When I tell Australian people my name, a lot of them say, “Cool.” I wondered why, until someone told me that there’s a famous Austrailian football (soccer) player named David Schwarz–just like me, but no T. It guess it’s like if someone from Australia was named “Roger Clements” and was talking to American baseball fans.
It may be coincidence, but he’s in the news for gambling. From the Courier-Mail:
FORMER AFL footballer David Schwarz has two people to thank for rescuing him from a destructive gambling habit – his fiancee and his accountant.
Schwarz, 33, a former Melbourne Demons vice-captain and 173-game veteran who retired from the game in 2002, said he lost $500,000 in a year at his gambling peak, and turned over $100,000 in bets in one day.
His gambling problem began at his local TAB at the age of 14 and ended in March this year.
Speaking at the Certified Practising Accountants (CPA) congress in Melbourne today, Schwarz backed the extension of a joint program between CPA Victoria and the Victorian Government to tackle problem gambling in the workplace.
The crunch for Schwarz came two years ago when his fiancee, Karen Tanner, opened a box containing 2200 unopened letters – unpaid bills, fines and GST slips.
They argued and Schwarz had to choose between his fiancee and gambling.
“I had to make a decision and the punt was the thing that I decided to let go,” he said.
The Courier-Mail: Ex-footballer backs gambling scheme [20oct05]
I got to thinking that this might be some sort of cosmic balance thing–if there’s a guy named David Schwartz who never gambles, there is someone with a similar name who gambles too much on the other side of the world. Like a parallel universe or something.
Anyway, good luck to Mr. Schwarz with keeping his gambling problems at bay.