Gambling for Profit

Over the past forty years, Western governments have increasinglyliberalized and deregulated gambling, which is now used to deliver staterevenues and commercial profit in many jurisdictions. Gambling for Profit is a cross-national history of the emergence oflegal gambling, including lotteries, gaming machines, and casinos.Gambling for Profit is unique among studies of gambling'stwentieth-century growth thanks to Kerry G.E. Chambers's strong analyticalframework investigating not only the political aspects of legalization, butalso the sociocultural factors that influence popular adoption. Chambersprovides a useful chronological examination of the electronic gamblingphenomenon, as well as comparative data on dates of introduction and revenues acrosstwenty-three countries. Gambling forProfit provides a dynamic model to explore the legalization of gambling andstresses the inadequacy of seeking universal explanations for gambling'sentrenchment within particular cultures.