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Gambling and Modernity
Let us begin with the basics. Gambling in its
pure form—defined by Goffman as the placing of a
bet by two or more parties on an event of an
uncertain outcome (1967)—entails no net loss or
gain by
4 The term “field of power” refers to that
region of social space characterized by a high
overall volume of economic,
cultural and social capital. In addition, it is
that part of society characterized by a high
degree of institutionalization.
5
participants in the long run. 5 Rather, it
constitutes a short-term temporal redistribution
of income,
analyzable in terms of premodern forms of gift
exchange (Mauss 1990, Polanyi 1957). Once we
introduce the concept of the “House,” though, we
discover the source of gambling’s potential (as
a large
scale industry) and problems (from the point of
vie w of those agents entrusted to “protect
society”). The
House is a third party which in some manner
facilitates the gambling “action,” a service for
which it takes
a cut of the total amount wagered. The
institutional form serving as the House has of
coursed varied
immensely, from a local entrepreneur housing
weekly poker games to organized crime syndicates
running
casinos to modern nation-states operating
lotteries.
A sociological analysis of gambling should
therefore proceed in three steps. First a basic
economy of gambling will reveal a net flow of
capital “upwards”: various forms and degrees of
redistribution of wagers among players, with a
steady if small percentage of each wager
accruing to the
House. The researcher should therefore specify
the precise economics of this system—the
temporal and
quantitative structure of how winnings are
distributed among players, how large a cut the
House receives,
how this cut is taxed or spent, etc.
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