Going For Broke is a 2003 television movie that was broadcast on the Lifetime Network. Directed by Graeme Campbell, it starred real-life husband and wife, Gerald McRaney and Delta Burke, as well as a young Ellen Page. It tells how compulsive gambling destroyed a woman's life and family. The film won several awards, including one for best musical score. Critics praised Going For Broke for its realistic and hard-hitting approach.
According to the movie's epilogue, it is partially based on a true story and subsequent embezzlement case, which resulted in all Nevada casinos being required by law to post the toll-free number for the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling[1], should any of their clientele need it.
Laura (Burke) is a successful businesswoman with two children, Jennifer (Page) and Tommy (Matthew Harbour). She marries Jim Bancroft (McRaney), and the family moves from Florida to Reno, Nevada, where Laura has landed a job as head of fundraising for the Children's Chronic Illness Association.
Out on the town one evening, Laura decides to give a video poker machine a try. She makes the acquaintance of Bella (Joyce Gordon), a sweet older lady and casino semi-regular, on whose advice Laura steps "upward" to slot machines. After experiencing a bit of beginner's luck, it isn't long before she has become hopelessly addicted to gambling, draining her family's bank account and even stealing from her kids, pawning Tommy's bicycle at one point. Her performance as both a parent and a career woman quickly go to pot, which becomes apparent after she wins $50,000 by managing a very rare royal flush on a video poker machine, then loses it all in a matter of minutes. When confronted by Jim (who's working double shifts as a mechanic to keep the family going) about her addiction, Laura blames him for not making enough money, and later kicks him out of the house.
Left to fend for herself, Laura manages to scrape together enough money for a grocery shopping excursion, but gets distracted by the slot machines in the local supermarket and is left afterwards with only enough for a box of oatmeal.
Desperate to feed her insatiable gambling habit, Laura is able to get her mother to loan her $10,000. She quickly loses this as well. She then attempts to borrow from Bella, who protests that she doesn't know Laura well enough to do this. Laura then angrily blames Bella for introducing her to the slots. Bella points out that she didn't cause Laura's addiction and reminds her "there's only one sure way to double your money in Nevada: fold it in half, then put it back in your purse".
Her addiction now completely out of control, Laura embezzles $100,000 from her charity. Having lost everything (including her house, to foreclosure, and her kids, who have gone to live with her mother), she finally decides to commit suicide via carbon monoxide poisoning. At the last second, she changes her mind, and instead faces up to her addiction and her embezzlement. She joins Gamblers Anonymous, admitting to stealing from her job, and finally begins to work toward getting her life and her family's lives back on track.