Description
Book SynopsisWhy has gambling become so accepted in the U.S. when other historical vices, like smoking and drinking, continue to evoke morality-based opposition? That simple but intriguing question guides this path-breaking volume, the first interdisciplinary academic study of gambling. Led by the renowned Alan Wolfe and with essays by experts at the country's premiere centers in public policy, clinical addiction, law, gaming, psychology, sociology, moral philosophy, theology, and the arts,
Gambling: Mapping the American Moral Landscape is a tour de force of the booming cultural and moral phenomenon that has become woven into the fabric of American life. Both an attempt to understand and an effort to predict its future consequences, the book will prove evocative and critical reading for American civic and church leaders, activists, historians and government officials.
Trade Review"Enhanced with copious notes, an extensive bibliography, and a comprehensive index, Gambling is a seminal work of impressive scholarship and a very strongly recommended addition to academic library Social Issues reference collections and supplemental reading lists." -- Choice
"A vivid demonstration of how profoundly gambling intersects with politics, economics, culture, and even theology. I highly recommend it." -- David G. Schwartz, Director, Center for Gaming Research, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
"An invaluable guide for understanding the roots of gambling in the American psyche and its implications for the future." --Keith S. Whyte, Executive Director, National Council on Problem Gambling
"A dramatic advance in scholarly consideration of this neglected phenomenon in American life. It brings together a brilliant interdisciplinary team." --David P. Gushee, Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics, President, Evangelicals for Human Rights, McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University
"Groundbreaking. Wolfe and Owens explain why gambling has been ignored in our national values debate--and consequences of the omission." --Melissa Rogers, Director, Center for Religion and Public Affairs, Wake Forest University Divinity School
Table of Contents
- The Politics and Policy of Gambling
- 1. The Importance of a Good Cause: Ends and Means in State Lotteries
- 2. The Politics of Sovereignty and Public Policy Toward Gambling
- 3. Negotiating a Different Terrain: Morality Policymaking and Indian Gaming
- 4. New Policies, Same Old Vice: Gambling in the 21st Century
- Individual Behavior and Social Impact
- 5. Behavioral and Brain Measures of Risk-Taking
- 6. Gambling with the Family?
- 7. Gambling and Morality: A Neuropsychiatric Perspective
- 8. The Unproblematic Normalization of Gambling in America
- Theology, Gambling and Risk
- 9. The Memory of Sin: Gambling in Jewish Law and Ethics
- 10. Grace and Gambling
- 11. The Criminal Law of Gambling: A Puzzling History
- 12. Playing and Praying: What's Luck Got to Do with It?
- Gambling in American Culture
- 13. Beyond Pathology: The Cultural Meanings of Gambling
- 14. Civic Values and Education Lotteries: The Irony of Funding Public Education with Lottery Revenues
- 15. A Tale of Two ""Sins"": Regulation of Gambling and Tobacco
- 16. The Culture War Issue that Never Was: Why the Right and Left Have Overlooked Gambling
