ABSTRACT
Having examined the disruption of perceptions of time, space and money, it is now time to look at the perception of causation in the world of play. To do this, we shall focus on the beliefs held by gamblers, for games of chance encourage a distinctive cognitive outlook among players. Unlike games of skill which are governed by a more straightforwardly ‘rational’ framework based on prediction and control, games of chance tend to engender alternative types of belief. Despite the knowledge of random events, percentages and odds generated by that tool of chance-probability theory-gamblers on the whole tend to ignore its insights; continuing to play when the odds are against them, behaving as though they could influence games of pure chance and stubbornly expecting to win in the midst of catastrophic defeat. Thoughts banished from the outside world as superstitious and irrational are here given credence and provide a framework which organise and explain the vagaries of play and the outcome of games. These include a broad range of magical and quasi-religious beliefs: there is the notion of ‘luck’, the idea that cards, dice or tickets can somehow be influenced by the gambler, and the idea that the outcome of games is decided by providential forces such as ‘fate’ or ‘destiny’. All these beliefs are popular currency in games of chance, and exist to provide a system of thought which is uniquely adapted to the nature of the gambling environment. It is in this cognitive outlook that the tension of the gambling situation-the dynamic between uncertainty and order, chance and meaning-is to be found.
