Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSN › Conference contribution/Paper › peer-review
Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSN › Conference contribution/Paper › peer-review
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TY - GEN
T1 - Mass gambling
T2 - the Mass Observation Archive and popular leisure
AU - Downs, Carolyn
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - The Mass Observation 1947 file report (2545c) on the gambling behaviours of the British made clear that despite decades of attempted government prohibition of working class gambling the masses remained keen on having a flutter. This record of working-class leisure is augmented by material in the Penguin Books report and the Worktown papers. The Mass Observation archives illustrate how gambling was a central part of working class popular leisure in the years before the Betting and Gaming Act (1960). This paper will consider what Mass Observation and other contemporary supporting primary sources such as letters to John Hilton, the Pilgrim Trust’s work in Liverpool and Rowntree’s studies of York tell us about the cultural significance of mass gambling in working class lives during the period 1935 – 1960. The paper will explore the importance of hope, the need for escapism, the maintenance of social networks, the role of the holiday in providing a space for socially acceptable gambling and the social utility of mass gambling and will use data from the latest gambling prevalence studies to show how these historical patterns of behaviour continue into the present.
AB - The Mass Observation 1947 file report (2545c) on the gambling behaviours of the British made clear that despite decades of attempted government prohibition of working class gambling the masses remained keen on having a flutter. This record of working-class leisure is augmented by material in the Penguin Books report and the Worktown papers. The Mass Observation archives illustrate how gambling was a central part of working class popular leisure in the years before the Betting and Gaming Act (1960). This paper will consider what Mass Observation and other contemporary supporting primary sources such as letters to John Hilton, the Pilgrim Trust’s work in Liverpool and Rowntree’s studies of York tell us about the cultural significance of mass gambling in working class lives during the period 1935 – 1960. The paper will explore the importance of hope, the need for escapism, the maintenance of social networks, the role of the holiday in providing a space for socially acceptable gambling and the social utility of mass gambling and will use data from the latest gambling prevalence studies to show how these historical patterns of behaviour continue into the present.
KW - Mass Observation
KW - Gambling
KW - Everyday practice
KW - Leisure
KW - Gender
M3 - Conference contribution/Paper
SN - 9781905369188
VL - 107
SP - 117
EP - 138
BT - Recording leisure lives
A2 - Snape, Robert
A2 - Pusard, Helen
PB - Leisure Studies Association
CY - Eastbourne
ER -