The Age of Chance: Gambling in Western CultureThis fascinating and extensive study, enlivened by interviews with British and American gamblers, will be enthralling reading not just for those interested in the cultural and social implications of gambling - researchers in sociology, cultural studies and the history of ideas - but for anyone interested in how we create meaning in an increasingly insecure world. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
The idea of chance | 13 |
The origins of chance | 14 |
Chance fate and necessity | 17 |
CHANCE AND DETERMINISM | 19 |
An absent family of ideas | 20 |
An ancient family of ideas | 21 |
Reasons for the absent family | 22 |
THE VORTEX OF VICE | 81 |
Playgroundsa map of the modern gambling sites | 88 |
MODERN GAMBLING | 89 |
A TYPOLOGY OF GAMBLING | 93 |
Rate of play | 95 |
Spatial organisation and social integration | 96 |
Player profile | 97 |
The lottery | 98 |
The Renaissance | 23 |
THE BIRTH OF PROBABILITY | 24 |
Pascal | 25 |
There is no such thing as chance | 29 |
Chance in Britain | 31 |
the paradox of probability | 32 |
CHANCE AND MODERNITY | 33 |
The mutation of determinism | 34 |
Chance as explanation | 35 |
The edge of chaos | 36 |
Risk | 39 |
The pursuit of chance | 44 |
Dice | 45 |
Cards | 49 |
Lots | 54 |
THE SEVENTEENTHCENTURY EXPLOSION | 58 |
Speculation | 60 |
Betting | 63 |
Gambling | 65 |
Stratification and commercialisation | 71 |
The sport of kings | 72 |
PLAYING WITH NUMBERS | 74 |
Cards | 75 |
Roulette | 76 |
Dice | 77 |
Gaming machines | 78 |
Horses | 79 |
The new style of play | 80 |
Bingo | 104 |
Slotmachines | 106 |
The racecourse | 109 |
The bookmaker | 111 |
The casino | 114 |
wwwcasinocom | 123 |
The experience of play | 127 |
Excitement | 130 |
Boredom | 134 |
Repetition | 136 |
THE CATEGORIES OF PLAY | 138 |
Space | 143 |
Money | 145 |
THE VARIETIES OF GAMBLING EXPERIENCE | 150 |
Gambling chance and status | 151 |
Playinitself | 155 |
The magicalreligious worldview | 156 |
PARTICIPATION | 160 |
Dreams and omens | 161 |
Animism and the omnipotence of thought | 164 |
TRANSCENDENCE | 174 |
Fate and destiny | 175 |
Epilogue | 182 |
Notes | 185 |
| 191 | |
| 203 | |
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Common terms and phrases
action activity Age of Chance ancient aristocratic Ashton Baudrillard became become belief betting bingo bookmakers bourgeoisie British Caillois cards casino Chapter classical clubs commercial commercialisation culture described Despite dice divination divinatory Dostoevsky dreams economic efficacy eighteenth emerged environment everyday excitement existence experience of play fate favour forms of gambling gamblers gambling experience gambling games gambling sites games of chance Gigerenzer Goffman Huizinga human individual Internet involved Kavanagh knowledge Las Vegas law of large lose lottery luck lucky machines magical Mahabharata meaning medieval modern National Lottery nature nineteenth century notion odds ontological organisation orientation outcome participation perception Plato players poker potlach probabilistic probability theory punters race race-track random rate of play rational recognised regarded relation religious repetition risk ritual roulette seventeenth century simply situation skill slot-machine social society space specific stake status tickets tradition uncertainty Vegas vertigo wager wealth winning worldview