1st Edition

Global Gambling Cultural Perspectives on Gambling Organizations

Edited By Sytze F. Kingma Copyright 2010
    260 Pages 9 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    260 Pages 9 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    While most research has examined the legal, economic and psychological sides of gambling, this innovative collection offers a wide range of cultural perspectives on gambling organizations. Using both historical and present-day case studies from throughout the world, the authors seriously consider the rituals, symbols, the meanings, values, legitimations, relations (formal as well as informal), and the spaces and artifacts involved in the (re)production of gambling organizations. Contributors not only examine the global influence of commercial gambling, but also demonstrate how the local qualities of gambling organizations remain unique. This volume will be of interest to criminologists, sociologists, anthropologists, and all scholars of gambling.

    Introduction: Global Gambling  Sytze F. Kingma  Part 1: Gambling Backgrounds  1. A Question of Money? The Founding of Two Finnish Gambling Monopolies  Riitta Matilainen  2. Into the Zone: Innovating in the Australian Poker Machine Industry  Richard Woolley and Charles Livingstone  3. Gambling with Development: Comparing Casino Legalization in South Africa with Indian Gambling in California  Jeffrey J. Sallaz  Part 2: Gambling Scenes  4. Ethnography in a Casino: Social Dynamics at Blackjack Tables  Richard A. Marksbury  5. Making Friends, Making Money: Macau's Traditional VIP Casino System  Wuyi Wang and Peter Zabielskis  6. Dutch Casino Space: The Spatial Construction of Pleasure  Sytze F. Kingma  Part 3: Gambling Contexts  7. 'You Could Become a Millionaire': Truth, Deception, and Imagination in Gambling Advertising  Per Binde  8. Balancing Rules: Gambling Consumption at Home  Anita Borch  9. Subjects in a State: Cultural Economies of Gambling  Fiona Nicoll

    Biography

    Sytze F. Kingma is Senior Lecturer at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the field of organizational space and technology.

    "Global Gambling: Cultural Perspectives on Gambling Organizations is a response to the global expansion of legalized gambling, and addresses gambling development and issues in diverse contexts. With its focus on the cultural aspects of global gambling forms - from sports betting households in Norway to casino gambling in Macau to EGM consumption in Australia - this collection draws upon disciplinary developments in sociology, anthropology, organizational and cultural studies, and social theory. It is a most welcome addition to the field of gambling studies, contributing much-needed analyses of the social and cultural significance of gambling activities and organizations in a burgeoning global field."

    James F. Cosgrave, Department of Sociology, Trent University, editor of The Sociology of Risk and Gambling Reader