Wanna Bet?: Winners and Losers in Gambling's Luck MythTim Costello's new book investigates why it is that Australians love to bet and argues persuasively that we re-examine this so-called essential part of the Australian character. A fascinating reflection on the social, economic, political, psychological, moral and symbolic aspects of gambling, this book will stimulate debate. |
Contents
| 4 | |
| 19 | |
The mythology | 33 |
200 years of gambling | 53 |
The growth of commercial | 71 |
Who gambles and | 110 |
GOVERNMENTS TURN TO GAMBLING | 131 |
Governments | 151 |
Governments and gambling | 171 |
How gambling | 185 |
Thats Progress The impacts of commercial | 209 |
The horse has bolted | 228 |
Notes | 247 |
Bibliography | 262 |
Index | 271 |
Common terms and phrases
addiction advertising anti-gambling Australian gambling Australians love betting bling campaign Casino and Gaming Catholic cent churches clubs Crown Casino economic gambling culture gambling expenditure gambling in Australia gambling industry gambling mythology Gambling Research gambling revenue gambling tax Gaming Authority gaming machines Hadza historian illegal impact Inquiry Report Irish Jeff Kennett Judkins Keith Dunstan Kerry Packer Labor government legalisation lotteries love to gamble luck myth major McMillen Melbourne Cup million modern commercial gambling modern gambling national gambling inquiry O'Hara on-line gambling play poker machines pokie players pokie venue pokies political Premier privatised problem gamblers Productivity Commission profit Protestant pubs punters Queensland social South Australia South Wales SP bookies Star City Casino stockmarket Submission to Productivity Sydney Tabcorp TABS Tasmania Tattersall's Territory Tim Costello Tote twentieth century two-up Victoria Victorian Casino winning working-class wowser Wren
Popular passages
Page 113 - ... and skill but distributes its proceeds at random in a way which subverts the accumulation of individual wealth by the hard-working or by the skilled. It further subverts any tendency to regional differentiation within Hadza country based on valuable local resources which are in demand in other areas. It is paradoxical that a game based on the desire to win and, in a sense, to accumulate should operate so directly against the possibility of systematic accumulation. Its levelling effect is very...
Page 23 - Gambling obsessed men and women, rich or poor. Raindrops running down a window pane, the fertility of a dean's wife, steeplechasing by moonlight, anything and everything were grounds for a bet.
Page 24 - man, woman, dog and cock' in Sydney, 1846: I hereby challenge to fight any man in the country of 44 years of age and 12 St., and my wife shall fight any woman in the country, bar none; and my dog shall fight any dog...
Page 42 - At every level in every recreational activity which is characterised as a crucial part of Australian life women are either physically barred or their participation is circumscribed by a melange of rules, conventions and attitudes which ensure that these activities remain the preserve of...
Page 25 - Such is the present rage for walking matches, that an old woman of sixty-eight years of age, who has been on crutches these seven years, is matched to walk up and down a certain steep hill in this neighbourhood, 50 times in twelve hours, for the mighty wager of five shillings. The old lady is confident of success, but the odds of success are against her.15 Gambling on gold and land The 'great madness...
Page 80 - ... in gambling expenditures since 1974. A problem with gambling, or alcohol or narcotics or video games, can certainly have unpleasant or even tragic consequences. But many Americans gamble, drink, play Pac-Man, and indulge in other potentially addictive activities without becoming obsessed with them. Most Americans, including compulsive gamblers, are going to gamble regardless of the presence or absence of legal opportunities to do so. The failure of gambling prohibitions, enacted and enforced...
Page 80 - ... lotteries, enjoyed a considerable measure of social approval regardless of its legal status. As the nineteenth century progressed horse-race betting in the East and casino gaming at eastern spas and along the frontier became firmly established even while gambling proscriptions were being tightened, and, with the turn of the century, Americans' irrepressible propensity to gamble began to erode the States
Page 20 - I just want to make it clear that I am not opposed to the idea of killing these Texas fever tick, whether they originate in Georgia or any other State.
Page 43 - In other forms of gambling, where the odds are lower and where few skills are required - such as lotteries and poker machines - there are no prohibitions against women participating. Nor is there any longer any restrictions against patronising TABs.
Page 249 - The Biography of a Middle Class Generation, 1920-1990, Melbourne University Press, 1993, p.