ABSTRACT
By the 1990s in the United States, Canada, the European Community, Australia and New Zealand, there had emerged a substantial increase in the legal and social acceptance of commercial gambling. Gaming industries had become increasingly sophisticated and legitimate to reflect this reality. From a consumer’s perspective, gambling had transformed itself over the previous thirty years from an inappropriate, ‘sinful’ endeavour to a mainstream participatory activity. Furthermore, as acceptability had increased, various special interests, ranging from charities to churches to private enterprises to government agencies, lobbied for the right to offer commercial gaming services to the general public so as to capture the resultant economic benefits, often for some higher purpose than merely their own self-interest.
