“Play not for gain, but sport; who plays for more than he can lose with pleasure stakes his heart.” —George Herbert Americans love to gamble. More than half of all adults say they play the lottery, and more than a quarter regularly...

SINCE THE LATE 1970S THE UNITED STATES HAS experienced a boom in legalized gambling. Once confined to Nevada and a handful of other states, some form of legalized gambling-lotteries, casinos, card rooms, horse racing, or video poker-can now be found in...

THE EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD high school senior is a bit reluctant to discuss his gambling at first, but gradually warms to the topic. He has been playing poker with friends from school since he was thirteen or so, but admits that his taste for gambling action...

GAMBLING. The religious significance of gambling is, in effect, twofold. Many religious traditions, especially the great religions, in their works of legislation and codification, promote as their orthodox norm a prohibition against, or at least...

From TV programs such as Wheel of Fortune to daily point spreads in newspaper sports pages, the gambling spirit is everywhere in American life. Casinos have spread beyond tawdry, out-of-the-way locations such as Las Vegas to Indian reservations and...

Gambling is a form of risk-taking that may be defined as risking (betting or wagering) something of monetary value on the unknown outcome of an event in order to gain possessions, such as a painting, jewelry, or money. Evidence of gambling has been...

Better a son given to gambling than a son given to drink. (Irish) Gambling sire, gambling son. (Portuguese) God defend you from the Devil, the eye of a harlot, and the turn of a die. (Spanish) Hoping to recoup is what ruins the gambler. (Irish) In...

Betting or staking of something of value on the outcome of a game or event. Commonly associated with gambling are horse racing, boxing, numerous playing-card and dice games, cockfighting, jai alai, recreational billiards and darts, bingo, and lottery....

Gambling is forbidden in Jewish law. A distinction is made between those who gamble for fun and those who make a profession of it. So untrustworthy are the latter, that they are not even allowed to act as witnesses in a *bet...

Gambling has an economic definition, referring to "wagering money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods". Typically, the outcome of the wager is...