Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Jeff Haney on historian David Schwartz and his study of gambling through the ages

Legendary gambler Nick "the Greek" Dandalos once described the allure of the dice table by saying, "As I walk from crap game to crap game, my brain becomes active and agile and dwells on lofty thoughts."

After writing a comprehensive narrative history of gambling, UNLV's David Schwartz finds himself in a similar frame of mind.

"Now that I've done the research, I look at casinos in a totally different way," said Schwartz, author of the newly released "Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling." "I see the craps tables, and I don't just see people playing craps. I see it going back to the game of hazard in the year 1000, and craps developing in New Orleans.

"I look at poker, and I see how that also developed through the years One thing I was struck by was how unoriginal we are today. Almost everything we do has been done before in one form or another, especially in Las Vegas."

"Roll the Bones" (Gotham Books, 570 pages, $30) traces the history of gambling from early civilization through the age of Internet casinos, outlining the evolution of cards, dice, lotteries, sports betting and horse racing along with other, more obscure games of chance. (Cockroach races in 19th-century New Zealand, anyone?)

Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at UNLV, said the book is designed to appeal to the popular market. He likened it to a gambling version of "Guns, Germs and Steel," Jared Diamond's scholarly history of society from a biologist's point of view.

"It's a synthesis, pulling together a lot of information from a lot of different sources," Schwartz said.

Just as Schwartz was struck by how nearly every modern gambling issue has antecedents from years or even centuries ago, it's easy for a reader to draw parallels from historical events described in the book to today's scene.

Schwartz not only covers Dostoevsky's well-documented struggles with gambling, but also details how Voltaire spotted a flaw in the structure of the French lottery and put together a team of investors to exploit it - much like today's horse-betting wizards trying to corner the market on the Pick Six at Santa Anita when it has a big carryover.

The walls of Pompeii circa A.D. 79, according to Schwartz, contained graffiti reading, "Get up! You don't know a thing about this game! Make room for better players." That sounds suspiciously similar to the banter you can hear at any poker table at the Bellagio on any given night, when it's a sure bet players will be labeling each other as "donkeys" and demanding to know "how could you call that bet with bottom pair, no flush draw!"

Schwartz also explores the uneasy relationship between religion and gambling, which is nothing new. In A.D. 960, for instance, Bishop Wibold of Cambrai (France) created a special dice game he used to spread the Gospel.

Even the raging debate on Internet gambling has precedents in history, Schwartz said.

"You might say, here's something totally new, because we've never had an Internet," Schwartz said. "But what we have had is advances in technology before.

"In the 19th century when the telegraph was invented, as anyone who's seen 'The Sting' knows, they didn't take long to figure out a way to gamble using the telegraph. They invented the (steam-powered) riverboat, people started gambling on that.

"Every time they invent something new, there's a way to gamble on it. If we had spaceships leaving every day, there would be betting on which ship got where first. It's always evolving."

The recent dispute at Wynn Las Vegas between the dealers and their bosses regarding tip policy was reminiscent of a similar blowup in Monte Carlo more than a century ago, Schwartz said.

The issue was settled when management agreed to keep only 50 percent of the tips, down from its previous rate of 80 percent - "a big victory for the dealers."

The final chapter of "Roll the Bones" features a walk through the Wynn casino on opening night, from a gambling scholar's perspective.

"I thought that was the best way to end the book because it's saying this history is still with us, and it still means something to us," Schwartz said. "No matter what game you play, it has a history."

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