Pathological gambling behavior is a serious problem affecting approximately 4 million Americans and their families. Existing research has focused on psychological factors that determine gambling as compulsive, but little attention has been paid to the basic question of what makes gambling a potentially addictive activity in the first place. This project will develop an ethnographic study of casino gambling behavior and the ways it is variously understood and managed by recovering compulsive gamblers, by non-compulsive gamblers, and by Nevada casinos. It will also draw on relevant social scientific theoretical and comparative perspectives to relate pathological gambling to broader contexts that include the nature and function of money under capitalism. In short, this project aims to contribute to an explanatory model of compulsive gambling behavior.
