Vicious Games

Gambling now seems to surround us, from our television screens and phones to roadside hoardings and the shirts of celebrated athletes. How did it grow so quickly? Once treated as a crime, it has been reshaped into a legitimate trade, with multinational companies whose shares trade on global exchanges. Who benefits from this change, and who pays for it?

Drawing on fieldwork with those who make, shape and play gambling products, Rebecca Cassidy traces the industry's close ties to capitalism and open markets. She shows how Britain became a model for exporting a permissive approach to regulation and the idea of "responsible gambling" to other countries. The book also examines how the trade draws money from some of the poorest communities and how addiction damages the health of those caught in it.

Over three decades, supportive government policy has helped the industry grow richer and more powerful, and its earnings have swelled to levels that raise difficult questions. Using an anthropological approach, the book digs into how this came about, with the aim of imagining fairer alternatives.