Women, Pleasure and the Gambling Experience

Emma Casey is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Kingston, UK. She is the co-editor of Gender & Consumption: The Material Culture and Commercialisation of Everyday Life (2006).

• Contents: Introduction to researching women, class and National Lottery participation; Women, gambling, leisure and consumption; Working class women, identity and protest; Domesticated gambling: the National Lottery as 'normal' and 'routine' in the lives of women who play; Caring, class and pleasure; metaphorical leisure spaces and National Lottery play; 'A space to be': physical leisure spaces and National Lottery play; Concluding remarks; Bibliography; Index.

Shortlisted for the BSA Philip Abrams Memorial Prize 2009 'Cogently argued and fluently written, this fascinating account of the motivations and beliefs of female lottery players situates players’ behaviour in its wider social context. Encompassing important debates about class based and gendered forms of leisure and consumption in contemporary society, this book is about more than just the lottery and will be compelling reading for students and scholars interested in gambling, leisure, popular culture, consumption and feminist studies.' Gerda Reith, University of Glasgow, UK 'This is a fascinating book: theoretically informed, filled with provocative ideas and enlivened with vignettes from female lottery players, which provide a rich and compelling account of the meanings and motivations of women’s gambling behaviour in particular, and leisure behaviour more generally...the book provides a welcome analysis of a neglected social group, namely, female lottery players, and also contributes to the wider field of gambling studies and beyond, drawing on a variety of theoretical perspectives on leisure and consumption...At one point, Casey states: ’This book is a story, an account of the everyday, classed and gendered lives of the working class women of this sample’ (p. 61). In the best tradition of sociological research, it is exactly that, and it succeeds in telling its story - bringing characters, themes and plot together in an engrossing narrative that deserves a wide readership, in cultural and feminist studies, in sociology, and beyond.' Cultural Sociology