Older reference books often referred to The Gambler variously as Prokofiev's first, second and fifth opera. In a sense, it is all three: at nine Prokofiev wrote an opera in piano score called The Giant, and followed it with two such other juvenile efforts, after which came his first surviving effort, the one-act Maddalena (1911), which he left mostly unorchestrated, thereby relegating it to limbo until Sir Edward Downs completed the scoring for a 1979 premiere. Then, in 1917, Prokofiev wrote his first fully-scored and first large-scale opera, The Gambler. Because of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and Prokofiev's subsequent departure from his homeland, the opera remained unperformed while the composer, a virtuoso pianist, toured America and Europe for the next decade.

After the failure of his next opera, The Love for Three Oranges, and the struggle he endured through the lengthy gestation of The Fiery Angel (1920-27), Prokofiev decided to revise The Gambler in hopes of getting it to the stage. He toned down some of the more dissonant scoring and made other changes as well. The work was premiered in Brussels on April 29, 1929. Despite its innovations and general high quality (some consider it the composer's greatest opera), it was not a success.

Prokofiev himself fashioned the libretto from Dostoyevsky's novella of the same name, and in an appropriately fitting irony truncates the story—a story which begins in medias res. The composer assumes the audience has knowledge of the Dostoyevsky work in leaving many actions and motivations of the characters unexplained. The story takes place in the fictitious German city of Roulettenburg. There is a clutch of soap-opera-like characters there: Alexei, the "Gambler," who shares a curious love-hate relationship with Paulina, the woman who seems to have a compulsion to humiliate him; Paulina's stepfather, the General, who is in heavy debt and awaits the death of his rich Aunt, Babulenka; the gold-digging Blanche, the Marquis, to whom the General owes large sums of money, and the wealthy Englishman Mr. Astley. Blanche who had been seeking the attention of the General, abandons him after Babulenka, who appears unexpectedly at the casino, loses her fortune at the roulette wheel. The Marquis then seeks repayment of all debts from the hapless and desperate Colonel.

The most dramatic scene in the opera is the extremely fast-paced roulette scene, in which Alexei keeps winning and winning, desperate to recoup Paulina's money, which he had earlier lost. Prokofiev brilliant orchestrates the sound of the spinning roulette wheel here and conveys the glitter of the casino and obsessive nature of gambling. The mounting tension, excitement and color of the scene are unforgettable, with the music as twisted and neurotic as the characters. At the climax of the story Alexei takes his winnings to Paulina, who had earlier confided to him of an affair she had had with the Marquis. Paulina takes the money and throws it in Alexei's face. The stunned Alexei begins mumbling about his fortunes at the roulette wheel and the opera ends.

The main theme of the opera, heard at the outset in a brief orchestral introduction, has all the seductive color and garish splendor of the casino. The orchestral and vocal writing throughout are pungent and full of wit and irony. Prokofiev weaves his characters, action and music into a fabric that meshes desperation, greed and obsession in a powerful work that has been appearing with greater frequency on the world's operatic stages beginning in the latter quarter of the twentieth century.

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