Vicious Games: Capitalism and Gambling

by Rebecca Cassidy

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.

Genres: Nonfiction

240 pages, Paperback

Published February 20, 2020

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Detailed account of the cartel that is the gambling industry

As a former gambling looking to support those impacted by gambling harm, this brought into sharp on what I'm up against. There is no way the industry is going to do anything worthwhile with regards to responsible gambling. Hard to read without getting angry at the greed

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Peasant morals brought forth as reason, old ideas and shady observations brought forth as science.

[Louis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some great ideas, some great ethnographic "data", but apparently written to be as objective and dry as possible. A great resource on the topic for those after something specific.