Rare is the man who does not believe that happiness is merely a few million dollars away. The fabulous allure of cash-and-carry contentment overwhelms the common-sense resistance of a shy but sly bank manager in Owning Mahowny (2003). Cool, collected, and tormented banker Mahowny finds himself in a position to shift about massive stacks of legal tender, while being simultaneously lashed by the whip of a wicked gambling obsession. His ethics, his understanding of mathematical certainty, his existence as a dutiful nebbish, all of these he compromises in order to place outlandish bets at outrageous odds. For a while the moderate drudge becomes a flamboyant winner, but even he must know that the chips will not fall his way for long.