Perspectives on Gambling, Lotteries, Wagers, and CasinosISBN: 978-1-4051-7943-0
Paperback
200 pages
February 2008, Wiley-Blackwell
|
The next essay untangles the logic of the "double-auction
gambling market" by explaining how the experimental work at George
Mason University has and is altering the role of the bookmaker who
now functions as a mere broker coordinating contracts between
bettors. This development is especially obvious in Britain where
online gambling is legal. As for the burgeoning state lotteries
especially in the United States, we offer three insightful essays.
The first recalls the hidden costs that these entertainments often
imposed on the community. Indeed, the second essay offers empirical
evidence that the persons "most likely" to play the lottery are not
only the poor but those poor who are close to getting over the
"poverty line." Somehow the lottery symbolizes a one-way ticket out
of poverty making this a "desperation ticket" more than an
entertainment ticket.
Our last two papers should be taken together. The first of this group reminds of the great difficulties and arbitrary assumptions when trying to measure the costs and benefits of the development of Casino gambling. In the last essay, the main and most economically relevant approach would be to find out if there were any empirical connections betweens the growth