The Vig Meaning

“Vig” is short for vigorish, aka juice. If you take out a loan from a loan shark, expect to pay interest, and probably a lot of it. This interest is called “the vig.”

As Frank Sheeran explains in the book I Heard You Paint Houses, the source material for The Irishman, a waitress at a diner might borrow $100, and agree to pay back $12 a week for ten weeks.

“If she couldn’t afford the $12 one week she’d just pay $2, but she’d still owe the $12 for that week and it would get added on at the end. If it wasn’t paid on time the debt would keep piling up,” Sheeran says.