ABSTRACT
The practice of betting simultaneously serves to construct ethnic identities as well as distinguish between everyday constructions of modernity and tradition. The moral condemnation of the economic aspects of gambling constructs it as a social practice with the potential to unsettle the traditional Fijian order and mark its participants as modern. Gambling is many things in contemporary Fiji. Albeit limited to urban locales and a male demographic, it is at the centre of discourses about money, morality, modernity and tradition. It is at once considered a 'lucky game', determined by its unpredictability and chanciness, and a highly structured, socially meaningful practice. The ambiguity of 'bad money' highlights the inherent tension between the moral and instrumental orders that underpin Fijians' engagement in gambling.
