Adrian
The Labor of Luck

Gambling is the world’s second oldest industry, but in the past has been viewed in a condemning nature. Many have viewed it as immoral and destructive. The government, taking the middle ground labels it as a vice, but will allow small-scale monopolies to non-profit organizations. These constituents have conditions that state that revenues must be used for good causes and they must not over stimulate demand. (15) Commercial casinos that were first permitted, while heavily regulated to protect citizens, only allowed the wealthy to be patrons. Erving Goffman was a comparitivist, who tried to discover what is general to the human condition and a sociologist that worked behind the tables in casinos. In his
Although factories are production companies, service industries such as casinos are similar in that both are “service production regimes”. Where factories have two parties, management and workers, service jobs have a triangular conflict; management, service and consumer parties. On casino blackjack tables, there is the gambler; which is the consumer, the house or worker and management. Most conflicts are between the consumers and the clients while dealers are ambiguous because they represent the casino and they don’t always benefit when the house wins. Only in service industries does the management try to control the emotional and physical efforts of its workers. “Agency” is assigned by players for game outcomes. Credit can be applied for winning and losing can be attributed to blame. “Emotional displays” frequently follow agency; anger, appreciation and gratitude. Dealers are viewed as being responsible for the winning or losing of players. The game equipment must be ready to play in the first stage, also called “squaring off”. In this stage, players exchange their cash with plastic chips used for currency on the table. These chips if exchanged by the dealer must be laid out in order to be seen by casino supervisors. Following the “squaring off” phase, there are two stages, “determination” “disclosure” and “settlement”. “Determination” applies after the cards have been dealt to the client, who then plays their