As for Netanyahu, he has no right to gamble away Israel's future.

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Seeing an addict gamble away money they do not have is one of the saddest things, but, as with everything else in life, responsibility is the key word.

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Progresa, the main anti-poverty programme, is more forward-looking: for instance, families who get benefits must agree to send their children to school, and the money is handed to the women instead of the men, who tend to drink or gamble it away.

ECONOMIST: The beginning of the end of the longest-ruling party | The

Ms. LITHWICK: There's so many and each of them is sort of heartbreaking, but you know, there's the guy in Atlantic City who kept scamming women he met online and would send them love letters and tell them to spend money so he could move to be near them and then he would gamble it away at the casinos.

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"It's a bit of a gamble to walk away from such an iconic event that has been such a big and critical part of their marketing program, " says Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management in Evanston, Ill.

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True, Beijing in the short run may get away with its political gamble.

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Farah will continue to train at altitude in Kenya and Font Romeu in France - where Paula Radcliffe also trains - and insists he is not taking a major gamble with the London Olympics only 17 months away.

BBC: Mo Farah changes coach to assist Olympic preparation