Deepening Our Inquiry: Toward a
Modern Gambling Culture
•
Today’s Agenda
•
Short Lec
• A History of Gambling in America: High
Rollers
(Solowoniuk 2007-2009).
1
Enter Cards
• In the first half of the second
century, AD, bones, dice, and
other games of gambling would
give way in popularity to a new
revolutionary form of gambling . . .
• CARDS.
• The whereabouts of cards and
who actually invented them
remains a subject of debate with
two central theories of origination,
in Korea or China.
(Solowoniuk 2007-2009).
2
Korean Hypothesis
•
The anthropologist Steward Culin,
who is devoted to studying Asian
and American Indian games,
concluded that playing cards (6th
century) descended from Korean
divinatory arrows.
•
He hypothesized this because of
the similarity of divinatory arrows
and due to the their name “htoutjyen”, meaning “fighting tablets,”
•
Most Korean packs of cards had
eight suits of ten cards each; the
suits were man, fish, crow,
pheasant, antelope, star, rabbit,
and horse.
(Solowoniuk 2007-2009).
3
Korean Playing Cards
• The cards were
made from oiled
silk and were
approximately
eight inches
long and one
half inch wide.
(Solowoniuk 2007-2009).
4
Chinese Hypothesis:
Card =Shen or Fan
• The Chinese have not acknowledged this cultural
adaptation and legend holds that dotted cards were
played as far back as the 8 century AD in China.
• Supposedly cards arose as a game to occupy the
emperor’s ladies of the house, all 1500 hundred of
them.
• Other hypothesis about card creation site India as the
birthplace of cards.
(Solowoniuk 2007-2009).
5
Cards A Rampant Explosion
• It is likely that idea of
gambling with cards
filtered westward
from china.
• Leaving each culture
free to develop its
own kinds of games.
(Solowoniuk 2007-2009).
6
From Italy to England
• On theory holds, that cards spread via Venetian trade routes.
These networks of ships and caravans spanned from India and
China, through south of Russia, into the Saharan desert, and far
west as England.
• Early Italian decks had 52 cards, but the first, hand painted cards
were extremely expensive (hundreds of dollars in today’s terms)
• However, as the European Renaissance took hold along with the
advent of block printing the price of a deck cards was minimized…
– And by the late 1400’s card playing was set to became a world wide
obsession.
(Solowoniuk 2007-2009).
7
Rise of the Modern Deck
• Credited with ushering in
the modern playing deck
are the French.
• French playing card design
jelled around 1480. The
design here is from the
1500s.
• Although there has been
some general appearance
modifications, French suit
signs are immediately
recognizable.
(Solowoniuk 2007-2009).
8
Rise of the Modern Deck
• Although the
French have been
credited with the
creation of the
modern deck it is
unsure who
personally should
be given credit.
• A former knight
and hero, a royal
secretary, or
wealthy merchant.
(Solowoniuk 2007-2009).
9
Card’s Come to the New-World
•
According to legend, Spanish
voyagers brought cards to the
New world during Columbus’s
1492 transatlantic journey.
•
But dropped them overboard
believing that divine anger
would doom their ships.
•
Spanish playing cards would
eventually filter northward
during and after colonialism
possession.
•
And in years to come, English
colonist’s would further add to
the spawning of a new
gambling nation.
(Solowoniuk 2007-2009).
10
Gambling Become’s A Profession: The
17th Century Gambler
•In 1654, a well-known gambler,
the Chevalier de Méré was
perplexed by some seemingly
inconsistent results in a popular
game of chance.
•Why, if it is profitable to
wager that a 6 will appear
within 4 rolls of one die, is it
not then profitable to wager that
double 6’s will appear within
24 rolls of two dice?
•De Méré took his question to
his friend Blaise Pascal.
(Solowoniuk 2007-2009).
11
The Mathematicians
• Stimulated by de Méré’s question, Pascal
began a now famous chain of
correspondence with fellow
mathematician Pierre de Fermat.
• It was evident that no existing theory
adequately explained these phenomenon.
Blaise Pascal
• What resulted was the foundation on
which the theory of probability rests
today (crudely).
Pierre de Fermat
Probability & Rolling Dice
•
At it’s most basic form probability is
the likelihood that an event will occur
or for the gambler – what is the
chance that I will win.
•
Essentially, probability is used for
modelling situations when the result of
an event, realized under the same
circumstances, produces different
results (i.e., typically throwing a dice
or a coin).
Probability (contd).
•
Lets say , we want to determine the
probability of rolling a 1; so the number of
favorable results is one.
•
And because there are six sides to a die, so
there are six possible results.
•
Similarly, the probability that you will roll
either a 1 or a 2 on a single roll is 2/6, since
there are two favorable results (i.e., a one or
a two) and six possible outcomes.
Lottery Example
• A lottery works by picking 6
numbers from 1 to 49. How
many combinations of 6
numbers could you choose?
• To many to count….
But calculating your probability
of winning, we know that our
odds are 1/13,983,816
Probability theory spawned considerable
mathematic progress, but it did not have
an immediate impact on the society of
gamblers
• Most gamblers took no notice. While others hoped that
mathematicians might cure the reckless of their passion for cards
and dice with a strong dose of calculation (Defoe, 1719).
• There were a few exceptions, however:
• Marquis de Dangeau (1638-1720) took advantage of the new
knowledge.
• He played to win
and he based his
play on rational
calculation, thus
bringing the
bourgeois value of
financial
accumulation to the
gaming table.
Marquis de Dangeau
• Thus, the meaning and
implications of probability theory
gradually seeped into the
collective consciousness of
western society over the next
200 years.
• Whereby, gambling for the most
part, gradually lost its religious,
divinative connotations and
became more of a recreational
pursuit or economical pursuit.
• Ultimately, probability theory
allowed for another path… Using
a discrepancy between true odds
and actual payouts to carve out a
statistically guaranteed profit.
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=L_XFMCgeI7c
A Short Look at Probability
Theory and the game of
Roulette
Start at 4:12
go to 10:00
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-563808319704458028&q=gambling+and+law+of+large+numbers&total=7&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
The Ridotto Revolution: The First Casino
• First Noted 1567
• ridotto = ridurre, to reduce,
close, or make private
• Originally aristocratic
gathering places for social
games
• Ridotto opens in San Moise
Palace (Northern Italy)
• First legal sanctioned
gambling house (1630s).
(Solowoniuk 2007-2009).
20
Floorplan
• Entrance, rooms for refreshment
• Six smaller rooms
• Also had the “chamber of sighs”
• Open 8 am to midnight depending on
season
Patrons
• All gamblers (except nobility) had to wear
a three-cornered hat, cape, and mask
• High minimum stakes
• Curious visitors, nobles, prostitutes,
pimps, usurers, police informants, and
degenerate gamblers
Closure and aftermath
Anti-Ridotto sentiment
• Concerns over nobles’ gambling problems
• 1774: Giorgio Pisani, reform-minded Barnabot (card
dealer/ hustler / loan shark) makes a motion…
• “To preserve the piety, sound discipline, and moderate
behavior” close the Ridotto
• And eventually Ridotto is shut down (November 27,
1774).
• Great Council votes to 720 to 21 close
A Fitting Epitaph?
“Usurers look as sour as
lemons, shop-keepers
can’t sell a thing, maskmakers are starving, and
the Barnabot noblemen,
accustomed to dealing
cards ten hours a day,
find their hands are
withering away. Clearly,
no state can keep going
without the aid of vice.”
The Ridotti Legacy
• Hundreds of illegal Ridotti, known then
as…
• Casini
• Casino= “small house,” clubhouse
• By end of century,136 casini’s operating
in Venice
Toward the Future: Poker a
Home Grown Western Game
• The birth of Poker has been
convincingly dated to the first or second
decade of the 19th century.
• It appeared in former French territory
centered in New Orleans which was
ceded to the infant United States by the
Louisiana Purchase of 1803.
• Its cradle was the gambling saloon in
general and, in particular, those famous
or notorious floating saloons, the
Mississippi steamers, which began to
ply their trade from about 1811.
(Solowoniuk 2007-2009).
27
Poker (cont).
•
From the middle of the 19th century
Poker experienced rapid changes and
innovations as it became more
widespread through the upheavals of the
Civil War.
•
Stud, or ‘stud-horse’ Poker, a cowboy
invention said to have been introduced
around Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, first
appears in The American Hoyle of 1864.
•
Speaking about stud poker Doc Holliday
said:
"Five Card Stud - one down, four up - is the cleanest, the
clearest, and the only true game. It requires more instinct,
more judgment, and more raw nerve than any other form.
The rest is for amateurs and with extreme prejudice to be
scrupulously avoided.“
28
(Solowoniuk 2007-2009).
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=8yDgkvWh3JQ
Do Gambler’s Really Know
the Odds…?
29
(Solowoniuk 2007-2009).
Gambling Games, Skill,
Pure Chance, Some Skill.
• Games of Pure chance:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Dice
Bingo Halls
Keno
Roulette
Craps
Etc
– While luck may help you win, repeated play
ultimately brings ruin.
(Solowoniuk 2007-2009).
30
Let’s Look at the Slot/EGM/VLT
• Essentially the same machine
• Run by a computer
• Some games may offer a subtle more skill (i.e.,
video poker).
• But all ultimately electronic gaming machines
can not be beaten.
31
(Solowoniuk 2007-2009).
EGM & The Random # Generator
• The odds of a symbol landing on the pay line have little
relationship to the number of images on the reel / video
or otherwise.
• Instead the computer generates a number between 1
and 64 and maps this onto the physical reel.
• Perhaps only 1 out of 64 virtual stops lends itself to the
diamond.
(Solowoniuk 2007-2009).
32
Gambling Early Origins
Summation
• Gambling can be said to embedded in our brain and psyche.
• Gambling derives from game play, which goes back 10s of
thousands of years.
• Gambling is mentioned in the oldest written documents and
oral traditions, so it is at least 4000 – 5000 years old and
probably much older.
• Gambling is found in almost all cultures. It is somewhat less
common in nomadic herding & tribal societies and more
common in capitalistic states with money, leisure time, and
socio-economic inequality.
(Solowoniuk 2007-2009).
33
Where does this leave us?
• In all, this leads us to the question of what is gambling?
• Is it just a cultural pass time.
• Is it part of human heritage.
• Is it about playing games.
• Is it evil, is it played for amusement, to gain notoriety, to
understand the future, ect.
• Thus, how do we define gambling?
(Solowoniuk 2007-2009).
34
Defining Gambling
• The definition of “gambling”
depends somewhat on the
cultural and historical
context in which it is used.
• Currently, in western society,
it has largely an economic
definition and meaning.
(Solowoniuk 2007-2009).
35
Current Definition used
Today.
• It generally refers to: wagering money or something of
material value on something with an uncertain outcome
in hope of winning additional money or material goods.
• Furthermore, The outcome is typically evident within a
short period of time.
– The wagering is typically done on things with a
negative mathematical expectation.
(Solowoniuk 2007-2009).
36
But IT Excludes
• Emotional or physical risk-taking where money or
material goods are not being risked (e.g., skydiving,
running for office, asking someone for a date, etc.).
• Usually excludes all forms of long-term “investment”
(stock market, real estate) with positive expected
returns and economic utility.
• Usually excludes starting a new business, as time and
effort are being ‘wagered’ in addition to money and
material goods and the outcome is not determined for
a considerable period of time.
(Solowoniuk 2007-2009).
37
But IT Excludes
• Usually excludes buying insurance, as the primary
intent of the purchase is to protect against loss, rather
than to collect or ‘win’.
• Usually excludes buying raffle tickets (if the primary
intent of the purchase is to support a worthy cause).
• Why the exclusions, have we just witnessed the
exclusions as being integral to the origins and history
of gambling.
• Is it because gambling can then be controlled,
sanctioned, psychologized.
(Solowoniuk 2007-2009).
38