play Russian roulette

Cultural  

1. To gamble foolishly on a risky or potentially ruinous business. The expression refers to a deadly game in which a participant loads a revolver with one bullet, spins the cylinder, and fires at his own head: “If you drink and drive, you're playing Russian roulette with your life and the lives of others.”

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Example Sentences

You had to be a certain kind of person, after all, to show up at the home of a has-been writer, to disable Arete, to play Russian roulette with your soul.

From Slate

“Mr. Baldwin chose to play Russian Roulette with a loaded gun without checking it and without having the Armorer do so,” the lawsuit alleges, according to Law & Crime.

From Washington Times

Ms Allred said Mr Baldwin "chose to play Russian roulette when he fired a gun without checking it and without having the armourer do so in his presence".

From BBC

“Mr. Baldwin chose to play Russian roulette when he fired a gun without checking it, and without having the armorer do so in his presence,” Mitchell’s attorney Gloria Allred said at a news conference.

From Seattle Times

Mills is frustrated, unable to understand how people who have friends or relatives who have died of covid-19 could “play Russian roulette with their lives.”

From Washington Post