 700 million dollars for a fund that traded oil futures. And every week, he came to the game. Lost $100,000 and tipped me $5,000 so he could play the next week. He wasn’t getting any better. And the guys were feasting on him.
Brad: Can I get another fifty?
Molly: Can we talk for a second?
Brad: Sure.
Molly: Brad, this game might not be for you.
…
Molly [voiceover]But first…Harlan Eustice. Player X said he met Harlan at the Commerce Casino and that he’d be good for the game but I wasn’t seeing what he was seeing. He played tight, folding after the hole cards 64 percent of the time. It wasn’t clear where his money came from. He produced backyard wrestling videos and other low-rent productions. But worst of all, Harlan Eustice was a good card player. Why would Player X want someone at the game who could beat him? I’d learn the answer to that one the hard way.
…
Charlie: This is the Russian mafia. And the three are tied together in the indictment through… A poker game.
Molly: Were they tapping my phones?
Charlie: No.
Molly: Thank God.
Charlie: They were tapping the phones of everyone you talked to. They’ve got you confirming that you ran rake games at the Plaza Hotel and various locations in New York. They’ve also got a confidential informant confirming that you ran raked games at the Plaza Hotel and various locations in New York. You were in violation of 1955, which is the part of the U.S. Code that makes it illegal to run an illegal gambling business. You know what you did? You finished writing a book before the good part happened.
…
Charlie: I need your hard drives.
Molly: Going back how far?
Charlie: What do you mean?
Molly: Well, I kept my hard drives when I’d buy a new laptop.
Charlie: You’re kidding.
Molly: No, it had a record of who owed what and spreadsheets on the players.
Charlie: It has more than that. Every time you charge your phone by plugging it into the computer, the computer takes a record of all your text messages and e-mails.
Molly: My laptop has a record of all text messages and e-mails received years ago on phones that have been smashed with an aluminum bat?
…
Charlie: I want to run forensic imaging on your hard drives.
Molly: Oh, no, thanks anyway, but I’ll be destroying those hard drives.
Charlie: Well, you can’t do that, they’re evidence.
Molly: Well, I’m gonna blow 'em up, I am literally gonna use explosives and scatter the remains in the sea.
Charlie: Except you told me they exist.
Molly: You’re gonna have to pretend I didn’t tell you.
Charlie: Can’t do that.
Molly: Yes, you can.
Charlie: You were the one who wanted a lawyer that wasn’t even a little bit shady.
Molly: New information has come to light, now I see that that was stupid. There are no hard drives.
Charlie: If you destroy evidence and obstruct justice on top of the charges already brought against you in this case, you will be, I promise, incarcerated.
Molly: You don’t understand what’s in those text messages.
Charlie: I understand you’ve had boyfriends and there’ll be some exchanges that are a little bit, you know, embarrassing.
Molly: I don’t care about embarrassing text messages from boyfriends as there’s not left a small corner of my private life that isn’t available for public scrutiny. There are messages that would destroy other lives. There are messages that would end careers and obliterate families. f those text messages were to be made public,
Charlie: They won’t be.
Molly: If they were…
Charlie: They won’t be.
Molly: …it would be catastrophic for many people.
Charlie: I’m a lawyer. I’m legally…listen to me…I am legally prohibited from disclosing anything…
Molly: Someone leaked my last deposition to the National Enquirer, Charlie.
…
Molly [after Charlie tooses her his phone]: What is this for?
Charlie: It’s got every text message and e-mail I sent in the last year as well as a variety of incriminating evidence about my clients. Now, if anything of yours gets leaked, you can sell my phone to the highest bidder and I’ll lose my job and get disbarred.
Molly: So, in order to demonstrate the sanctity of your attorney/client confidentiality, you’re betraying the confidentiality of all your other clients.
Charlie: I know you’re not gonna look at it.
Molly: How do you know?
Charlie: I don’t know.
…
Molly [voiceover]: I liked Harlan. But nobody else like him except Player X. He played tight, didn’t give a lot of action and always got his money in good which means he was running the odds. In other words, he was playing poker and the others were gambling. And he won. By midnight, Harlan had tripled his original $50,000 buy-in but everything came off the rails with one hand. And that’s how it happens. That’s how you go full tilt. Harlan, the best player at the table, the best player at most tables, was about to get bluffed off the win by, of all people, Bad Brad. How? Because Harlan had never played with Brad before and didn’t know yet that Brad was bad. Harlan’s got a boat, nine’s full. Brad’s got nothing but his pre-flop betting made it look, entirely accidentally, like there was a chance he had pocket kings, which, if true, would give him the better full house. Brad’s counting off 20 thousand which means he’s gonna call and Harlan knows that if Brad’s gonna call and not raise it means he didn’t have the boat and he’s betting a high two-pair, probably kings and queens. But then instead of calling the bet, Brad pushes 72 thousand dollars into the pot. Harlan looks a Brad. Every tell Harlan knows about, carotid artery pumping, stiff hands, Brad’s doing the opposite. Brad’s betting had represented a huge hand by calling on the flop, check-raising the turn and bombing the river. Of course, Harlan didn’t know that Brad didn’t know what any of that meant. So Harlan, always a good sport, said, Nice bet. I’m laying this down. As he tossed in what he didn’t realize was the winning hand. Brad tosses in his cards too and one of them flips over and Harlan sees…
Harlan: You didn’t have pocket kings?
Brad: I didn’t have any kings. Except the one in the middle.
Harlan: You had two pair?
Brad: I had one pair, the nines in the middle.
…
Molly: You’re on tilt. Everybody knows it. You’re playing without the weapons you need to win.
Harlan: You’re right. Just give me 500,000. I just gotta get back to even.
Molly [voiceover]: That should be the second line of every gambler’s obit. “Mr. Feldstein died while trying to get back to even.” Harlan never did.[/b]
You can say that again.
[b]Player X: I think we should talk about capping your tips.
Molly: You want to get together with the other players, who on my tax return are called clients, and discuss putting a ceiling on my wages?
Player X: That’s right.
Molly [voiceover]: Right there, right then, that fast, I lost the game. It was the next Tuesday, game night. He waited until he knew I’d be on the way to the hotel and then sent me a text. It said, “We’re playing at Dave’s tonight. No need to show up.” And I knew the truth even before I answered the call that came next.
Player X [on the phone to Molly]: You are so fucked.
…
Molly: I’m refusing you permission to seek a minor role reduction. I’m refusing you permission to invalidate my entire career. I built a successful…
Charlie: Hey, do you want kids? You interested in having a family?
Molly: Very much.
Charlie: I don’t get you some point reductions and the sentencing recommendation guidelines say 8 to 12 years and that’s before they try to jam you up more for money laundering.
Molly: Money laundering? Are you…
Charlie: The moment you changed the Russians’ money for chips.
Molly: I would’ve had to have been aware where the money was…
Charlie: Find me 12 men and women who’ll believe that you weren’t aware of exactly who was sitting at your table and where their money came from. So, that’s it. You were a cocktail waitress.
…
Molly [voiceover]: When I lost the L.A. game, I told myself it was no big deal. It was just supposed to be an adventure and a way to meet influential people. And I’d saved over $200,000. But that was just a weak firewall I’d hastily built to keep out the humiliation and depression I knew was coming. It had to end sometime. I just thought it would be on my time. The game had given me an identity, respect, and a defined place in a world that was inaccessible and in one irrational heartbeat it was taken away. I was irrelevant and forgotten overnight. It’d been two weeks since I lost the game and I made an appointment to see someone because now the humiliation and depression had given way to blinding anger at my powerlessness over the unfair whims of men. It was that there weren’t any rules. These power moves weren’t framed by right and wrong, just ego and vanity. Selfish whims with no regard for consequence. No fairness, no justice. And that giggling, cackling call from Player X. You are so fucked. I couldn’t lose to that green-screened little shit and I didn’t want a therapist to make me feel okay about it. You know what makes me feel okay about losing? Winning. I got on a plane to New York.
…
Molly [voiceover]: Wall Street, Madison Avenue, Fifth Avenue, the Dakota, the San Remo… the players were here, I just had to bait the hook. This time, I didn’t have movie stars. This time, I used Playboy Playmates.
…
Molly [voiceover]: We couldn’t promise anyone they’d rub elbows with movie stars. But New York has one thing Hollywood doesn’t. The Yankees. And there was one Yankee in particular that every man in America would line up to lose to.
…
Molly [voiceover]: It took only seven weeks of recruiting to get ten players and seven on a waiting list. And in these circles, that was more than enough to start the mythology. By morning, gamblers would be telling and hearing stories about this game in London, Tokyo, and Dubai. All in. At the end of that year, I reported an income of four million, seven hundred and seventy-three thousand dollars. Every square inch of it legal and on the books. I was the biggest game runner in the world. All tips. I still hadn’t taken a rake. And I still hadn’t accidentally recruited members of a Russian crime syndicate.
…
Molly [voiceover]: Casinos had discovered that certain scents make people more likely to place big bets. The casinos pump those scents in through the ventilation. I had custom candles made.
…
B: Your exposure’s crazy. It’s not if, it’s when. You’re gonna get blown up. Your risk is nuts.
Molly: If I took a rake, this game would no longer be legal.
B: And if you can’t cover, this game will no longer exist. You’re the bank now. You’re guaranteeing the game.
…
Molly [voiceover]: There was now 3 million dfollars on the table. B was right, I was extending credit, big numbers. And it’s not like Harlan Eustice hadn’t already put the fear of God into me. If I couldn’t pay, one time, that’d be the end of the game. I was the house. That’s how quickly I made the decision. And just as quickly, B calculated two percent of the pot and took it off the table. That was it. I’d just taken a rake, in violation of U.S. Criminal Code 1955.[/b]
Cue the Russians?
[b]Molly [voiceover]: People have asked, “Wasn’t there any way to tell that some of the players at your game are connected to one of the darkest, deadliest, and far-reaching organized crime syndicates in the world?” No. There wasn’t.
…
Charlie: The government is expressing an interest in you being a cooperating witness.
Molly: You don’t say. Who could have possibly seen that coming? Let’s have the conversation. It’ll be short because I don’t know anything at all that can help them.
Charlie: You don’t know anything that can help them convict the Russians but you know things that can help them.
Molly: Did you know that 97 percent of federal cases never make it to trial? Even though the chances of being convicted at trial is a little more than one in a hundred.
Charlie: If you want to go to trial, that’s fine but it’s gonna cost you in the area of three and a half million dollars.
Molly: Which the Justice Department knows I don’t have because they took all of my money in a civil forfeiture which they can do without a warrant because my property doesn’t have a presumption of innocence. Then after I’m arrested by 17 agents holding automatic weapons, totally necessary and not at all meant to intimidate me, I’m given two days to hire a lawyer and appear in a courtroom on the other side of the country.
Charlie: If you are saying that everything that happens from the moment you are arrested is designed to persuade you to plead guilty, you are correct.
…
Charlie: So, to be clear, you’re not interested in entering a cooperation agreement with the prosecutors.
Molly: If I had testimony that would lead to the conviction of a bad guy, no one would have to coerce me into cooperating. But I don’t. I have dirt. I have dish. I have gossip. So my value to the prosecution is exactly the same as it is to Hollywood. I’m here to ensure the New York Post covers the trial. I’m here to sell tickets.
…
Molly [voiceover]: I felt like I was in a hole so deep, I could go fracking. It didn’t feel like depression, it felt more violent. I was tired of living in the frat house I’d built for degenerates. I was tired of the greed-- mine, not theirs. Everybody’s. I was sick of being high all the time. I was sick of living in the gray area. I couldn’t recognize myself and what I recognized, I couldn’t stand.
…
Russian mob thug [to Molly after beating her up]: It wasn’t an offer they made. It wasn’t a suggestion. This’ll be your only reminder.
…
Molly [voiceover]: I couldn’t call a doctor or go to an E.R. They’d take one look at me and call the police. My eyes were swollen and black. my lips were cut and bloody. I couldn’t feel my face.
…
Charlie [to the prosecutors]: This woman does not belong in a RICO indictment. Are you out of your minds?! She does not belong in a mob indictment, she raked a game, that’s it, for seven months two years ago! And why? Because she was giving credit in the millions and she didn’t want to use muscle to collect. She has had opportunity after opportunity to greatly benefit herself by just telling the real stories that she knows. Okay? I have the forensic imaging going back to 2007. And I’m talking about text messages, e-mails, movie stars, rock stars, athletes, billionaires, all explicit, some married with kids, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. What about the guy who comes this close to being the U.S. Ambassador to Monaco? He’s withdrawn from consideration at the last minute. No one knows why. She does. CEOs with college-age mistresses, an SVP of an investment bank who wanted Molly to put a marked deck in a game, the head of a movie studio who texted her that a particular star was too black for his liking, I mean, J. Edgar Hoover didn’t have this much shit on Bobby! You know, she could’ve written a bestseller and been set for life, easy, she’s got the…she’s got the winning lottery ticket and she won’t cash it. Your office took every dollar she has in a constitutionally fucked up seizure and then put the IRS on her to tax what you seized? I mean, I’ve been in those strategy meetings. You broke her back so she couldn’t possibly afford to defend herself. And now she has an opportunity to guarantee her freedom by “providing color” and she still won’t do it. This woman doesn’t belong in a RICO indictment, she belongs in a box of Wheaties. So, yes, Harrison, I am imploring you to do the right thing. She knows nothing about the three Petes. Nothing about Rachniana. Nothing about RGO or insurance fraud. Between the two of us, we’ve appeared in front of this judge 28 times as prosecutors and not once has he deviated from our sentencing recommendations, he’s not gonna start now. I know you’ve been putting this bust together for three years and there’s no one who doesn’t want to see mobsters go to jail including and especially the one person in the room who’s had one of them put a gun in her mouth. Probation. Community service. Or better yet, just consider that all she did is run a poker game exactly the same way every casino in America does and drop the goddamn charges.
…
Larry [to Molly]: You tripped over a stick. Okay? Twelve years ago you tripped over a stick. It was a one-in-a-million thing. You tripped over a stick. That’s what you did wrong.
…
Charlie: There’s a new offer on the table. We hand over the hard drives. We hand over the forensic imaging of the e-mails and texts in exchange for uh…
Molly: What could they possibly offer for me to do that?
Charlie: Your money back. They’ll give you all your money back plus interest. It’s over 5 million dollars.
Molly: Is that why they took it in the first place? So they could offer it back to me?
Charlie: Yeah. For what it’s worth, if we went to trial you’d have to hand over the forensic imaging in discovery.
Molly: But that’s different from voluntarily handing it over.
Charlie: Sure, but it’s not really voluntary anymore when the alternative is prison. And that’s what they’re gonna recommend, 42 months.
Molly: Why do you keep breaking eye contact with me?
Charlie: I-I’m looking right at you.
Molly: You think I should do it.
Charlie: You gotta let me keep you out of prison.
Molly: You’ve seen what’s on those hard drives.
Charlie: Yeah. Yeah. It’s a lot more than a little color. Yeah, but complete immunity. All right? You get all your money back. You’ll be the first defendant to walk out of a courtroom better off than when you walked in.
Molly: Careers will be ruined. Families. Wives, lives on both coasts…
Charlie: Hey, when a rich guy goes to jail he spreads his money around. His-his lawyer knows how to take care of that. He spreads his money around. You don’t have any! The composition of female inmates in federal prison…they did not commit financial crimes. They’re drug dealers. They get raped by prison guards. You…you will not be anonymous, Molly. You will be a target!
Molly: Children will read their father’s text messages saying he wished he’d never had kids. Charlie: These guys…These guys, where are they? Why are you in this alone? Where are your friends? Where is the one guy saying, “Hey, you know, Molly, I know you’re doing everything to save my life, what can I do for you? Let me buy you a sandwich. Where are they, Molly?” You kept their secrets. Where are the people you’re protecting by not telling the whole story in the book, by settling the Brad Marion suit, by not taking five million dollars of your own money, by going to jail? Where did everybody go?![/b]
She doesn’t buy it. Why? To protect her good name.
[b]Judge: Understanding everything you’ve been told, do you now wish to enter a plea?
Molly: Yes, sir.
Judge: How do you plead to the charge?
Molly: Guilty, Your Honor.
…
Molly [voiceover]: And then something happened.
…
Judge: Would the defendant please rise for sentencing.
[Molly stands]
Judge: Based on all available information, this court manifestly disagrees with the government’s sentencing recommendation. This courthouse is located within spitting distance of Wall Street. I know this from my personal experience trying to spit at it. The men and women who work there will commit more serious crimes by lunchtime today than the defendant has committed in this indictment. I simply don’t see how either the people or the cause of justice are served by locking Molly Bloom in prison…Ms. Bloom, this court sentences you to two hundred hours of community service, one year of supervised probation, drug testing and a two hundred thousand dollar fine. This case is adjourned.
…
Molly [voiceover]: And that was that. It was crying and hugging, jokes from my brothers. Tough talk about how no one messes with the Blooms and level-headed talk about Christmas miracles. Steaks and beer bought by my father and full reenactments. And in the middle of it all, as grateful as you are, the reality starts creeping toward you like the tide. And that’s the first time you have the thought… “What do I do now?”
…
Molly [voiceover]: I’m a felon. I’m 35 years old, unemployed, and pled guilty in a mob indictment. I owe the government close to two million dollars in taxes assessed on the civil forfeiture plus the two hundred thousand dollar fine. And you better believe they’re gonna come get it. I have a quarter of a million dollars in legal bills. I don’t know what I’d say in a job interview, or if I’ll ever be given a job interview. And for some reason, I’m not allowed to go to Canada.
…
Molly [voiceover]: Did anything good come of this? Not really. But I learned something encouraging. I’m very hard to kill. Winston Churchill defined success as The ability to move from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. So, I guess I’m pot-committed. [/b]