The gambling century : commercial gaming in Britain from Restoration to Regency /
"The Gambling Century traces the role of commercial entrepreneurship in the expansion of certain forms of gaming, and the relationship of commercial gaming to the institutions of social and cultural exchange that emerged in seventeenth and eighteenth century Britain. It is concerned with the pr...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Oxford :
Oxford University Press,
[2023]
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
| Summary: | "The Gambling Century traces the role of commercial entrepreneurship in the expansion of certain forms of gaming, and the relationship of commercial gaming to the institutions of social and cultural exchange that emerged in seventeenth and eighteenth century Britain. It is concerned with the prototypes of casino gambling, games of chance played against a ‘house' that derives profit from the mathematical edge it enjoys over long series of chance episodes. Rather than focus on the gambler as a character or an archetype, or on gamblers collectively, it shifts attention to those who enabled, facilitated, and profited from gaming. It is also concerned with the spaces that gaming occupied, and the way that these were configured or reconfigured in response to efforts either to regulate gaming or turn it into a reliable profit centre. Gaming as a commercial venture thrived in the institutions of social and cultural exchange that a generation of scholars associated with a ‘public sphere.' The book accordingly follows gaming from the courtly to the commercial sector, from the Groom Porter's lodge into coffeehouses and ‘ordinaries,' then back into relative sequestration in private clubs and 'at-homes,' all of which prefigure that quintessentially modern gambling space, the casino"--Publisher's description. |
|---|---|
| Item Description: | Also issued in print: 2023. |
| Physical Description: | 1 online resource : illustrations |
| Audience: | Specialized. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780191982170 0191982172 9780192888235 0192888234 9780192888228 0192888226 |