Dr.Charles F. Urbanowicz
Professor of Anthropology
Department of Anthropology
California State University,Chico
Chico, California 95929-0400
Butte Hall 317 (916-898-6220)
e-mail:curbanowicz@csuchico.edu
10 December 1996(1)
I. INTRODUCTION: WHY THE QUESTION?
With thanks to William Shakespeare [1564-1616], and his immortalHamlet, perhaps I should begin by stating that there really isn't aquestion! We are all gamblers at heart, although we may not realizeit (or verbalize it that way).
The 18th century British statesman Edmund Burke [1729-1797] wrotethat "gaming is a principle inherent in human nature" yet there arethose who might state that the world can be divided into two types ofpeople: those who gamble and those who do not. Personally, I agreewith Burke and state that there is not a question: we allgamble. We all gamble (so to speak) that we will be able to drivesafely from this establishment today; we gambled on the fact that wewould be able to arrive on time this morning; and we literally gambleevery-moment-of-our lives (although we may not call it that or thinkit that). I shall explain.
The term "gambling" has several definitions (including "to playat any game of chance for stakes" and "to stake or risk money, oranything of value, on the outcome of something involving chance; bet;wager") but I also call to your attention the definition thatreads "any matter involving risk or hazardous uncertainty." Assomeone once remarked: "If you bet on a horse, that's gambling. Ifyou bet you can make three spades, that's entertainment. If you betcotton will go up three points, that's business. See the difference?"(Blackie Sherwood, Dallas Sportswriter as cited in Mike Orkin, 1991,Can You Win? The Real Odds for Casino Gambling, Sports Betting,and Lotteries, page 1).
Will this planned business venture be a success? How will mycompetitors react to my proposed expansion and can I counter-attack?Will the stock market go up or down? Will my pension fund or 401(k)still be around when I retire? A few weeks ago, the November 18, 1996edition of the venerable The Wall Street Journal had a page 1 story:"Taking a Gamble, MCI Plunged Into Mexico As AT&T Hesitated" (andother similar "gambling" stories appear regularly in the WSJ:"Stocks and bonds decline as investors take profits" [The WallStreet Journal, November 22, 1996, page C1], "Tokyo shares fallto foreign profit-taking" [The Wall Street Journal, November12, 1996, page C14]), or "Gambling Big, Canadian Style" (The WallStreet Journal, November 29, 1996, page B10) dealing withoffice-building construction in United States markets.
These are all "gambling" situations, as stock market crashes andfailed savings-and-loans and bankrupt Orange County offices havedemonstrated to unwilling-to-realize individuals and citizens; theywere in fact "gambling" or being involved in "any matter involvingrisk or hazardous uncertainty." Who amongst us would have beenwilling to "gamble" $2,100 on a somewhat insignificant Redmond-basedcomputer company ten years ago? An investment in Microsoft a decadeago would be worth $250,000 today; and even the professional punditsone year ago did not predict the stock market advances we see today:"Few Wall Street Analysts Said that '96 Would Be This Good" in theSan Francisco Chronicle, November 22, 1996, page E3. Hindsightis always 20-20 while prediction can be a 50-50 chance (or evenworse): After airline deregulation's of the 1970s, some 34 "start-up"airlines began scheduled service between 1978 and 1992 and as ofDecember 1996, only two remain: "They flourished quickly, thensuccumbed to overexpansion and brutal competition" (Wendy Zellner etal., "The Startups Start To Stall" in Business Week, December9, 1996, pages 64-66, page 64).
So we are all gamblers and my title, "To Gamble, or not to Gamble:Is There A Question?" is perhaps meaningless, so why ask it? I ask itto point out the hazards of "gambling" when (#1) individuals don'treally know what gambling might be; I ask it to (#2) point out thatone can possibly "succeed" in gambling when one knows what it is and(#3) I asked it to answer the question and discuss somerisk-management ideas in gambling and the gambling industry.
Point #1 has been covered by my beginning definitions and theother points will be covered below; I shall now concentrate on whatwe might call "gambling" but what the industry euphemistically calls"entertainment" or gaming! Although the industry may call it a "game"I'll stick to calling it "gambling" because that is what it is andthe competition is getting tougher!
The competition is multi-faceted, and takes place in justsome of the following ways: legal gambling versus (vs. )non-legal gambling as well as traditional casinos vs. non-traditional(i.e., Native American Indian Casinos and/or "California CardRooms"). Nevada vs. New Jersey (and the rest of the nation). NorthernNevada vs. Southern Nevada. The "downtown area" of Reno vs. locationsa few blocks away. Reno vs. Sparks. The Las Vegas "strip" vs."downtown" Las Vegas (and the "Fremont Street) experience. Gamblingestablishments in "traditional" locations in towns vs. expansion intonew "residential" neighborhoods. Las Vegas vs. Laughlin, Nevada. Renovs. Tahoe. Land-based-casino vs. riverboat casinos; table-games vs.machine games. "Old" games (both table and machine) vs. new machinesthat are being developed. "Players" (or those seeking"entertainment") vs. casino operators. And-so-forth!
Several recent examples come to mind when thinking about"competition" in the gambling arena: "Nevada sports books pummeled inTyson fight" and when Evander Holyfield defeated the 25-to-1 favorite(Mike Tyson), millions of dollars were lost by casinos throughout thestate (Reno Gazette-Journal, November 12, 1996, page 1).Secondly, at the end of November, 1996, the Reno-Sparks Conventionand Visitor Authority [RSCVA] had the following statement:
"More tourists are visiting Reno this year than last,but more of them are also visiting Indian casinos and Las Vegas--apotentially significant shift, say market analysts. ... 'The productin Reno is pleasing a lot more people ... but it's disturbing that wehave so much competition,' he [Buddy Frank, RSCVA member] said,emphasizing Reno's need to continue improving its product. If itdoesn't, he said, 'we could lose (business) far more quickly now thanwe ever could in the past.' Visits to Indian casinos appear to berising because more casinos are now located in key Reno feedermarkets, like the Pacific Northwest and Northern California." (JohnStearns, 1996, "Tourists Like Reno, But Rivals Gain" in the RenoGazette-Journal, November 21, 1996, page 1E).
II. GAMBLING: BIG AND GETTING BIGGER
"Gambling is now bigger than baseball, more powerfulthan a platoon of Schwarzeneggers, Spielbergs, Madonnas and Oprahs.More Americans went to casinos than to major league ballparks in1993. Ninety-two million visits!" (The New York TimesMagazine, July 17, 1994)
As an anthropologist by training, I am fairly certain that humaninvolvement in taking risks goes back to the earliest pre-cursors ofHomo sapiens as we were foragers and gatherers going around theplanet; risk taking also continued when "we" took up agriculture("will the rains come" or "will the crop fail?") and settled downinto relatively permanent settlements. The gambling, however, that wein this room might do will probably take place at "the Lake" orperhaps at a local Native American Indian Casino. This is the type ofgambling that I have been studying for many years. (Incidentally,long before Europeans came to the Americas, Native Americans hadtheir own various games of chance that they engaged throughout thecontinent.)
Risk-taking, therefore, is not new to the Americas and the UnitedStates has had a long and lengthy history of "gambling" throughouthistory. I've played poker in Southern California, and in Reno, aswell as Lake Tahoe and in Las Vegas; I've played poker in commercialcasinos (both in California and Nevada) as well as Native AmericanIndian Casinos (California and Washington State) and I "follow"things that deal with poker (including its decline in some Nevadalocations over the past several years. Numerous Reno and Lake Tahoecasinos no longer have poker tables and my favorite change came inLas Vegas: the poker area in Caesars Palace in Las Vegas wastransformed into a food court!). Anthony Holden wrote a delightfulbook in 1990 entitled Big Deal: A Year As A Professional PokerPlayer:
"In retrospect, it seems inevitable that games ofchance should have played so large a role in the development of theAmerican character. By the time of the American War of Independence,financed in large part by lotteries, public auctions had been aroutine alternative to taxation since Queen Elizabeth I sanctionedEngland's first raffle in 1566, to finance harbor improvements. Inthe early seventeenth century it was a lottery that funded the firstpermanent English settlement in North America at Jamestown, NorthVirginia. ... Risk-taking, by definition, is a fundamental aspectof any pioneer or frontier ethic [STRESS added] (AnthonyHolden, 1990, Big Deal: A Year As A Professional Poker Player,Viking, pp. 217-218).
Records indicate that various games of chance were always a partof the American heritage and should know that although gambling waslegalized in Nevada in 1931, it was only in 1910 that gambling wasdeclared illegal in Nevada. For twenty-one years, from 1910 to 1931,Americans did without "legal" gambling, but that was all to changesince gambling was such a major portion of American life. It isinteresting to read, for example, of San Francisco in the 1850s andthat "Everybody did so" because:
"Gambling was the amusement--the grand occupation ofmany classes. Judges and clergymen, physicians and advocates,merchants and clerks, tradesmen, mechanics, laborers, miners andfarmers, all adventurers in their kind--every one elbowed his way tothe gambling table, and unblushingly threw down his golden or silverstake" (Soulé, Frank et al., 1855, The Annals of SanFrancisco (NY) [as cited in Jim Hicks, 1978, The Gamblers,Time-Life, page 17).
III. GROWTH: CHANGES IN ATTITUDES+
"The casino entertainment industry has experienced anunprecedented surge in revenue growth in the past five years thatoutpaces nearly all other industry groups. Since 1990, casinorevenues have doubled and now exceed $16.5 billion. The growth isdriven by expansion of traditional land-based casino destinations andthe continued development of new riverboat and Indian reservationcasinos throughout the United States" (P. Satre, 1995, Harrah'sSurvey of Casino Entertainment, page 4).
In my opinion as an anthropologist, four events contributed totoday's development of gambling: (a) State lotteries whichbegan in New Hampshire in 1964; (b) the Holiday InnCorporation entering gaming in 1978; (c) the passage of theIndian Gaming Regulatory Act by the U.S. Congress in 1988; (d)and human nature. Indian Nation activities have been called the "newBuffalo" and the small Indian casino is virtually a thing of thepast. Gambling ("entertainment" to some) has been transformed from avice to a major industry. Satre, an executive with a publicly-tradedcompany (Promus) that has 15 casinos in 9 states, wrote in 1993:"Socialization, entertainment and winning are the three major reasonswhy people game at casinos (page 11)." In my opinion, however,individuals not only go for gambling but we also go to try and winand because we also wish to be "a somebody."
We apparently have evolved into a species which has a relationshipbetween gambling and guests: if it is built, they may come. Apoignant statement appeared on January 10, 1994, in Timemagazine (page 51): "It is now acceptable for the whole family tocome along to Las Vegas that's because the values of America havechanged, not those of Las Vegas [STRESS added]." Note, Ipersonally follow the words of Steve Wynn (Chairman of the Las VegasMirage Resorts, Inc.): "If you wanna make money in a casino, own one"but there still are problems! Harrah's established itself inNew Zealand, yet in 1995 a New Orleans venture by a unit of Harrah'sfailed and went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
A recent article pointed out that Harrah's Jazz Co., which ownedthe New Orleans casino (and which closed it one year ago and filedfor federal bankruptcy protection), is now negotiation with Louisianato re-open the casino:
"For two years, Harrah's Entertainment Corp., thecasino's primary partner, wants to pay 25 percent of its gamblingrevenue instead of the $100 million minimum tax required by state lawfor the permanent casino. Gov. Mike Foster says he will not go alongwith that, although the Legislature would have to make the finaldecision" (Anon., "Harrah's Still Hopes to Reopen New OrleansCasino" the Reno Gazette-Journal, November 23, 1996, page 8B).
Nevertheless, gambling on the gaming industry appears to intereststockholders. On March 4, 1996, a survey of 417 companies waspublished in Fortune (Vol. 133, No. 4: 90-98) and based on"eight attributes of reputation," Fortune had two casino firmsamong the top twenty "most admired" US companies: Mirage ranked #8and The Promus Companies ranked #18. Please note that (a) Mirage wasnot even listed last year, (b) Mirage Resorts was ranked #1 in thecategory of "Quality of Products of Services" and (c) Coca-Cola(which was ranked #3) last year is now the #1 "admired" company inAmerica!
IV. PERSPECTIVES
At the end of the 20th century, some successfully point out (mycolleague, Professor Valene Smith in the Department of Anthropologyis one of the world-wide experts) that tourism is the largest andfastest growing industry in the world and others argue that gamingindustry might well be the fastest-growing aspect of contemporarytourism. You can legally gamble (or be "entertained") in 48 of the 50states and only Hawai'i and Utah have no legal gambling activities.You can: (a) go to 10 states that have either land-based orriverboat casinos; (b) participate in state lotteries in 36states and the District of Columbia (including multiple statelotteries); (c) go to numerous local card rooms; (d) orgo to 20 states that have some sort of Indian Nation gambling. Thereare 213 approved tribal ordinances for 208 tribes in 29 states andthe nearest location for us is in Oroville), with other NativeAmerican locations close-by in Colusa (Wintun Band of Indians, ColusaBingo & Casino) and Redding (Redding Rancheria, Win-River CasinoBingo).
Native American Indian communities are also in competition withone another, as reports from Connecticut concerning the MashantucketPequot Tribe (of the famous Foxwoods Casino in Ledyard, Connecticut)indicate or "local" Western units:
"At least one Indian community isn't thrilled with thepassage of Arizona's [November 1996] ballot initiative forcing thestate to negotiate with additional tribes seeking a gaming compact.Clinton Pattea, president of the Fort McDowell Mohave-ApacheCommunity, says he expects that two casinos being planned on thenearby Salt River Pima-Maricopa reservation will have a 'drasticeffect' on his own tribe's gaming operations. 'We estimate that it'sgoing to reduce our gross revenues by $20 million to $25 million ayear,' Pattea said recently, adding that the Fort McDowell casinogrossed more than $200 million last year" (Anon., 1996, "TribeExpects 10% Cut With Rival Casino" in the ChicoEnterprise-Record, November 12, 1996, page 6A).
Although the November 1996 elections saw some setbacks forgambling supporters in various states (voters in Washington voteddown slot machines in Native American Casinos, Nebraska voters saidno to off-track betting, and Ohio citizens defeated a well-financedproposal that would have allowed eight riverboat casinos), voters inMichigan, on-the-other-hand, approved three casinos in Detroit andvoters in Louisiana voted continued approval for their 14 riverboatcasinos and the (ill-planned) land-based casino in New Orleans).Louisiana voters, however, in the only national ballot that wascalled a referendum on gambling did vote to remove video-pokerterminals from 35 parishes (or counties) but also voted to keep themin 29 parishes (Dennis Camire, 1996, "Michigan One Bright Spot ForGaming" in Reno Gazette-Journal, November 11, 1996, page 1F(as well as 4F).
The Detroit election was interesting because earlier I had seenthis description for the proposed casino:
"Developers in Detroit's Greektown area and a MichiganIndian tribe are borrowing from Egyptian mythology to market the LasVegas-style gambling casino they want to build in Detroit. The SaultSte. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and its business partners havedecided to call the casino the Chippewa Phoenix" (Paige St. John,1993, "Mixed Cultures Used In Planning Casino" RenoGazette-Journal, October 18, 1993).
Nevada re-legalized gambling in 1931 and a recent headline in theReno Gazette-Journal (November 4, 1996) pointed out that itwas but "20 years ago, N.J. voters rolled the dice" to legalizegambling in that state, allowing gambling in Atlantic City. After1978, gambling accelerated and it is a big business, with staggeringdollar amounts: on a typical day in the early-1990s, peoplewagered ~$627,213 every minute of every day on all types ofcommercial "gambling" in the USA and all of these commercial "gaming"ventures made a profit of ~$56,970 per minute! Once again, youcan legally gamble (or be "entertained") in 48 of the 50 states andonly Hawai'i and Utah have no legal gambling activities.
The latest available information concerning "gambling win" is asfollows (and these are all crude numbers):
"Legalized gambling produced a record $44.4 billion ingross revenues during 1995, a $4.6 billion increase from the previousyear, according to Christiansen/Cummings Associates study. But the11.4 percent growth was down from the 15 percent increase in 1994 andthe 14.2 percent in 1993, the study said." (Dennis Camire, 1996,"Voters in 8 States to Decide Gaming Issues" in the RenoGazette-Journal, October 14, 1996, page 1F).
Gross revenues represents the "win" (or "profit"), mentioned abovefor the mid-1990s of $56,970 per minute; the latest data indicatesthat during 1995 the "win" is $84,417 per minute (or an increaseof $27,447 per minute from the early 1990s; and at the end of thistwenty minute presentation, the entire industry (casinos and sportsbook and table games and....) made a profit of approximately$1,688,340. Hopefully, you understand why it is big business andcorporations (and individuals) are willing to invest what we mightterm a "small fortune" in refurbishing establishments in order toattract consumers for the "entertainment" of the 1990s!
Again, as of this presentation, legalized gambling occurs in 48 ofthe 50 states of the United States of America and all of theprovinces of Canada (and in many locations around the world).Legalized gambling (#1) generates a great deal of revenue,(#2) has a great deal of visibility, and (#3) iscreating some interesting partnerships and relationships:entertainment (read "casino") organizations are affiliating with onean other across the continent. Publicly traded corporations, such asPromus are affiliating themselves with Indian Nation casinos inArizona (Ak-Chin Indian Community), Alabama (Poarch Band of CreekIndians), Washington State (Upper Skagit Indian Tribe), as well asCalifornia (Pala Band of Mission Indians). The Verdi, Nevada,hotel-casino operation (under the name Boomtown) is planning a mergerwith Hollywood Park, Inc., "a California-based operator of card clubsand horse and dog tracks" (John Stearns, "Boomtown, Hollywood Parkunit" in the Reno Gazette-Journal, November 14, 1996, page4C); Boyd Gaming has expanded in Las Vegas and plans on opening"Sam's Town" in the Reno area; and merger approval has recently beengiven by the Nevada Gaming Commission for Hilton Hotels Corporationto acquire Bally Entertainment Corporation. Acquisitions andexpansions and contractions are taking place as we speak.
The "visibility" (and the competition) for the industry should beobvious to all: from the bombarding messages of the state-lotteries,to the mega-resorts being developed in Nevada (and other regions),there is growth and demand for the consumer dollar. From 1931 until1978, Nevada was alone. Since then, there has been growth and thereis competition. Today, Reno/Sparks/Tahoe and Las Vegas must competeagainst:
"...Indian casinos in 23 states, riverboats in six,and limited land-based casinos in three. Under these circumstancesnot only is the business model (and operating margins) of Las Vegascasino operators steadily changing--it will never be the same again."(Sebastian Sinclair, 1996, "Forbes Misses Beat On Entertainment" inInternational Gaming & Wagering Business, October 1996,page 19).
The "generation of a great deal of revenue" does, however, createsome problems when that revenue-generation does not meetexpectations. Washoe County, for example, recently had a "loss" ingaming revenues for the month of September 1996, and a page 1headline in the Reno Gazette-Journal of November 17, 1996, had thefollowing: "6% drop in gaming win raises worry about taxes, declinein public service" (John Stearns, page 1); incidentally, Lake Tahoehad a 7.5% decline in their win over the summer months (page E1).When your public money comes from a variable entertainment industrysuch as tourism, there can be problems when the revenue does not meetexpectations. To give one an idea of community-dependence on"entertainment" revenue, consider the case of the city of Commerce,California, the state's largest casino (a 146,000 square footcardroom with 223 tables): "The Commerce Club grossed $114 millionin its last fiscal year, sending $13.5 million to the City ofCommerce--about 40% of the city's operating budget" (Anon., 1996,"Cash-rich and Controversial" in International Gaming &Wagering Business, November 1996, pages 56-57, page 56). Therecan be problems when the revenue does not meet expectations.
Returning back to Nevada, allow me to translate these percentagepoints into "real dollars" (courtesy of the Nevada Gaming ControlBoard): In 1996 (for the fiscal year ending June 30), the gaming"win" in Nevada (the "profit") was $7.5 billion (or $7,500,000,000which translates out to a Nevada "win" of approximately $14,260 perminute. In 1992, the Nevada win was only $5.7 billion (orapproximately $10,837 per minute); however, below you have some ofthe latest information comparing the July 1-September 30 period forthe 1995 and 1996 fiscal years. Nevada, I believe, is in troublebecause revenue growth is modestly going down (or is essentially"flat") when one compares the same three months of these two years.In 1995, the "win" for this period was $1.92 billion and in 1996 thewin for this period was $1.9 billion (or approximately$14,450/minute, down some $152/minute from approximately$14,602/minute in 1995).
Ken Adams (a Reno-based gaming analyst) and William Eadington (aProfessor at the University of Nevada-Reno) are cited as saying thatthey "believe that steady growth in Indian gaming in NorthernCalifornia, Oregon and Washington, plus gaming availability inBritish Columbia are chipping away at Reno's business" (RenoGazette-Journal of November 17, 1996, page E1). Something needsto be done.
V. TEMPORARY CONCLUSIONS
There are problems when gambling is considered as gaming, as a1995 series of articles in the Minneapolis Star Tribunepointed out (condensed in the April 1996 Reader's Digest as"Gambling's Toll in Minnesota: When A State Legalizes Gambling,Everybody Pays"). In addition to numerous tragic details of theeffects of "gambling" one reads that "for Minnesota the social costsof gambling are emerging in vivid and tragic detail" (page 105). Asimilar refrain appeared in The Sacramento Bee of February 4,1996, where (in a "Special Report" on Gambling in California, onecould read: "Counting on economic windfall for community is asucker's bet, critics say" (page A12).
One should ponder these words, for it is not a game orentertainment, but gambling, and the house always has the advantage!
"Casinos offer games with a variety of house edges.The house edge for roulette is 5.3%. If you make a roulette betrepeatedly [on a "wheel" with 0-0], you will eventually lose at therate of 5.3 cents per dollar bet. [On a "European" wheel with but asingle "0" the house edge is 2.7%.] In craps there are bets withdifferent house edges The house edge for the pass line bet is 1.4%,while the house edge for the Big six bet is 9.1% [and it is 16.7% ona single number]. In Keno the house edge is more than 25%. Thepicture is bleak in state lotteries, where the state has a 50% edge.The gambler who thinks he [or she] will be a winner in repeated playof these games is like the retailer who sells every item at a loss,hoping to make a profit from the increased volume. A few gamblinggames, like blackjack, have winning strategies for the player [and,supposeddly, there is a video-poker strategy]. But if your criterionfor success is a high hourly income, you may end up a failure evenwhen you play a favorable game. I know a professional poker playerwho says, 'A good poker player makes $20 hour. A really good pokerplayer makes $30 per hour'" (Mike Orkin, 1991, Can You Win? TheReal Odds for Casino Gambling, Sports Betting, and Lotteries,page 4).
I began this brief presentation by citing the words of EdmundBurke [1729-1797], the 18th Century British statesman and politicalwriter. In addition to his "gambling" words cited earlier ("gaming isa principle inherent in human nature"), Burke also stated thefollowing: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is forgood men to do nothing."
I am not saying that "gambling is evil" (for I argue that we alldo it); nor do I state that I am a "good" individual (for I haveproblems just like the person sitting next to you), but I do statethat we are all gamblers and my title, "To Gamble, or not to Gamble:Is There A Question?" was given to (#1) point out the hazards of"gambling" when individuals don't really know what gambling might be;(#2) point out that the "gambling" industry is big and competitive;and to (#3) provide some words about risk-management in the gamblingindustry. A recent publication by Peter L. Bernstein is entitledAgainst The Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk, and in this hewrites the following:
"The essence of risk management lies in maximizing theareas where we have some control over the outcome while minimizingthe areas where we have absolutely no control over the outcome andthe linkage between effect and cause is hidden from us" (Peter L.Bernstein, 1996, Against The Gods: The Remarkable Story ofRisk, page 197).
"Risk-management" is an on-going endeavor for all of us, fromdriving here this morning to departing after this breakfast meetingand living our individual lives. In ending, I wish to end with threephrases: the first is mine and the others come from otherindividuals. Number one is: if you still wish to "gamble" (or takeany sort of risks in life or) in any casino, it is best if you "knowbefore you go!" The other two come from "industry" individuals:Thomas Austin Preston (also known as Amarillo Slim) stated it wellwhen he was quoted as saying that some "dudes [are] in the categoryof guessers, and guessers are losers" (Anthony Holden, 1990, BigDeal: A Year As A Professional Poker Player,Viking, page 164);and I also follow the words of Steve Wynn (Chairman of the Las VegasMirage Resorts, Inc.): "If you wanna make money in a casino, ownone." It is not a game or entertainment, but it is gambling orrisk-taking.
# # #
1. © For the December 10,1996 meeting of the Chico Breakfast Lions Club,Chico, California. This currentpaper is based on continuing research as well as earlier papers,including lengthier ones for the Northern California GeographicalSociety meeting of December 8, 1996(http://www.csuchico.edu/~/curban/public_html/Gaming/geo_of_gaming.html)and one for the Anthropology Forum at CSU, Chico on April 11, 1996.If you have access to "the web" this current paper is available athttp://www.csuchico.edu/~/curban/public_html/Gaming/to_gamble.html and the April 11, 1996 paper may be viewed athttp://www.csuchico.edu/~curban/FApr11-96.html.This current paper, and the earlier ones draw upon yet another paperfrom 1994: "The Gaming Heritage: A Natural For Some And Problems ForOthers?" (For the Symposium entitled "Heritage Tourism In The GlobalVillage" at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Society for AppliedAnthropology, Cancun, Mexico, April 13-17, 1994.) To return tothe beginning of this paper, please clickhere.
This web document for the Meeting of the Chico Breakfast LionsClub, Chico, California, was created byCharles F. Urbanowiczon December 5, 1996, and was last modified on December 6, 1996; it isalso maintained by Urbanowicz (with the able assistance of Ms.Nanci Ellis,Department ofAnthropology Webmaster. Urbanowicz can be contacted via e-mail byclicking here; Ellismay be contacted by clickinghere.
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