In the movie Snatch, 3 men are sent to get the diamond back and try to rob the “bookies” in the process. The cashier repeatedly explains that “all bets are off” so “there can’t be any money, can there?”
What does this mean? I am not a Brit, nor do I have any knowledge of “bookies”. From other scenes in the same movie, I get the impression there are legal and illegal bookies, and the one owned by Brick Top was the latter. I’m guessing the cashier was a front to make it seem like a legal bookies, and the real betting and exchange of money took place on the floor. But why have a fake bookies upstairs which doesn’t take bets? Or was the “legitimate” bookies simply closed, and the cashier was just there to direct customers to the real action in the back room? What am I missing?
Just IMO, but since all bets were off for that fight, there wasn’t anyone bringing money “in” (to the bookies), nor any money “on hand” to cover said bets.
Which is why Sol and Lennie were screwed; they failed to snatch Frankie Four-Fingers (which Tyrone shortly made good), and they also didn’t get any money from Brick Top’s operation to cover the theft of the diamond.
Not that that mattered; once Brick Top figured out who they were, well…you saw the movie. And now we know why you can’t feed a whole person to pigs.
All bets were off because Tommy and Turkish “lost” Gorgeous George. The advertised card had changed, and no replacement fighter had been announced. Any bet previously placed would have been void, and the money returned. Mickey was a last minute substitution, which is why the betting took place at the fight itself, rather than being handled by the bookies.
That’s how I interpreted it, anyway.
I suspect Brick Top had both legal and illegal gambling enterprises. If someone wants to bet on a horse race, they go to the bookie that Sol and Lennie so spectacularly failed to rob. If you want to bet on an underground bare-knuckle boxing match, you do that ringside at the fight. I’d have to watch the movie again to be sure, though. indyvet’s explanation is also pretty good.
Yeah I guess that makes sense. Just seems kind of strange that a business that took bets on things and had fights and other events going on at the time wouldn’t have any money on hand. Yeah I get that the front that normally handles the placing of the bets was closed, but that cashier could easily have been shot to death. She could’ve just said “the money’s all down there”, and pointed them to where the fight was taking place. They presumably had heavy security and would’ve taken care of the situation long before Sol and Vinny got to the fight area.
I’m thinking maybe the cashier thought Sol and Vinny were complete dumbasses and therefore not much of a threat. She did say “do you know who this place belongs to?” or something similar when they first burst in. Because with Brick Top’s reputation you would have to be a complete idiot to get involved with him in the first place, and even stupider to try to steal from him. I’m even wondering if she saw the “replica” written on the side of their guns the way Bullet Tooth Tony did. After all, he spotted it at an odd angle reflected in his drink glass.
Since the OP has been answered can I piggy-back a question on this thread?
What is Mullet saying when B.T.Tony drives up? It sounds like he says something about “gold tooth and all”. That, and the look on his face makes me think he was talking about Tony. If so, was he referencing an event that happened earlier in the movie?
At around 57:37 here.
They had the replicas later; they had the real things on the bookies robbery.
If it was in the movie, it was cut. Unless there’s a Driector’s Cut/Extended Edition floating around.
But according to the english subtitles on my DVD, he’s saying: