Super Casino

In this lively and probing book, award-winning author Pete Earley traces the extraordinary evolution of Las Vegas -- from the gaudy Mecca of the Rat Pack era to one of the country's top family vacation spots. He revisits the city's checkered history of moguls, mobsters, and entertainers, reveals the real stories of well-known power brokers like Steve Wynn and legends like Howard Hughes and Bugsy Siegel, and offers a fascinating portrait of the life, death, and fantastic rebirth of the Las Vegas Strip. Earley also documents the gripping tale of the entrepreneurs behind the rise and fall and rise again of one of the largest gaming corporations in the nation, Circus Circus -- to which he was given unique access. In his trademark you-are-there style, he takes us behind the scenes to meet the blackjack dealers and hookers, the heavy hitters and bit players, the security officers, cabbies, and showgirls who are caught up in the mercurial pace that pulses at the heart of this astounding city.

This book is a study of the British casino industry and how it has been shaped by criminality, prohibition, regulation and liberalization since the beginning of the First World War. The reader will gain a detailed knowledge of the history, culture, identity and participants within the British casino industry, which has, to date, escaped the attention of a dedicated historical and criminological investigation. This monograph fills this gap in inquiry while drawing on primary source material that has not been used previously, including, but not confined to, records in the National Archives relating to the Gaming Board of Great Britain and the Metropolitan Police. In addition to archive material, oral histories, newspapers, published journals and books have been utilised and referenced where appropriate. Envisaged to close a gap in historical research, this book will be of interest to historians, criminologists, regulators, students and individuals interested in gambling, society and cultural history.

Today's lifestyles do not provide us with the foundations for true, long-term happiness. The causes of our problems are clearly identified, with achievable solutions proposed for us all. The Covid-19 Disaster globally halted 'Normal Life', the root causes of this Disaster are revealed. This book offers the reader the opportunity for reflection, self-reassessment and fresh analysis for the future pursuit of true Self-realisation and true Long-term Happiness. Easy to read, yet deals with the most critical issues of today. One of Wolfe-Xavier's 1.4M Internet reader's comments on him: 'High intellectual ability peppered with a profound spiritual intelligence is not a dish so common as one would hope. Lawrence Wolfe-Xavier has my respect.'

Using experiences of the white, English, working-classes in Manchester, this book explores the local frustrations with feeling 'ignored' and 'neglected' by the government through articulations of fairness.

Problem Gambling in Europe Challenges, Prevention, and Interventions Edited by Gerhard Meyer, University of Bremen, Germany Tobias Hayer, University of Bremen, Germany Mark Griffiths, Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom As a leisure activity, gambling dates back to ancient times. More recently, the surge in avenues for gambling—casinos, sports betting, lotteries, and remote media (e.g.,Internet, mobile phone, interactive television) among them—finds growing numbers of people losing control over their gambling behaviour, usually at great personal and financial expense. Problem Gambling in Europe is the first book to offer a robust international knowledge base compiled by an interdisciplinary panel of researchers in gambling behaviour. Reports from 21 countries throughout Western, Eastern, Northern, and Southern Europe reveal wide variations in types of wagering activities, participation by populations, social and criminal consequences related to pathological gambling, the extent to which governments acknowledge the problem, and efforts to control it (often with the involvement of the gaming industries). For each country, noted experts discuss: Current legislation regulating gambling. Forms of gambling and their addictive potential. Participation rates and demographics. Prevalence of pathological gambling. National policies to address problem gambling. Prevention strategies and treatment methods. Problem Gambling in Europe brings insight and clarity to a widespread and complex phenomenon, and will be of considerable interest to all parties working to reduce their negative effects: social science researchers in addictions, gambling behaviour, and public health; clinical, social, and health psychologists and psychiatrists; treatment practitioners; the gaming industry; regulators; and policy makers.

A political adviser to the formidably intellectual Foreign Secretary Tony Crosland and to Prime Minister Jim Callaghan, and a senior journalist at The Times and The Economist, David Lipsey has been close to the heart of government for more than four decades. Providing a unique perspective on a period of great economic and political upheaval, In the Corridors of Power details such flashpoints as the 1976-77 IMF crisis, which saw Britain under a divided government hovering on the edge of national bankruptcy, and reveals why Jim Callaghan ducked an election in 1978 - and led Labour to disastrous defeat in 1979. But Lipsey is no one-dimensional policy nerd. Here we see a man who moves easily from the rarefied atmosphere at the core of government to the more down-to-earth pleasures of the greyhound track and the racecourse betting ring, while his enthusiasm for harness racing is such that he has regularly competed in the sport. It is often said that the very best political books come from those who observe from behind the scenes, rather than from the politicians in the front line. Here is a classic of the genre.

High street betting shops and casinos alike are currently allowed a maximum of four B2 (FOBT) gaming machines, which allow stakes up to £100 and a £500 prize. Casinos, should instead be permitted to operate up to twenty B2-type gaming machines. Limiting the number of B2 machines in betting shops has encouraged them to cluster in some high streets in order to satisfy customer demand. Local Authorities should have the power to permit more than the four B2 machines per shop if they believe it will help with clustering. The Committee also recommends that any local authority be able to make the decision as to whether or not they want a casino. As a step towards this, existing 1968 Act Casino licences should be made portable, allowing operators to relocate to any local authority provided that they continue to be constrained by the need to obtain local authority approval, a premises licence and planning permission. The failure to set remote gambling taxation at a level at which online operators could remain within the UK has led to almost every online gambling operator moving offshore whilst most are still able to advertise and operate into the UK. The Committee further recommends the Gambling Commission should introduce a new licence fee structure which reduces the current anomaly where small, independent bookmakers pay much higher fees per shop than large chains. Particularly given the absence of a significant UK-regulated online sector or any Regional Casinos, the Gambling Commission remains an overly expensive, bureaucratic regulator.

This collection examines Blackpool, Britain’s first and largest working-class seaside resort as a location for the production and consumption of British film and popular music, and the meaning of ‘Blackpool’ in films and songs. It examines representation of Blackpool in films such as Hindle Wakes, A Taste of Honey, Bhaji on the Beach, Away, Bob’s Weekend, The Harry Hill Movie and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, linking it to the concepts of heterotopia, purgatory, fantasy, simulacra and the carnivalesque. It also presents music in Blackpool through the history of its venues and examines development of punk and grime music in this seaside town. The authors argue that Blackpool in filmic and musical texts often stands for British culture, but increasingly for culture which is remembered or imagined rather than present and real.