Costing excitement in leisure betting

Bruce, Alistair; Johnson, J.E.V.

doi:10.1080/02614369500390041

Cited by 16 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…For Sunday gambling to have taken off, large numbers of regular punters would have had to switch funds from other racing days. As research has shown, excitement in gambling is roughly related to the amount staked (Bruce & Johnson, 1995). This switch to Sunday or evening gambling would have meant staking less elsewhere in the week, which held little attraction.…”

Section: Don't Bother With Sundays the Shops Are Deadmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Working men in this category had funds, and typically placed relatively large single bets. Bruce and Johnson (1995) have shown that a single bet on the outcome of one race is the most effective at generating excitement. Members of these groups -either individually or collectively -were prone to display this excitement through shouting, gesticulating or berating the horse, jockey or trainer.…”

Section: Sometimes the Afternoons Are Crazymentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Apart from placing pool and multiplier bets at the beginning of the race meeting, punters usually place single bets on the winner of each race, 'high excitement bets' (Bruce and Johnson, 1995). Sometimes, when the odds go out beyond 7 or 8/1 they bet each way (two bets: one a win-only bet; one a bet that the selection is 'placed').…”

Section: Bet Big At the Racesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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‘I lose, but that’s not the point’: Situated Economic and Social Rationalities in Horserace Gambling

Neal

2005

Leisure Studies

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This article compares ethnographic observations of horserace gambling in two UK spaces -the betting shop (remote) and the racecourse (proximal). The paper identifies the emerging, situated rationales that attract gamblers to these leisure spaces, and that motivate them to integrate their gambling activities as an ongoing, sustainable feature of their lives. Doing so, it is observed that, for the vast majority of punters, gambling on the horses is neither 'addictive' nor is it 'irrational', except in narrowly defined zweckrational terms. The article thus argues for a shift in current gambling research, away from an overwhelming preoccupation with pathological gambling, towards a broader consideration of the more representative and socioeconomically significant activities of leisure gambling.

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Section: Don't Bother With Sundays the Shops Are Deadmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Sometimes the Afternoons Are Crazymentioning

confidence: 98%

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‘I lose, but that’s not the point’: Situated Economic and Social Rationalities in Horserace Gambling

Neal

2005

Leisure Studies

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“…Since William Whyte noted in his study of the corner boys that “the financial incentive was not the only one” (Whyte [1943]:141) for the boys when they bet on horses, studies of off‐track betting have supported the idea that there are reasons beyond economics for why people continue the practice despite it being in the long term unprofitable for most of those who do so. Reasons offered have included the social benefits (Neal , ; Newman ; Rosecrance ; Zola ) and excitement (Bruce and Johnson ) as well as intellectual challenge (Bruce and Johnson ; Downes et al ) that it offers. However, failure in the form of monetary loss is the norm in off‐track betting and the monetary stake cannot be written off as having no importance at all for it is the staking of money that makes the event “consequential” (Goffman ) and “verifies the involvement of the bettor in the “action”” (Herman :101).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Responsibility‐Shifting in a Gambling Environment

Namara

2017

Symbolic Interaction

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Using data that was collected by observing and speaking with customers and members of staff in betting shops in Dublin, Ireland, this article provides a consideration of how regular customers of betting shops explain their bet related failures to themselves and to those around them. It is suggested in this article that a process of self‐reparation of self‐esteem occurs in betting shops after customers experience monetary losses and that this process is facilitated by shifting responsibility for the losses incurred to factors external to and beyond the control of customers.

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“…A number of qualitative studies of betting shops in the UK have been conducted by sociologists, who identified categories of punters based upon a combination of the timing of their entry to the shop and their behaviour while there (Bruce and Johnson 1992;1994;1995;1996). Neal, for example, distinguished between morning and afternoon punters, lunchtime punters, the unemployed and the homeless (1998).…”

Section: Betting Shop Spaces and Rhythmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘A place for men to come and do their thing’: constructing masculinities in betting shops in London

Cassidy

2013

British Journal of Sociology

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During fieldwork conducted with workers and customers in betting shops in London research participants consistently conceptualized betting shops as masculine spaces in contrast to the femininity of other places including home and the bingo hall. According to this argument, betting on horses and dogs was 'men's business' and betting shops were 'men's worlds'. Two explanations were offered to account for this situation. The first suggested that betting was traditionally a pastime enjoyed by men rather than women. The second was that betting is intrinsically more appealing to men because it is based on calculation and measurement, and women prefer more intuitive, simpler challenges. I use interviews with older people to describe how the legalisation of betting in cash in 1961 changed the geography of betting. I then draw upon interviews with regular customers in order to show how knowledge about betting is shared within rather than between genders. Finally, I use my experience of training and working as a cashier to describe how the particular hegemonic masculinity found in betting shops in London is maintained through myriad everyday practices which reward certain kinds of gendered performances while at the same time suppressing alternatives. The article shows how particular spaces may become gendered as an unanticipated consequence of legislation and how contingent gendered associations are both naturalized and, at the same time, subjected to intense attention.

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Costing excitement in leisure betting

Cited by 16 publications

References 31 publications

‘I lose, but that’s not the point’: Situated Economic and Social Rationalities in Horserace Gambling

‘I lose, but that’s not the point’: Situated Economic and Social Rationalities in Horserace Gambling

Responsibility‐Shifting in a Gambling Environment

‘A place for men to come and do their thing’: constructing masculinities in betting shops in London

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