Owning Mahowny Essay

“Owning Mahowny” was released on January 23rd, 2003. It was directed by Richard Kwietniowski and produced by Andras Hamori and Seaton McLean. Based on a true story, the movie focused on following the life of Dan Mahowny, who was played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Dan Mahowny worked at a bank in Toronto as an assistant branch manager and had access to a large amount of funds. Mahowny chooses to use these funds to help him fund his gambling addiction, but doesn’t catch on that he has a major gambling problem until it becomes too late. Much of the film is set in Atlantic City and Las Vegas, where Dan travels and visits frequently. Using money that he stole from his office, Dan travels frequently and loses outrageously large sums of money at casinos

At the end of the day, casinos hold a significant power over the individual who is playing there. The movie definitely does not show an unrealistic chance of winning or exaggerated sums of money being won by the players which could make the average viewer want to go to the casino. The average viewer would more than likely be turned away by the appearance of the casino in this movie. The gambling enterprise is shown without exaggeration in this film. The casino is shown as a legitimate business endeavor. It was clear that Foss simply wanted to make money and this was all he was interested in. He was not trying to personally attack Dan. It just happened to be that he had a lot of money, no matter where it came from. In regards to illegal gambling activities shown in the film, it may have portrayed the bookies as being too kind to Dan. Most bookies wouldn’t refuse to take a bet because they didn’t want to take your money like what was shown in the movie. They also wouldn’t develop a personal relationship with their customer in most cases. Because of this, a future gambler may be more inclined to contact a bookie than they should. Bookies came off as much more friendly than they actually are in the film, which is potentially dangerous for