Gambling, Space and Time

If you're looking for a scholarly analysis of online gambling across the globe and throughout modern history, Gambling, Space and Time is a solid place to start. The book, which features eight-interconnected essays aims to explore the ever-changing legal, historical, political, geographical, and sociological aspects of gambling. With topics ranging from the rise of Las Vegas and Indian American casinos to Swedish horse betting and online gambling in Scandinavia, this title explores plenty of uncharted territory. While some readers many find Gambling, Space, and Time to be overly academic, there's enough insight in these pages to make it worth toiling through.

Many of the books reviewed here at CasinoOnline.co.uk tend to be guides to play certain games or stories of specific people, places or incidents. But Gambling, Space, and Time bucks the trend as it takes a more comprehensive look at gambling with regards to the areas which it operates in.

While the expansive theme implemented by editors Paulina Raento and David G. Schwartz could easily have led to a rather vague read, this issue has been avoided. It has been done so largely thanks to the division of the book into eight separate essays. Not only are these essays on different topics and explore different areas but they also make use of different authors. In doing so, Raento and Schwartz have ensured that specific points are easy to pick up on and that each argument is kept tight. The use of multiple authors also provides its major benefits - a variety of opinions and expert knowledge on the subject being discussed.

Expert opinion is certainly something which isn't lacking as between the eight contributors – which includes the two editors – there are six professors, three directors and all are published authors. Editors Raento and Schwartz are both involved at universities, Raento as Research Director at Helsinki and Schwartz as Director of Gaming Research at Nevada. So it's safe to say that when it comes to gambling and the larger implications of it, these people know what they're talking about.

Of course, if you're on CasinoOnline.co.uk then the chances are that you're interested in online gambling and more specifically online casinos. Well in that case there's certainly something for you here. In David G. Schwartz's look at gaming in America he devotes considerable attention to what he terms as internet wagering.

After introducing the advent of internet gambling and offshore betting sites, Schwartz continues to look at how operators were able to target US online gamblers despite not being in the country. As the internet poses an obvious problem for jurisdictional law makers, it is surely a crucial aspect of gambling law and is given the attention it deserves in Gambling, Space, and Time. Online gambling in Finland is also touched upon by Paulina Raento in her essay title Gambling, Space and Boundaries in Finland. In doing so she explains the difficulties presented by the internet when regulating gambling in terms of clearly defined boundaries.

This is covered in detail in the section titled 'The Challenge of Virtual Space' which includes information on Veikkaus, a Finnish national gambling company with a huge share of the online gambling market. The issue being the way in which the company has ensured that only adult residents of Finland are able to place bets with them. This subject leads on to the issue of social responsibility – an aspect which has been much talked about when it comes to online gambling. As this is such an important aspect it doesn't necessarily get the coverage it perhaps deserves although this is understandable given the wide variety of topics covered in the book.

At times Gambling, Space and Time can become quite complex which is obviously fine if that's what you're looking for. But for those looking for a lighter read it will probably be used more as a point of reference. But regardless of what you're looking for, this title provides plenty of thought provoking text that is bound to generate interest.