Article
Learning from Las Vegas: Gambling, Technology, Capitalism, and Addiction
History Faculty Research and Scholarship
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-1-2014
Disciplines
Abstract
Gambling has always led to addictive behavior in some individuals. However, the number and types of addicted gamblers have changed over time and in response to specific gambling environments. Recent work by historians, journalists, and anthropologists, reviewed in this paper, suggests that the situation worsened during the modern era, and that it has become worse still during the last half century. Technological, organizational, and marketing innovations have “weaponized” gambling, increasing both the likelihood that people will gamble and that they will gamble compulsively—a phenomenon with parallels to several other consumer products, including processed food, digitized games, and psychoactive drugs.
Citation Information
David T. Courtwright. “Learning from Las Vegas: Gambling, Technology, Capitalism, and Addiction.” Occasional
Paper Series 26. Las Vegas: Center for Gaming Research, University Libraries, 2014.
Published in the University of Nevada Las Vegas Center for Gaming Research Occasional Paper Series, Paper 26 June 2014
http://gaming.unlv.edu/