Vicious Games

Capitalism and Gambling

By: Rebecca Cassidy

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Paperback | 20 February 2020

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Paperback
240 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
21.5 x 13.5 x 2

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Gambling is everywhere, on our TVs and phones, on billboards on our streets, and emblazoned across the chests of idolised sports stars. Why has gambling suddenly expanded? How was it transformed from a criminal activity to a respectable business run by multinational corporations listed on international stock markets? And who are the winners and losers created by this transformation?

Vicious Games is based on field research with the people who produce, shape and consume gambling. Rebecca Cassidy explores the gambling industry's affinity with capitalism and the free market and how the UK has led the way in exporting 'light touch' regulation and 'responsible gambling' around the world. She reveals how the industry extracts wealth from some of our poorest communities, and examines the adverse health effects on those battling gambling addiction.

The gambling industry has become increasingly profitable and influential, emboldened by thirty years of supportive government policies and boosted by unnatural profits. Through an anthropological excavation, Vicious Games opens up this process, with the intention of creating alternative, more equitable futures.

Industry Reviews

'Cassidy takes readers behind the scenes of the commercial gambling industry to reveal how it reinvents itself in the face of shifting technology, economic prospects, and regulative logics. From machine-packed betting shops on London's high streets, to raffles at countryside churches, she offers a first-hand view of the dynamic -and sometimes vicious - interactions between the hunt for profit and punters' lives' -- Natasha D. Schull, author of 'Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas'
'Cassidy's book offers new insights into the gambling industry and its social order, perceived norms and lived values. At a time when gambling is struggling to maintain its reputation as a leisure pursuit, the stories in this book should be a wake up call to those who deny there is any need for reform' -- Anna van der Gaag, Chair of the Advisory Board for Safer Gambling

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