gambling summary

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Below is the article summary. For the full article, see gambling.

gambling, Betting or staking of something of value on the outcome of a game or event. Commonly associated with gambling are horse racing, boxing, numerous playing-card and dice games, cockfighting, jai alai, recreational billiards and darts, bingo, and lottery. In most gambling games it is customary to express the idea of probability in terms of “odds against winning.” In the U.S. casino gambling, once highly restricted, is now legal in many states, and lotteries are employed by many states to raise revenues. The Internet has also become a venue for placing bets. See also bookmaking; casino.

Mafia Summary

Mafia, hierarchically structured society of criminals of primarily Italian or Sicilian birth or extraction. The term applies to the traditional criminal organization in Sicily and also to a criminal organization in the United States. Most scholars agree that the Mafia emerged in Sicily in the 19th

Wyatt Earp Summary

Wyatt Earp was a legendary frontiersman of the American West, who was an itinerant saloonkeeper, gambler, lawman, gunslinger, and confidence man but was perhaps best known for his involvement in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1881). The first major biography, Stuart N. Lake’s Wyatt Earp, Frontier

blackjack Summary

Blackjack, gambling card game popular in casinos throughout the world. Its origin is disputed, but it is certainly related to several French and Italian gambling games. In Britain since World War I, the informal game has been called pontoon. Players hope to get a total card value of 21 or to come

casino Summary

Casino, originally, a public hall for music and dancing; by the second half of the 19th century, a collection of gaming or gambling rooms. The classic example of a casino, and for long the world’s best known, is that at Monte-Carlo, which opened in 1863. The casino has long been a major source of