Gambling,Resource Distribution,and Racial Economy: An Examination of Poker Machine Expenditure in Three Remote Australian Towns

Our aim in this paper is to examine the ways in which electronic gaming machines (EGMs) redistribute resources to and from three remote towns in the Northern Territory (NT), namely Katherine, Tennant Creek and Nhulunbuy. We describe EGM expenditure levels in each town at the level of the individual venue, examine patterns of socioeconomic status within each town, explore the ways in which EGM markets are racialised through venue gate‐keeping practices and spatially‐based alcohol regulations, and examine the effects of resource redistribution mechanisms designed to return a proportion of EGM profits to host communities. The ability of venues to draw resources from extremely disadvantaged groups from the remote periphery is of central concern when attempting to assess the societal consequences of gambling in remote towns, both in terms of individual harm and the adequacy of resource redistribution. Existing mechanisms for resource redistribution are both selective and relatively meagre, pointing to a political and racial economy of EGM gambling that transfers resources from remote towns to sites of centralised ‘white’ power. We conclude that political economy in the context of remote NT towns may not be understood outside a consideration of racial economy and the way that constructed notions of race operate to legitimate existing processes of economic exploitation and resource redistribution.     

Book-in-a-box to Xbox: materiality and the contemporary textual object

Book-in-a-box to Xbox is a discussion of developments in the material form of contemporary textual objects and of the impact this has on user/reader experience. The article formulates itself as a contemporary book history, situating the texts in question within the broader sphere of digital culture, and analyses textual function, reception, form and user interaction, presenting a cultural theorising of contemporary textual objects. The article conducts these discussions via a consideration of Marc Saporta's Composition No. 1 (a key example of materially experimental literature); recent developments in e-reading and the implications of these developments; designing interactivity in massively multiplayer online gaming; and emerging forms of sociality, or shared experience, in virtual reading and playing communities.     

国外博彩旅游研究:进展、脉络和展望

近几十年来,国际旅游学者针对博彩旅游开展研究,研究范围涉及消费者行为、影响和政策等主题,得到许多有益的发现;然而,国内研究对该领域的关注则较少.本文在梳理国外博彩旅游文献的基础上,按照主题对文献内容进行分析总结,研究发现:(1) 博彩行为和博彩影响研究最受重视,研究方法以定量为主,研究理论涉及社会学、管理学和经济学等多学科;(2) 博彩行为研究中,不同类型博彩者行为研究和中国博彩者行为研究备受关注;(3) 博彩影响研究中,关键变量的识别、关键模型的构建对于未来进一步深化研究有重要作用.     

Manufacturing regional disparity in the pursuit of economic equality: Alberta's First Nations Gaming Policy, 2006–2010

The Province of Alberta in 2001 implemented the First Nations Gaming Policy (FNGP) to improve First Nations development potential by permitting the construction of reserve casinos. This article argues that during the policy development stages provincial and First Nations leaders failed to consider the geographic placement of reserve communities, both in terms of where casinos would be placed and how gaming revenues would ultimately be distributed. Therefore, a policy intended to assist with First Nations economic rejuvenation in Alberta has benefitted a small proportion of First Nations while exacerbating regional economic difficulties the policy was in part calculated to ameliorate. The authors recommend revisiting the FNGP to establish a more equitable revenue distribution formula, thus resulting in a greater distribution of gaming revenues to a larger number of First Nations.     

居民对城市社区内非赌场类博彩的感知差异——以香港为例

香港的非赌场类博彩发展成熟,是研究此类博彩产业的良好案例。本研究采取问卷调查的方式,收集可供分析的603份问卷,采用单因子方差分析(one way ANOVA)等统计手段,得出以下研究结论:香港居民对于博彩业发展的态度不算积极;居民由于性别、年龄、受教育程度和职业的不同,出现对于博彩业态度与感知的差异。男性、老年人、受教育程度较高的人、中产阶级更加支持博彩发展或者更多的感知到其带来的正面影响,主要在于他们从中得到了更多的利益。本研究为香港政府进一步规划和管制非赌博类博彩业发展提供参考依据。     

Gaming on the edge: Mobile labour and global talent in Atlantic Canada's video game industry

Diminishing returns and advances in telecommunications have prompted large video game firms to seek new locations, outsource production, and develop niche studios, including on Canada's East Coast. In this paper, we examine emerging occupational cultures and trace the origins and evolution of video game production in Canada's Atlantic provinces—a critical yet peripheral space economy in the gaming sector. Our findings are drawn from 30 interviews with gameworkers, studio managers, government officials, and other industry experts. We find this industry to be driven by the confluence of three major factors: (i) provincial governments have supported video game development as a strategic industry via financial incentives; (ii) firms are benefiting from a return migration effect and are repatriating Atlantic Canadian talent from media hubs by selling “home,” work‐life balance, and an alternative to the punishing gamework culture associated with Silicon Valley; and (iii) post‐secondary institutions in the region have improved their talent pipelines through computer science, digital media, and video game development programs.