Gambling with the Myth of the American Dream
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Gambling with the Myth of the American Dream This book explores the rise and increased acceptance of gambling in Amer- ica, particularly the growth of the game of poker, as a means for examining changes to the American Dream and the risk society. Poker both critiques and reinterprets the myth of the American Dream, putting greater empha- sis on the importance of luck and risk management while deemphasizing the importance of honesty and hard work. Duncan discusses the history of gambling in America, changes to the rhetoric surrounding gambling, the depiction of poker in the Wild West as portrayed in fi lm, its recent rise in popularity on television, its current place in post-modern America on the internet, and future implications. Aaron M. Duncan is Director of Speech and Debate and Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Routledge Research in Sport, Culture and Society For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com 11 Ultimate Fighting and 18 Sport Policy in Britain Embodiment Barrie Houlihan and Iain Lindsey Violence, Gender and Mixed Martial Arts 19 Sports and Christianity Dale C. Spencer Historical and Contemporary Perspectives 12 The Olympic Games and Edited by Nick J. 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Media, (Dis)Empowerment, 32 Sport Development in the United and Voice in the 2012 States Paralympics Edited by Peter Smolianov, Edited by Daniel Jackson, Dwight Zakus and Joseph Gallo Caroline E. M. Hodges, 33 Youth Olympic Games Mike Molesworth and Edited by Dag Vidar Hanstad, Richard Scullion Barrie Houlihan and 42 Sport and the Social Milena Parent Significance of Pleasure 34 Safeguarding, Child Protection Richard Pringle, Robert E. and Abuse in Sport Rinehart and Jayne Caudwell International Perspectives in 43 A Sociology of Football in a Research, Policy and Practice Global Context Edited by Melanie Lang and Jamie Cleland Mike Hartill 44 Gambling with the Myth of 35 Touch in Sports Coaching and the American Dream Physical Education Aaron M. Duncan Fear, Risk, and Moral Panic Edited by Heather Piper This page intentionally left blank Gambling with the Myth of the American Dream Aaron M. Duncan First published 2015 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2015 Taylor & Francis The right of Aaron M. Duncan to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-1-138-85799-5 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-71826-2 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by Apex CoVantage, LLC Dedicated to my family, who have always supported and encouraged me This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments xi 1 Introduction to Gambling America 1 2 Rhetorical Markers of Gambling 29 3 Myth, Narrative, and Ideology 62 4 Saloons, Six-Shooters, and Mythos of the Old West: Gambling and Poker in John Ford’s My Darling Clementine 73 5 A Self-Made Moneymaker: The World Series of Poker and the Self-Made Man 99 6 Shifting the Scene to Cyberspace: Internet Poker and the Rise of Tom Dwan 127 7 Conclusions and the Future of Gambling 148 Index 175 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments Portions of chapters two and fi ve were previously published as Duncan, A. (2014). Reimagining the self-made man: Myth, risk, and the pokerization of America. Western Journal of Communication, 1 , 78, 39–57. Copy- right of the Western States Communication Association. Reprinted by permission of the publisher. This page intentionally left blank 1 Introduction to Gambling America In The Color of Money , Paul Newman’s character Fast Eddie Felson proclaimed, “Money won is twice as sweet as money earned” (De Fina & Scorsese, 1986, 58:42– 58:46). This iconic character seems to summarize the feelings of millions of Americans who risk their hard-earned money every year in hopes of winning more. Of course, unlike Fast Eddie, most Americans do not win at gambling. Despite this well-known fact, Americans still put down their hard-earned money at games of chance. Gambling has been present in America since the country’s inception, but today gambling is more popular than ever. In the 1970s, gambling revenue totaled about $3 billion, but by 1999, the total had risen to $54 billion (Volberg, Ger- stein, Christiansen, & Baldridge, 2001). According to the American Gaming Association, gambling revenues peaked in 2007 with receipts exceeding $92 billion (American Gaming Association, 2009). Gambling numbers declined slightly during the recession, but revenues were increasing by the end of 2012 (American Gaming Association, 2013b). The annual revenue generated from legalized gambling in America exceeds the amount spent on movie tickets, recorded music, cruise ships, spectator sports, and theme parks combined (Volberg et al., 2001). The goal of this project is to examine the forces behind America’s fascination with gambling. I contend that the rise of gambling in the U.S. is due to a combination of economic, political, technological, and social forces that impact America on a mythic level. These forces challenge existing mythologies and have created changes in collective consciousness. Kasen (1980) explained that myths are essen- tial to the functionality and preservation of a society. Changes to American mythologies are the result of challenges to their efficacy as legitimators for the nation’s economic and social systems. In the case of the United States, the myth of the American Dream works to rationalize our class system, social structure, and culture. However, problems occur in legitimization when a myth is found to contain contradictions and when it ceases to ade- quately explain the functioning of the society that created it. Rushing (1986) explained that in response to these challenges, myths evolve over time and reflect changes in societal consciousness. I examine the changes to the myth of the American Dream through the lens of gambling in general, and the game of poker more specifically. I contend 2 Introduction to Gambling America that poker’s current cultural status is representative of gambling’s larger place in the culture. I examine poker because I believe that it is the form of gambling that is most emblematic of contemporary American culture. Poker is not completely a game of luck, like craps or roulette, but also contains the element of skill. Thus, I argue that it is more representative of mod- ern economic entities such as the stock market, which require knowledge and skill, but are also governed to some degree by unpredictable chance. In order to make this claim it is important that I discuss gambling as a whole, before delving more deeply into the subject of poker. The rhetoric surround- ing poker is a sub-discourse of America’s ongoing cultural conversation about gambling and we must examine both in order to grasp the differences between the two and the changes taking place to America’s mythology. It is important to begin by attempting to understand the cultural signifi- cance of gambling and its role in the history of America.