Digital Gambling
Theorizing Gamble-Play Media
Preview
Book Description
This book develops the concept of "gamble-play media", describing how some gambling and gambling-like practices are increasingly mediated by digital technologies. Digital gambling brings gambling closer to the practices and features of videogames, as audio-visual simulations structure users’ experiences. By studying digital gambling from media studies, videogame and cultural studies approaches, this book offers a new critical perspective on the issues raised by computer-mediated gambling, while expanding our perspective on what media and gambling are. In particular, it critically analyses terrestrial, mobile and online slot machines, online poker and stock trading apps through a selection of case studies.
Table of Contents
Preface: The VIP Lounge Introduction. Digital gambling as media Part I. Gamble-play theory 1. Towards a theory of gamble-play 2. Smoke and mirrors: procedural rhetoric in gamble-play 3. Gamble-play media and practices of consumption Part II. Gamble-play platforms 4. Gamble-play and popular culture: when slots meet Hollywood 5. Gamble-play as Second Life: the case of PKR 6. Mobile gamble-play apps: a casino in your pocket . Gambling with markets: stock trading apps and the logic of gamble-play Postface: Gamble-play in the societies of control
Author(s)
Biography
César Albarrán-Torres is Lecturer in Media and Communications at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia.
Reviews
"I am thrilled to recommend a book that is essential reading for students and scholars working across gambling and gaming studies. At last, we have a rigorous, creative and thought-provoking study to help us make sense of proliferating platforms and products that are blurring the lines between entertainment and investment in everyday life. Albarrán-Torres’ concept of ‘digital gamble-play’ is quite literally a game-changer." --Fiona Nicoll , Research Chair in Gambling Policy with the Alberta Gambling Research Institute and the Department of Political Science at University of Alberta, Canada