A day trader from Western Wisconsin (I’ve seen some articles that explain where he’s from, but he had requested to not divulge the information to some reporters) won $1.2 million on an $85,000 wager when Tiger Woods won his 5th career Master’s earlier this month.

Given that we’re usually making light of news out of our neighboring state, this is and of itself seems like an odd article to feature here. Even taking into account the “lengthy” criminal record (compared to many, I’m not sure his record qualifies as lengthy) that has come to light isn’t even the focus of this post.

No, what I’m focused on here is the fact that many news outlets are celebrating his large payout–and seemingly glossing over this, from one of the first articles I saw that pointed out he was from Wisconsin:

“A man with a mortgage on his house, two student loans and two car loans decided he would take $85,000, which he said was “everything I had that I could afford to lose,” and place it on Tiger.”

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that most of the bankers that own the notes on his house, student loans and cars would disagree with the notion that $85,000 was everything he could afford to lose.  Maybe he’s doing ok with his career in day trading, and making his monthly payments wouldn’t have been an issue regardless of outcome of the $85,000 bet–and certainly, he shouldn’t have any issues making those payments now.

And I’m all for placing a good wager now and again. But how much do we really want to celebrate someone who is placing a bet that’s nearly double the average salary in Wisconsin (well, according to these guys) on a 14 to 1 longshot?