The Gambler ILLUSTRATED

The Gambler treated a subject Fyodor Dostoevsky himself was familiar with-gambling. Fyodor Dostoevsky gambled for the first time at the tables at Wiesbaden in 1862.[2] From that time till 1871, when his passion for gambling subsided, he played at Baden-Baden, Homburg, and Saxon-les-Bains frequently, often beginning by winning a small amount of money and losing far more in the end.[2] He wrote to his brother Mikhail on 8 September 1863: