IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v19y2005i2p305-326.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Skills and surveillance in casino gaming

Author

Listed:
  • Terry Austrin

    (University of Canterbury, New Zealand, terry.austrin@canterbury.ac.nz)

  • Jackie West

    (University of Bristol, UK, jackie.west@bristol.ac.uk)

Abstract

With gambling now part of mainstream entertainment and popular leisure, casinos have become sites of legal work, combining the technical expertise and craft skills of the croupier (dealer) in table games with increasingly deskilled machine-minding in simulated video games.There are parallels with other service work, but the significance of casino gaming lies in the manipulation of things, such as cards and money, rather than in interpersonal relations and self-embodiment. Moreover, surveillance is more specifically related to the particular conditions governing legalization of a formerly ‘pariah’ industry than to management-worker control. Drawing on fieldwork, we compare standardization in table and machine gaming and show how different forms of surveillance are crucial to the legalization of gambling as mass consumption. In highlighting the significance of materiality and regulation in service sector employment, the case of casino gaming thus takes us beyond conventional labour process paradigms. It also epitomizes a newly globalized form of work, currently promoted by industry interests but at the centre of intense public debate in the UK and elsewhere.

Suggested Citation

  • Terry Austrin & Jackie West, 2005. "Skills and surveillance in casino gaming," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 19(2), pages 305-326, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:19:y:2005:i:2:p:305-326
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017005053175
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017005053175
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0950017005053175?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. William R. Eadington, 1999. "The Economics of Casino Gambling," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 13(3), pages 173-192, Summer.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matthew Higgins & Daniel Levy & Andrew T. Young, 2003. "Growth and Convergence across the US: Evidence from County-Level Data," Working Papers 2003-03, Bar-Ilan University, Department of Economics.
    2. David Forrest, 2013. "An Economic And Social Review Of Gambling In Great Britain," Journal of Gambling Business and Economics, University of Buckingham Press, vol. 7(3), pages 1-33.
    3. Haucap, Justus, 2021. "Glücksspielregulierung aus ordnungsökonomischer Perspektive," DICE Ordnungspolitische Perspektiven 110, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    4. Juin-Jen Chang & Ching-Chong Lai & Ping Wang, 2010. "Casino regulations and economic welfare," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 43(3), pages 1058-1085, August.
    5. Earl L. Grinols & David B. Mustard, 2005. "Business Profitability and Social Profitability: Evaluating Industries with Externalities, The Case Casinos," Law and Economics 0509001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Gu, Xinhua & Li, Guoqiang & Chang, Xiao & Guo, Haizhen, 2017. "Casino tourism, economic inequality, and housing bubbles," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 253-263.
    7. Higgins, Matthew J. & Levy, Daniel & Young, Andrew T., 2006. "Growth and Convergence across the United States: Evidence from County-Level Data," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 88(4), pages 671-681.
    8. Michael J. Hicks, 2014. "Do Good Fences Make Good Neighbors? The Cross Border Impact of Casino Entrance," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 5-20, March.
    9. Young, Andrew T. & Higgins, Matthew J. & Levy, Daniel, 2013. "Heterogeneous Convergence," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 120(2), pages 238-241.
    10. Lambert, Thomas, 2021. "US Gambling Stagnation: Will New Gambling Forms Make a Difference?," MPRA Paper 108549, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. David Forrest, 2008. "Gambling Policy in the European Union: Too Many Losers?," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 64(4), pages 540-569, December.
    12. Xinhua Gu & Pui Sun Tam & Chun Kwok Lei & Xiao Chang, 2016. "The Economics of Taxation in Casino Tourism with Cross-border Market Power," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(1), pages 113-125, February.
    13. Juin-Jen Chang & Ching-Chong Lai & Ping Wang, 2017. "A Tale of Two Cities: Cross-Border Casino Competition Between Detroit and Windsor," NBER Working Papers 23969, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Moellman, Nicholas & Mitra, Aparna, 2013. "Indian gaming in Oklahoma: Implications for community welfare," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 64-70.
    15. Philander, Kahlil S. & Bernhard, Bo J. & Wimmer, Bradley S. & Singh, Ashok K. & Eadington, William R., 2015. "U.S. casino revenue taxes and short-run labor outcomes," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 35-46.
    16. Donald S. Elliott & John C. Navin, 2002. "Has Riverboat Gambling Reduced State Lottery Revenue?," Public Finance Review, , vol. 30(3), pages 235-247, May.
    17. Richard Thalheimer & Mukhtar Ali, 2003. "The demand for casino gaming," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(8), pages 907-918.
    18. Jaimie W. Lien & Jie Zheng, 2015. "Deciding When to Quit: Reference-Dependence over Slot Machine Outcomes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 366-370, May.
    19. Hasret Benar & Glenn Jenkins, 2008. "The economics of casino taxation," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(1), pages 63-73.
    20. Brad R. Humphreys & Brian P. Soebbing, 2014. "Access to Legal Gambling and the Incidence of Crime: Evidence from Alberta," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 98-120, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:19:y:2005:i:2:p:305-326. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.