This is a very compelling song, musically, and I think Seger did a clever thing: he employed a consistent and extended metaphor about a WOMAN with whom he may have had a close relationship.
The song is written ambiguously, so that the gender of the subject is unknown, but I think the key is a sort of bittersweet wistfulness and regret that comes out in the mood established.
Reinforcing the idea that it's a woman, is he marked use of the term "baby, baby" in the final chorus.
If we accept this, then gambling is a metaphor for how she lives her life--she is a confident individual who seems always to come out to the better, and is able to remain above the emotions of her many affairs.
In a sense, it's a song a lot like Tangerine, or Girl From Ipanema, where the female subject is held up as near goddess-like.
This is a very compelling song, musically, and I think Seger did a clever thing: he employed a consistent and extended metaphor about a WOMAN with whom he may have had a close relationship.
The song is written ambiguously, so that the gender of the subject is unknown, but I think the key is a sort of bittersweet wistfulness and regret that comes out in the mood established.
Reinforcing the idea that it's a woman, is he marked use of the term "baby, baby" in the final chorus.
If we accept this, then gambling is a metaphor for how she lives her life--she is a confident individual who seems always to come out to the better, and is able to remain above the emotions of her many affairs.
In a sense, it's a song a lot like Tangerine, or Girl From Ipanema, where the female subject is held up as near goddess-like.