Paper short abstract:

The paper explores casinos in Cyprus as a kind of bi-communal space characterised by volatility and uncertainty, where the contingency arising from games of chance is compounded by an ambiguous cultural intimacy between players whose everyday context is framed by the polarised discourses of the Cyprus conflict and the state.

Paper long abstract:

The 50 years following independence in Cyprus have seen the progressive spatial segregation of its Turkish and Greek Cypriot communities. Until 2003, contact on the island itself had been largely limited to a few highly regulated sites of officially sanctioned encounter, collaboration and co- existence. Despite an active bi-communal movement, bi-communal initiatives have touched only a tiny minority of the Cypriot population, most of whom have never taken part in a bi-communal activity. Gambling, in contrast, draws in a wide section of the population, and since the opening up of crossing points along the Green Line, Greek Cypriots have been pouring across from the south, where live gambling has been banned, to gamble in the 25+ casinos in the north. The casinos form a kind of bi-communal space bringing together people whose politics, attitudes and opinions may be antithetical; who may have no other bi-communal contact or commitment; but who negotiate a shared space which is characterised by ambiguity, contingency, and cultural intimacy (c.f. Herzfeld). Intimacy is not necessarily comfortable. It implies an engagement with the other - who remains, essentially, unknown and unknowable - which involves, at some level, risking the self - possibly physically, possibly psychically, or existentially. It may be deeply challenging, revolving around issues of trust, reputation, and honour. In this paper, I draw on four months of participant observation in casinos in the north of Cyprus, to consider how ambiguity is manifested and managed in these volatile casino spaces.