ABSTRACT
Historically, the commodification of games of chance has raised moral issues. This chapter examines the conditions that made the gambling market possible in France, from the nineteenth century to the present day. It shows that the construction of this “contested market” drew upon different devices to “cool-down” the intensity of moral contestation and to protect “vulnerable populations” (such as the young, the poor, excessive gamblers, etc.) from the gradual extension of the market. The chapter underlines the transformation of a problem formerly considered as a moral one into a medical issue – addiction – and the new tools imagined on the internet to tame the firms’ appetites and to prevent excessive gambling. It analyzes them with the concept of governmentality developed by Michel Foucault.
