Gambling Around the World: A Survey

Gambling around the world...

I find gambling to be a bit boring.. it's all numbers, and where the human element is involved, I wish that's all there was, with no damn math or worrying, but some people love it, and it's big, big in travel, big in the modern definition of decadence, and something that those with more money than sense love to do.. since this blog is often about Sociology and Geography, let me tell you where it occurs, while I make fun of it.

Gambling is legal in some way or another almost everywhere, as a lottery or some form of organized and regulated action, but Casinos in the truest sense of the word are not ubiquitous.. here is a run down on where I know it to exist.

Gambling destinations:

Macao

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Reno, Nevada and every small town in Nevada has some sort of slots casino.

Principality of Monaco (this is the place James Bond made big)

St. Moritz, Switzerland

Sun City, North West Province, South Africa

Beirut, Lebanon

New Providence, Bahamas

Channel Islands, UK 

San Andres, Caribbean Sea, Colombia

Atlantic City, NJ

CalNeva, Lake Tahoe, Nevada

Tunica, Mississippi, USA

Biloxi, Mississippi, USA
Akihabra, Tokyo, Japan
Muang La, Semi-Autonomous Region of Eastern Shan State, Special Region 4, Myanmar

Indian Reservations through the US, most famously Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Casinos in Eastern Connecticut, which most famously exploited this loophole of reservation self governance and nationhood on two small neglected reservations near a large population that was remote to all other gambling options. They were followed by tribes all over the US, most commonly in the west, but close to Miami and Los Angleles most notably, in the Miccosukee and Morongo tribes respectively. It all seems to have risen out of Tribal Bingo Halls, popular for years, and also popular with American elderly as a pastime to sedentarily wile away the days.

Outside of Chicago there is growth of gambling on the shores of Indiana's portion of Lake Michigan, and Some of the Old Mountain towns of the Colorado Rockies looked to gambling as a way up, when Skiing wasn't an option, and it seems inevitable that Old industrial towns use it as a way to make something out of nothing, from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to Windsor, Canada (across from Detroit), trying to replace the income of the factories to salvage bygone times, but they seem to have a mixed effect on the fantasy of restoring those more innocent and industrious times, but are kind of a desperate last resort in the failing one company municipalities bag of tricks.

Havana is off the list, other than Lotto and Dominoes and whatever else people can get away with.

In Central America it seems like every town of some worth has a casino of sorts, usually an open location for prostitution as well, although Mexico has so far kept a hat on all but gaming machines above board, genuflecting to the patina of Catholic Piety that allows Mexico to pretend it's not nearly as plagued by vice as everyone knows it is, saving face and absolutely nothing else, while the fix is in in so many ways.

Russia has 4 places where it can occur, most notably on the Black Sea near where the Winter Olympics in Sochi will take place. For the Middle East, it's Lebanon and Israel other then the Camel Races and such, although I think Morroco and Egypt have some casinos.

Cards are ubiquitous around the world. No one seems to take to gambling in general more than the Chinese, who are obsessed with it, from Mah Jong, the Dominoes like national pastime, to any way to wager. Europeans have Horses, which they have exported near and far, Arabian's Camels, the Basque Jai Lai which made it into the US, and Dog Racing has a few bastions as a kind of ugly step child to horses, a middle-er class pursuit even more devoid of the trappings of wealth away from the marquee events. I believe there is a special horse race every year in St. Moritz on an ice covered lake, the White Turf Races they call it and another variation is Carting, where instead of being ridden, the horses drag a buggy and rider, and there are also the standard variants of turf, dirt, and steeplechase which includes jumps and even water traps.

Fighting is of huge interest worldwide as a subject of wagering, both human and animal forms of combat. Boxing dominates a few select countries, from England to Mexico to the Philippians, Thai Boxing of huge interest in Thailand and perhaps Myanmar.There are two stadiums in Bangkok alone that seem to fill up almost nightly. Sumo for Japan (yes, it's a big betting thing, and like all these things, looks classier from afar). Ultimate Fighting Championships and a competitor called Bo-Dog continue to grow in the US and worldwide, with slight differences in what seems like a rule-less death match, but conditions exist to prevent death, brain damage, major scarring, and reproductive damage. Brazil contributed a lot of the first energy to UFC, and it is going international much like boxing, and Canada and a few other countries seem to also be all in. Asia and Latin America seem to revel in Cock Fighting from one end to the other, and dog fighting has footholds in the American South, parts of Mexico, and Asia to my knowledge. Bull Fighting might attract some betting, but it's more a spectacle with a known outcome by my observations in places like Colombia, and Mexico, where it still exists. I believe it has been banned in Spain, but I wonder if it wandered off to Morocco or someplace like that where Spanish bad habits go.

On the more exotic side, I once happened upon a Bull on Bull fight, in some rice paddies in Rural China, not expecting to see anyone,much less a crowd. Two either Beef or Yak Bulls where herded into a rice paddy to tear it up and fight to the death while in rut, and a few hundred had gathered to watch. I didn't stick around long enough to see the money go down, but you can imagine in a place like China, it was going down, and I imagined this to be common even with Water Buffalo throughout Asia.

Someone once told me of a bare knuckles or roped hands fight that occurs on the Burmese-Thai border once a year, but I have never heard any more of it. Obviously in the major gambling centers all manner of professional sports and possibilities are wagered on, even elections and the success of space shots, on the books and legally, in addition to the ad hoc arrangements that might exist for such activities close to anywhere there might be a bookie.

Despite it's regal appearance, Cricket is plagued by betting and perhaps even match fixing in South Central Asia where it I most popular, Pakistan and India having turned it into an obsession which might have led to the murder of a coach during the Cricket world cup held in the West Indies a few years back.

Sports betting of all kinds is huge around the world, with Soccer now the world's biggest sport. In the US, Pro Football and High School Basketball are famous for attracting betting, with the NCAA March Madness tournament such a common betting subject that US president Barack Obama, whose brother in Law is a top College Basketball coach, releases his bracket predictions every year. The betting ranges from formal and legal to the common and kind of generally winked at practice of office pools. US baseball was rocked by betting scandals in it's early history, but nothing of consequence, such as intentionally loosing, has come to public attention in years.

Online Gaming is all offshore from the US, and the government actively works to subvert and ban it, alleging it is anything from Money Laundering to plain old Vice. Gaming systems are a regular addition to revenue in down and out drinking establishments around the world, uniform in their kind of stark sadness, with the games kind of accentuating the fact that if there were ever good times, they have come and gone. In the US it is regulated state by state, but they are big systems that sit on bar tops or nearby tables and usually offer some version of slots or video blackjack with a bunch of scantily clad video encouragements to continue. I have seen them throughout Central America, and I think even in New Zealand and Africa. In addition to the recent resurgence of Poker among America's educated classes, with a parallel interest in it's professional ranks in places like Vegas and in sanctioned tournaments as far afield from regular den's of vice as Vermont, there are regional parlor games that lend themselves to betting: Eucher in the Midwest, cribbage in England and New England. Dominoes holds court in the Caribbean, and much of the Mediterranean, and it may seem cliché, but it always seems to be played by old men hanging out near a body of water.

In Addition to Sumo, Japan has it's own forms of gambling that are kind of offshoots of Video Game Arcades, and there is a whole district in Tokyo, Akihabra, dedicated to it. Could this be the future?