Here are some definitions of gambling collected from various sources.
"Gambling is the determination of the ownership of property by appeal to chance"
John A Hobson from a paper "The Ethics of Gambling" contained in "Betting and Gambling - A National Evil" edited by B Seebohm Rowntree Macmillan & Co 1906 at page 1
"To gamble is to risk anything of value on a game of chance or on the outcome of any event involving chance, in the hope of profit."
Peter Arnold "The Encyclopedia of Gambling" Collins 1978
"Gambling may be defined as an activity in which a person subjects something of value - usually money - to a risk involving a large element of chance in the hopes of winning something of greater value, which is usually more money."
William J Thompson "Legalised Gambling - A Reference Handbook" ABC-CLIO Inc 1994 at page 2
"Gambling under the common law is any activity in which: (1) a person pays something of value, called consideration; (2) the outcome is determined at least in part by chance; and (3) the winnings are something of value."
J Nelson Rose "Gambling and the Law" 1986 Gambling Times Inc at page 75
"commercial gambling is the staking of money on the outcome of a random number generator"
Tim Falkiner, Chairman, Know the Odds Inc 1987
"... but primarily it [gambling] is paying to enter a super-charged mood of excitement"
David Spanier "Welcome to the Pleasuredome - Inside Las Vegas") University of Nevada Press 1992 at page 13
"Gaming is an enchanting witchery, gotten betwixt idleness and avarice."
The opening words of "The Compleat Gamester" the first English encyclopedia on gambling, written by Charles Cotton and published in 1674.
"In Zuckerman's opinion (1969) gambling is a form of sensation seeking 'in which individuals risk loss of money for the positive reinforcement produced by states of high arousal during the period of uncertainty as well as the positive arousal of winning'"
Durand Jacobs PhD "A General Theory of Addictions" Paper No 2 in Shaffer & Ors "Compulsive Gambling - Theory Research and Practice" Lexington Books 1989 at page 44
"... gambling is a sportive survival of divination."
L J Ludovici "The Itch for Play - Gamblers and Gambling in High Life and Low Life" Jarrolds 1962 at page 22
"'Gambling' is a word that covers a variety of behaviours and activities some of which bear little resemblance to compulsive self-destruction or even to 'inherent riskiness'"
Vicki Abt & Ors "The Business of Risk - Commercial Gambling in Mainstream America" University Press of Kansas 1985 at page 116
Further details may be obtained from Know the Odds Inc
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