a roulette table. the punters place their bets. twelve players, nine men, three women. the faces of the men, all ages, intense, hopeful, fearful. which of them is jack?
across the casino an oriental man, mr tchai, is walking towards the table with reynolds. behind him is a 6 foot 5 bulging bodyguard. reynolds comes up to jack's table.
reynolds walks with jack across the casino.
jani de villiers is 30-something, blonde, tanned, expensively dressed in designer clothes. she gives jack ten 50 notes.
it is late. there are few punters left at the tables. jack tidies up his table, which is next to matt's. he looks across at matt and sees the greek man who was at the table the first night when matt took over. the greek wins on a number. matt clears the table and counts out the greek's winnings, quickly and efficiently.
the last punters are leaving. the overhead lights come on. a croupier is wheeling away a trolley with thousands of chips. two men are covering the tables with shrouds.
jani busts again. jack sweeps away the chips, the cards. jani reaches into her bag, takes out another thousand pounds.
at the roulette table jack spins the wheel, throws the ball.
the roulette table. the ball is bouncing in and out of numbers.
a christmas festive atmosphere. the casino interior is decorated with red and green balloons, silver and gold streamers, a large tree hung with 1000 chips.
jack is now at a roulette table. he sees a punter's watch: 2.45. the atmosphere around the crowded table is noisy, laughter, loud voices. 1 one of the two men in suits from the bar eases himself into a chair. jack sees him. the suit throws him 500.
two men in raincoats, detectives, approach reynolds and talk to him. reynolds becomes nervous, looks around the casino. the table at the bar where the suits sat is empty. the private green baize door slowly closes.
the ball bounces into number 5. there are cheers of delight from the winners, 5 is heavily covered.
jack lies groaning on the floor. mr tchai is standing, watching jack. reynolds's voice comes over the tannoy system:
the ball falls into 10. jack puts the doll on 10.
a blackjack table. the bets are placed. jack turns over the bank's cards: a king and an ace. he takes all the chips from the five punters.
a man's hand takes the phone from jani.
jack sr. his arm round jani, talks into the phone.
we are back in the first scene. the ball bounces around the spinning wheel. the faces of the punters. frozen expressions. they are almost still. we do not see the croupier. then.