Roll the Bones

The first narrative history of gambling, spanning from the Stone Age to the Internet era

Roll the Bones tells the epic story of gambling, beginning with its emergence from divination rituals at the dawn of history and ending with today’s global gaming culture. In a sweeping, rollicking narrative that spans the invention of dice in ancient Mesopotamia to today's globally televised World Series of Poker and Internet gambling, acclaimed historian David G. Schwartz explores the betting games people have played throughout the ages and makes the provocative argument that gambling has been a crucial spur in major historic developments, from the funding of global empires to the development of the mathematics of probability that underpinned the creation of the capitalist system.

The story starts with the rolling of astragali knucklebones in prehistoric times, and progresses through the sacred casting of lots as depicted in the Bible and Hindu writings to the secular gaming at the heights of the Greek and Roman civilizations, when citizens wagered on chariot races and athletic contests. Schwartz investigates the first appearance of playing cards in twelfth-century China, and traces how international trade brought this new gaming technology to the West. Schwartz explores the evolution of the modern fifty-two-card deck in Renaissance Europe alongside the birth of games such as faro and baccarat, and shows how Venice's famed ridotto would emerge as the model for luxury casino resorts in Baden-Baden and Monte Carlo.

Schwartz describes how the British Empire spread its own brand of gambling throughout the world by exporting its beloved horseracing and bookmaking culture, and how English lotteries bankrolled some of the first American colonies, beginning a deep and fraught connection with gambling in the New World. Roll the Bones reveals how a national lottery financed the founding of the United States, how gambling prospered in the Civil War and the Old West, how organized crime exploded in the twentieth century by running illegal gambling operations, and how gambling dollars transformed Las Vegas into the world’s number-one tourist destination today.

Packed with colorful characters from Julius Caesar to Casanova, George Washington to Steve Wynn, Roll the Bones is an all-in history of humanity’s fascination with chance.

• Foreword by James McManus
• Prologue: The Rainmaker Reborn
• Part One: The Discovery of Gambling
  1. Thoth's Gift
     The Ancient Origins of Gambling
  2. The Die Is Cast
     From Classical to Medieval Times
  3. Knaves and Kings
     Cards Come Into Play
• Part Two: Gambling Becomes a Science
  4. Taming Tyche
     The Science of Chance Creates Professional Gambling
  5. The Ridotto Revolution
     Mercantile Gamblers Create the Casino
• Part Three: Gambling Takes to the Sea
  6. All Is on the Hazard
     The British Come to Play
  7. Star-Spangled Gamblers
     The Birth of American Gambling
  8. Baiting John Bull
     British Gambling 1750-1914
• Part Four: Europeans Gamble at Home and Abroad
  9. Seeking the Cure
     Spa Gambling Defines Europe
  10. Flight of the Sparrow
      Gambling, Conquest, and Colonies
• Part Five: The United States Bets Big
  11. Wild Cards
      Gambling Moves West
  12. Fools of Fortune
      American Gambling Becomes Urban
• Part Six: Gambling for Fun and Profit
  13. A Sunny Place for Shady People
      Gambling on the French Riviera
  14. Wise Guys and One-Armed Bandits
      Big-City Gambling in the Twentieth Century
• Part Seven: The Legitimization of American Gambling
  15. Hard to Resist
      Nevada Becomes America's Gambling Oasis
  16. The Salvation of Sin
      Is Gambling a Crime or a Virtue?
  17. A Place in the Sun
      The Strip Is Born
• Part Eight: Gambling's New Prominence
  18. Runaway American Dream
      Gambling in the Public Interest
  19. All In
      Gambling's Global Spread
• Part Nine: Into the Twenty-First Century
  20. A Clockwork Volcano
      Technology and Triumph
  21. The Dream
      History in Perspective

An interesting book from an author that seems to know and enjoy his subject matter. It is very interesting, but a bit verbose and much too long. Add to this, that it ends with a very US-centric worldview (not surprising as the author is an American), it can't rate higher than decent.

It is probably only for those people that have an interest in gambling and longs to understand where it comes from. Not for the casual reader.