Per Binde at the rostrum
Per Binde is associate professor of social anthropology, working as researcher at the School of Global Studies – University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
During the course of my research in gambling, I have become quite an avid gambler myself. My favorite game is the V75 (a pick seven trotting game); twice in two years I picked all the seven winning horses and sixteen times missed by only one. Together with friends involved in gambling research, problem gambling treatment and with an interest in sports, I every week bet on the football pools. Once in a while, I play internet poker.
I am member of the board of directors of the Gaming Board for Sweden (Lotteriinspektionen). The Gaming Board is a state authority with overall responsibility for licensing and supervision within the field of gambling. As such, it acts as a safeguard for the consumers’ interests and contributes to reducing the risks for social and economic harms caused by gambling.
From an anthropological point of view, I reject narrow-minded and derogatory views of gambling as driven by a culturally degenerate craving for superficial entertainment, greed and materialism, a vain hope to get rich without effort, irrational and distorted beliefs about the chances of winning, addiction at a sub-clinical level, or massive amounts of aggressive and deceptive advertising from gambling companies. Such views are too often voiced in the public debate and color also some academic works on gambling. Gambling is no more or less trivial or irrational than other activities that fascinate people. Gambling is part of our culture. In this perspective, disordered and excessive gambling emerges as a multidimensional social and individual problem.
My articles have appeared in academic journals – such as Journal of Gambling Studies, International Gambling Studies, Gaming Law Review, Journal of Gambling Issues, International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, Anthropological Quarterly and EPD: Society and Space – as well as in edited volumes from Routledge, Earthscan, University of Nevada Press, Doxa, Pelotard Press and other publishing houses. I have written two book-size reports on gambling advertising (in Swedish); one overview and one empirical study based on interviews with problem gamblers. My latest book is an in-depth study of a mutual support group for young problem gamblers.
My book Bodies of Vital Matter was in 2001 awarded one of the Giuseppe Pitrè – Salvatore Salomone Marino International Prizes for Demo-ethno-anthropological Studies. The Pitrè Prizes are annually offered by the Centro Internazionale di Etnostoria of Palermo, in cooperation with a number of other academic organizations and the City of Palermo. To read more about this award-winning book on Italian culture, click here.
Read a newspaper article about my research (in Swedish, 2010.)
Per Binde at the Black Jack table
