Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I question what gambling is about by drawing attention onto the ambiguity of the activity. I show that gambling has a logic in its own right which is conflicting with moral expectations of what should be appropriate economic behaviour. A rational man should aim to win money by using efficient means to obtain such gain, he should plan in the present to provide for the future. Gamblers’ actions are not future-oriented and on the contrary are carried out as if only the present mattered. I argue, nevertheless, that living in the present is not less economic than planning for the future and that it needs to be given more attention if one wants to understand gambling. Based on my fieldwork among Chinese gamblers in London’s casinos, I look into this argument by exploring what winning actually means for them. My research takes place within the context of a casino industry in the UK. In such a context, gamblers will always lose more money than they will win in the long run since the odds are in favour of the house. Despite this inevitable truth, my ethnographic data shows that it isn’t quite true to say, in the case of my informants, that gamblers do not win since they experience winning on a constant and frequent basis while they are gambling. Gamblers are looking to win here and now, how temporary it might be, instead of waiting and hoping for a future that might never happen.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, I question what gambling is about by drawing attention onto the ambiguity of the activity. I show that gambling has a logic in its own right which is conflicting with moral expectations of what should be appropriate economic behaviour. A rational man should aim to win money by using efficient means to obtain such gain, he should plan in the present to provide for the future. Gamblers' actions are not future-oriented and on the contrary are carried out as if only the present mattered. I argue, nevertheless, that living in the present is not less economic than planning for the future and that it needs to be given more attention if one wants to understand gambling.

Based on my fieldwork among Chinese gamblers in London's casinos, I look into this argument by exploring what winning actually means for them. My research takes place within the context of a casino industry in the UK. In such a context, gamblers will always lose more money than they will win in the long run since the odds are in favour of the house. Despite this inevitable truth, my ethnographic data shows that it isn't quite true to say, in the case of my informants, that gamblers do not win since they experience winning on a constant and frequent basis while they are gambling. Gamblers are looking to win here and now, how temporary it might be, instead of waiting and hoping for a future that might never happen.