[TappyTibbons]

*Spoilers Incoming*

So, you have a money launderer who works with terrorists... he makes some bad investment decisions and looses all "thier" money. Got it. Bond can't kill him because they want to know his terrorist contacts. Got it. So, they find out that he's hosting a poker game to try and win some money and save his own neck. Got it. So they put Bond in the game to "win" the money and keep the money from the terrorists.... ok I'm lost.

They know the guy is dead if he doesn't get the money back... they dont' want him dead, else they would just kill them by themselves. So why exactly is Bond in this poker game trying to win the money ... !!??

He wins the money and the guy gets killed just as expected. The plot just seems contrived and makes little sense, there was no reason for Bond to be in the Poker game at all...

[mungylee]

They wanted Bond to beat him, forcing him to turn to the British government for safety in return for information. As he said after the torture scene, "I could kill you and your government would still accept me with open arms" (not exact quote)

[AndreyL]

They needed Bond to win the money, so that Le Chiffre would have none left.

Since the poker game was Le Chiffre's last resort, the organizations would come after him. Therefore, LC would have to go to MI6 and give them his secrets in return for safety from the people who want to kill him.

But since Bond won, LC had to capture him and torture him for the ID and Password of the bank account in order to get his money back. But he didn't get it fast enough, so the organizations came and killed him.

But since Vesper was working for the organizations, she just took the money that she/Bond had won and gave it over to them. Win-win situations for the organizations.