Book Review: Gambling: Who Wins? Who Loses?

Book Review: Gambling: Who Wins? Who Loses?

Christine McKay
Carleton University, Canada

Henry R. Lesieur
Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, USA

Published online May 2, 2005

Abstract

    Gambling: Who Wins? Who Loses? is a thought-provoking collection of essays, written largely by international experts in the gambling field, that analyze the complex cultural, economic and social issues that have emerged as a result of the legalization and expansion of commercial gambling globally. Editor Gerda Reith, author of The Age of Chance: Gambling in Western Culture (2002), succeeds in her objective of stimulating informed debate. Reith presents a diverse range of topics and opinion that highlight historical and current trends in gambling activity from legal, political, economic, social, psychological and ethical perspectives. The book, which includes an introduction by Reith, is divided into seven sections: (a) current trends in commercial gaming; (b) social and economic benefits and costs; (c) law, crime and commercial regulation; (d) the “addiction” debate; (e) social trends, problem gambling, and the challenge to public policy; (f) psychological and environmental factors; and (g) ethical and philosophical issues.
    This accessible volume, like any good anthology, presents a multi-faceted picture of gambling activity without providing easy answers to the complex political and social issues that are raised. The articles found in Gambling: Who Wins? Who Loses? reflect contemporary thinking about the social and economic costs and benefits of gambling activity and will appeal to students, academics and professionals, as well as a more general readership, interested in the topics addressed by these authors.

Keywords: Problem gambling; Cultural and social issues; Economic costs; Gambling debate; Addiction debate; Public policy.



Contact: Christine McKay (christinemckay@yahoo.com)

Citation: McKay, C., & Lesieur, H. R. (2005). Book review. Gambling: Who wins? Who loses? eCOMMUNITY: International Journal of Mental Health & Addiction, 2, 2(2), 80-87.

http://www.ijma-journal.com/content/abstracts/2/2/00010

Posted: November 24, 2006

Comments »

The URI to TrackBack this entry is: http://kching.blogsome.com/2006/11/24/book-review-gambling-who-wins-who-loses/trackback/

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Leave a comment

Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>



Anti-spam measure: please retype the above text into the box provided.


Anti-spam measure: please retype the above text into the box provided.