Where there are writers there are sometimes characters and stories about gambling or there are the writers themselves whose lives have inspired them to gamble. Highly creative writers are not known for their abstinence, but rather for their excesses. There are writers who have turned to gambling in order to earn money, only to find themselves on the brink of psychological and financial ruin.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Fyodor Dostoevsky was born in 1821 in Moscow. Although Dostoevsky’s father was a doctor, Moscow at the time was poor. Dostoevsky took up writing in his early adulthood, after he left military engineering school. After the death of his father, Dostoevsky had sudden onset epilepsy which lasted for the rest of his life. Dostoevsky, deep in debt during his early writing years, turned to gambling to try and earn money. Instead, he developed a nearly unshakable compulsion to gamble, which led him in and out of destitution and despair at various points in his life.

Dostoevsky’s novel, The Gambler, was published in 1866 and is based on a particularly tortuous period spent gambling in German casinos. This gambling spree left him impoverished and desperate. The Gambler, according to modern psychiatrists, is a virtual textbook into the psychology of compulsive gambling. Dostoevsky weaves a psychological portrait of a number of characters so embroiled in the gambling scene that they are incapable of restraint and ultimately ruined. The book is populated with colorful characters of the period and is true to the flamboyant energy of the German casino environment of the day.

Dostoevsky’s second wife, Anna, had been the transcriptionist for his Gambler novel. With her, he was able to overcome his gambling compulsion. His literature at this point in his life becomes infused with themes of free will.

The Man With $100,000 Breasts and Other Gambling Stories

Michael Konik’s collection of stories, The Man With $100,000 Breasts, weaves together an oddball assortment of gambling characters who add color to his collection of modern stories. Konik is a well known magazine columnist for Cigar Aficionado. He writes regularly on gambling.

Telling Lies and Getting Paid

Telling Lies and Getting Paid is Michael Konik’s follow up collection to his The Man With $100,000 Breasts. This recent collection is said to be a grittier take on the gambling world.