Gambling in Everyday Life: Spaces, Moments and Products of Enjoyment PDF
Preview Gambling in Everyday Life: Spaces, Moments and Products of Enjoyment
Gambling in Everyday Life T his book adopts a critical cultural studies lens to explore the entanglement of government and gambling in everyday life. Its qualitative approach to gambling creates a new theoretical framework for understanding the most urgent questions raised by research and policy on gambling. In the past two decades, gambling industries have experienced exponential growth with annual global expenditure worth approximately 300 billion dollars. Yet most academic research on gambling is concentrated on problem gambling and conducted within the psychological and medical sciences. Nicoll considers gambling at a moment when its integration within everyday cultural spaces, moments, and products is unprecedented. This is the first interdisciplinary cultural study of gambling in everyday life and develops critical and empirical methods that capture the ubiquitous presence of gambling in process of work, investment and play. The book also contributes to the growing cultural studies literature on video and mobile gaming. In addition to original case studies of gambling moments, products and spaces, in-depth interviews and participant observations provide readers with an insider’s view of gambling. Advanced students of sociology, cultural theory, and political science, academic researchers in the field of gambling studies will find this an original and useful text for understanding the cultural and political work of gambling industries in liberal and neoliberal societies. Fiona Nicoll is a Professor at the University of Alberta where she holds an Alberta Gambling Research Institute chair in gambling policy in the Department of Political Science. The author of D iggers to Drag Queens: Configurations of Twentieth Century National Identity (Pluto Press, 2001) and founding member of the Australian Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Association, she is co-editor of Transnational Whiteness Matters (Lexington Press, 2008) and C ourting Blakness: Recalibrating Knowledge in the Sandstone University (University of Queensland Press, 2015). In addition to numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on gambling, she has published extensively on reconciliation, Indigenous sovereignty and whiteness in the Australian context. Routledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies Women Do Genre in Film and Television Edited by Mary Harrod and Katarzyna Paszkiewicz Reclaiming Critical Remix Video The Role of Sampling in Transformative Works Owen Gallagher Ecologies of Internet Video Beyond YouTube John Hondros Panic, Transnational Cultural Studies, and the Affective Contours of Power Edited by Micol Seigel Ethnic Media in the Digital Age Edited by Sherry S. Yu and Matthew D. Matsaganis Narratives of Place in Literature and Film Edited by Steven Allen and Kirsten Møllegaard Unplugging Popular Culture Reconsidering Materiality, Analog Technology, and the Digital Native K. Shannon Howard Advertising in MENA Goes Digital Ilhem Allagui Gambling in Everyday Life Spaces, Moments and Products of Enjoyment Fiona Nicoll For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com/Routledge- Research-in-Cultural-and-Media-Studies/book-series/SE0304 Gambling in Everyday Life Spaces, Moments and Products of Enjoyment Fiona Jean Nicoll First published 2019 by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2019 Taylor & Francis The right of Fiona Nicoll to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-1-138-77743-9 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-77264-6 (ebk) Typeset in Goudy by Apex CoVantage, LLC This book is dedicated to gamblers, past and present and future. Contents List of Figures x Acknowledgements xi Preface xiii Introduction: Gambling in Everyday Life 1 Gambling in Everyday Life: Signposts in the Literature 3 Gambling Is Ordinary 7 Governmentality, Gambling, and Everyday Life 14 Finopower: Transforming Intersections Between Gambling, Finance, Work, and Play 18 Methodologies 25 Structure 31 Chapter Outline 32 Conclusion 33 1 This Is (Not) a Book on Problem Gambling: Enjoyment Beyond the Figure of the Problem Gambler 40 Introduction 40 What’s the Problem With Problem Gambling Research? 43 Fixing Pathologies: Addiction and the Cultural Politics of Taste 49 Gambling Beyond the Zone: Enjoyment in Everyday Life 57 Where Is the Joy? 67 Conclusion 71 2 Cultural Spaces of Gambling 76 Introduction 76 Transforming Gambling Spaces 79 Statey Spaces of Gambling 84 Accommodating Casino Resorts 90 viii Contents Crown Sovereignty 95 The “Pokie Lounge” as an Everyday Cultural Space of Gambling 100 Strategies and Tactics in the Pokie Lounge 108 Conclusion 111 3 Cultural Moments of Gambling 115 Introduction 115 Transforming Gambling Moments 121 Gender, Time, and Gambling in Everyday Life 126 Gambling at Work 135 On Winning the Lottery 140 National Gambling Moments: Melbourne Cup Day Celebrations 147 Conclusion 157 4 Cultural Products of Gambling 160 Introduction 160 Gambling Systems 166 Transforming Gambling Products: The Rise of the Electronic Gambling Machine 170 Online Wagering Platforms 173 Gaming or Gambling? Capitalizing on Play 177 Gambling on Financial Products 181 Conclusion 188 5 Governing Gambling in Everyday Life 193 Introduction 193 Transforming Architectures of Regulation 193 Are EGMs Gambling Products? 197 Consumer Advocacy: Reading Gamblers’ Stories as Testimony 208 Sacrifice and Scapegoating: The Finopolitics of Problem Gambling 217 Problem Gambling Beyond the Individual: Defending Communities From EGMs 219 Extractive Industries and the Constitutional Grounds of Democracy 223 Regulating Gambling Research 233 Conclusion 237 Contents ix Postscript 242 Transforming Gambling Spaces 245 Transforming Gambling Moments 246 Transforming Gambling Products and Services 246 Transforming Gambling Research Ethics 247 Amplifying the Joys of Gambling in Everyday Life 248 Appendix 250 Index 252
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