How did Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s gambling influence the writing of The Gambler?

Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s personal struggle with compulsive gambling was a direct catalyst for his 1866 novel, The Gambler.

During the 1860s, while living in western Europe to escape creditors, Dostoyevsky became "disastrously attracted to gambling." His financial desperation reached a breaking point when an unscrupulous publisher offered him an advance on the condition that he deliver a new novel by a strict deadline, intending to exploit forfeit provisions if the author failed.

With less than a month remaining, Dostoyevsky hired a stenographer, Anna Grigoryevna Snitkina, and dictated the novel. The work was heavily informed by his own experiences with the "psychology of compulsive gambling" and his complex relationship with Appolinariya Suslova. He successfully finished the book on time, and his collaboration with the stenographer eventually led to their marriage, which helped stabilize his finances and personal life.1