Roll the Bones

Roll the Bones, The History of Gambling by David G. Schwartz

Category: History Grade: B-

My first surprise with this book was that there is such a thing as a professor of gambling! The author is Director of the Center for Gaming Studies at UNLV. Who knew.

The next surprise was that you could write a textbook about gambling history. The book is very comprehensive - spanning gambling from the folks who starting gaming with the astragalus, foot bones from a variety of animals right through to the explosion of online gambling in the last decade. Like a textbook, this was interesting, but, for the most part pretty dry. You wouldn't think it was possible to write a dry book about gambling but it is.

There are some high points -- the early stages of the creation of Vegas; the rise of horse racing around the world - but over 100 pages about the development of lotteries can get pretty boring.

You're not likely to enjoy this book unless you're a big fan of gambling, so don't bother. The summary you're led to is that gambling is absolutely basic to human nature and that virtually all attempts to ban or severely restrict gambling have crumbled in a relatively short period of time. So, if you have to drive too far to get to a casino, just hang on.