Gambling and Political Economy, Revisited

Abstract

Gambling is central to our understanding of political economy, but the dominant story told about gambling within our subfield is highly partial. It focuses on globally spectacular forms and places of gambling, especially casinos. It tends to associate gambling with neo-liberal formulations of political economy. And it tends to fixate on men's play. In this article, I seek to show the value of an alternative lens on gambling and political economy, provided by the game of bingo. I hereby aim to improve our academic accounts of gambling, such that they take better account of everyday games, and of capitalism, such that they are better attuned to its heterogeneity and its regulatory interactions with other, more-than-capitalist economies. Relying on historical law and policy debates about bingo in the UK, I make two arguments. Firstly, I tell a new story about gambling and political economy, by excavating a crucial mutual aid dimension to gambling liberalisation debates in the 1950s and 60s, and showing how that dimension fared under Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government (1979-90). Secondly, I use bingo as an entry point to a different way of conceptualising political economy, where the state regulation of diverse economies is a central preoccupation.

The Relationship Between Unexpected Outcomes and Lottery Gambling Rates in a Large Canadian Metropolitan Area

“…These findings sharpen our understanding of Canadians' gambling behaviours in a large, diverse metropolitan region. Previous research has demonstrated that individuals engage in lottery gambling for reasons beyond pure financial gain: it can become embedded in everyday life, taking on a broad range of meanings that vary across cultures and contexts (e.g., Bedford, 2021;Casey, 2008;Nicoll, 2019). The present research contributes to a growing body of work aimed at deepening our understanding of the way consumption practices inform both culture and the subjective and material realities of gamblers (Casey, 2008).…”

“…In this study, we aim to understand what influences people's day-to-day participation in fixed-prize gambling in a large metropolitan area in Canada. Within the sphere of gambling research, there is a growing interest in examining the relationship between gambling practices and the external environment of lottery gamblers (Bedford, 2021;Casey, 2008;Nicoll, 2019). Here we seek to expand this line of inquiry and elucidate the relationship between environmental factors and willingness to participate in gambling.…”

Unsettling Migrant Reintegration: The Serial Risk‐Taking of Returning Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) to Cordillera, Philippines

“…These interventions run parallel with other significant feminist interventions that highlight the ways in which gambling provides critical pathways into other political economies such as play, leisure and consumption (Bedford 2016, 2021; Casey 2008a, 2008b). Yet, their readings of gambling also differ in one key way.…”

Review of periodical literature for 2021

“…His conclusions underlined that patterns of property market participation demonstrated resultant changes, but that shifts were far more notable towards the bottom of the market. Bedford addressed another area of regulation, that is, gambling, in New Political Economy , arguing the centrality of women's participation in games such as bingo to legislative reforms since the mid‐twentieth century, who have so far been overlooked in accounts centred on male‐dominated sports betting.…”