Gambling
in Australia. Where else in the world are
jockeys more revered than musicians and
scientists? Where else in the world are the
people's clubs dependent for their existence
on poker machines? Where else in the world
is a famous race horse stuffed and enshrined
in a museum?
Frank Hardy
Almost everybody gambled in the Old West.
Prospectors and dance-hall girls, cattle
barons and cowpokes, clergymen and
gunfighters all gathered around gambling
tables to wager their newly won fortunes -
or their last possessions - on the turn of a
card or the spin of a wheel...Gambling was a
Western mania, the only amusement that could
match the heady, speculative atmosphere of
frontier life itself.
Time-Life Books
Bets of robes, blankets, coins, and so forth
were piled in the middle. Anyone could bet
on a team, even women. Women also had their
betting games, which could last for a few
hours or several days. All bets had to be
absolutely matched. All gambling required
good sportsmanship. It was shameful for pool
losers to grieve. They would get no symphaty.
Mourning Dove
Playing cards is so popular among Rotumans
that one might be forgiven for thinking they
invented it...Sometimes, during the av
mane's season, a whole village may spend a
day playing cards; if there is a visiting
group, card playing turns everyone into a
clown of one king or another.
Vilsoni Hereniko
The guy who invented gambling was bright,
but the guy who invented the chip was a
genius.
Big Julie
This money was once, and therefore will be
again, chips. She and the casinos both know
that chips are a wonderful, pretty tool, and
possess none of the sigma of dollars.
Dollars translate too easy into hours or
houses or cars or sex or food or everything,
and so losing a dollar is a much more
tangible experience than parting with a
chip.
John O'Brien
Gambling had invested money with the quality
of a medium necessary t the condition of
life. It was not that I wanted to do
anything with it, any more than I wanted to
do something with oxygen or sunlight; it was
simply that cash had become the element I
needed for my personal evolution.
Jack Richardson
