All or Nothing — Preston L. Allen

A “funny, relentless, haunting, and highly readable” novel about one man's desperate gambling addiction (ForeWord Magazine).
 
P is a school bus driver in Florida, and six month ago he won a hundred grand at the casino. What his wife and family don't realize is that the money is long gone. To keep them fooled -- and feed his ongoing compulsion -- he indulges in bigger and bigger bets, scrounging for cash anywhere he can. Finally, faced with the ultimate financial crisis, he hits it really big. Yet winning, he soon learns, is just the beginning of a deeper problem . . .
 
“Allen takes his place on a continuum that begins, perhaps, with Dostoyevsky's Gambler, courses through Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano, William S. Burroughs's Junky, [and] the collected works of Charles Bukowski and Hubert Selby Jr. . . . colorfully evokes the gambling milieu.” -- The New York Times Book Review
 
“This is strongly recommended and deserves a wide audience; an excellent choice for book discussion groups.” -- Library Journal