Movie Loan Sharking

I've never understood the way movies like to portray how movie loan sharking works.  Movies love to show loan sharks beat up or threaten to and/or kill the guy who owes them money, but how can this possibly be good for business?  If you break a guy's legs or kill him, how is he going to be able to make the money to pay you back?  Sure, they could say they are sending a message, but then the loan shark is still not getting paid the money they are owed.  Instead, they are looking at a police investigation that will definitely point their way when the cops realize the dead guy owed them a lot of money.

Let's look at an example, in the movie Rounders (which stars Matt Damon who plays a poker player), Damon's buddy Worm (played by Edward Norton) owes a loan shark a lot of money and he takes a beating because of it.  So by beating Worm up, Worm has decided that instead of paying the loan shark his money, he is just going to skip town and make Matt Damon pay it for him.  In the end, Damon came up with the cash and the loan shark got his money, but what if Worm didn't have any friends that were willing to help him out?  In that case, he would have left town and the loan shark would be out a lot of money with no way of getting it back and that can't be good for business.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that movie loan sharking sounds like a terrible business venture to get into because either you are not going to get your money or you are going to end up in jail for murder or assault.

"If this is what poker players look like today, maybe I am in the wrong profession."