Table of Contents

Introduction Chapter One: The Idea of Chance The age of faith: The origins of chance Chance and determinism The age of reason: The birth of probability The age of chance: Chance and modernity Chapter Two: The Pursuit of Chance Gambling and Divination The Seventeenth Century Explosion The Nineteenth Century: Playing with numbers Postscript: the vortex of vice Chapter Three: Playgrounds - A Map of the Modern Gambling Sites Modern Gambling The Map: A Typology of Gambling The sites: Playgrounds Chapter Four: The Experience of Play The Experience of Play The Categories of Play The Varieties of Gambling Experience Chapter Five: The Magical-Religious Worldview The Rejection of Probability The Magical Worldview: Participation The Religious Worldview: Transcendence Epilogue

Reviews

'The Age of Chance is a wonderful book, scholarly and at the same time compulsive reading' - Heather Worth, University of Auckland

'The Age of Chance is a wonderful book, scholarly and at the same time compulsive reading'
- Heather Worth, University of Auckland'...one of the great strengths of The Age of Chance is that it reads well and is certainly a cover to cover read.''...a comprehensive and intriguing look at what actually happens when we gamble and why gambling is so popular. Reviewing this book now, more than ten years after first being published, shows that it’s certainly a worthwhile read because, at the risk of sounding cliché, it’s passing the test of time.'
4/5 Stars-www.casinoonline.co.uk