Book read: The Gambler

A short story by Fyodor Dostoyevsky the troubled 19th century author. I'd read Crime and Punishment and this was not quite in the same league. The characters and their traits are good, as is the backdrop of the random chance of gambling. But I never felt it was particularly focused in telling a story - reading about the book on Wikipedia it seemed to indicate the book was finished quickly to pay gambling debts!