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This work explores the legal and political history of bingo and how gender shapes, and is shaped by, gambling regulation. The author argues that bingo can provide new insight into three areas of political economy: more-than-capitalist' economies; the role of regulation in shaping those economies; and the gendered nature of that regulation.
List of contents
- Part 1: Why Bother with Bingo?
- 1: Introduction
- 2: Why Bother with Bingo?
- Part 2: National Bingo Visions: Mutual Aid, Commerce, and Gender in British Gambling Debates 1900-2005
- 3: Eyes Down: Early State Attention to Bingo (1900-1968)
- 4: Maggie's Den: Commercial Deregulation, Charity, and Adapted Gambling Moralities (1968-1997)
- 5: 'Something Rather Perverse': Gambling Reform and the Sidelining of Bingo under New Labour (1997-2005)
- Part 3: Regulating People: Entry Rules for Workers and Players
- 6: Death of the Ex-Policeman: Gender, Class and Personnel Licensing in the Era of Self-Regulation
- 7: The Socio-Legal Significance of Membership: Snowballs, Strangers, Virgins, and Regulars
- Part 4: Constituting Bingo and Its Harms: Worker and Player Adaptation in the Face Of New Technologies and State Definitional Practices
- 8: State Optics and Bingo Definitions: Bringing Workers back in to the Regulation of Technologies, Mechanics, and Places of Play
- 9: Innovation Framing, Regulation, and User Adaptation Online: why there are no flasks in online bingo
- 10: Social Responsibility, New Technologies, and Problem Gambling in Bingo: Where to point the dabber?
- Conclusion
- Appendix 1 Note on Methodology
- Appendix 2 Table of Interviews
- References
About the author
Kate Bedford is a Professor of Law at Birmingham Law School. She has written extensively on the sociolegal understanding of gambling and of bingo, and also on gender and politics. In 2008, she began a project on the gendered political economy of gambling regulation, using commercial and non-commercial bingo to think in new ways about the regulation of everyday speculation.
Summary
This work explores the legal and political history of bingo and how gender shapes, and is shaped by, gambling regulation. The author argues that bingo can provide new insight into three areas of political economy: more-than-capitalist' economies; the role of regulation in shaping those economies; and the gendered nature of that regulation.
Foreword
Winner of the Hart-SLSA Book Prize and 2020 IPEG Book Prize
Additional text
The enormous volume of work embodied in the book... is astounding, and it all comes together to say something much bigger about the relationship between socio-legal studies and IPE. Not only is it strikingly original in almost every respect, it is also a real page-turner and breath of fresh air. In sum, Bingo Capitalism is an instant classic, and entirely worthy of this year's prize.
