Customer Reviews

Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Roll The Bones, is a history of gambling all the way back to an including ancient Mesopotamia. We get a look at the gambling (never 'gaming', always 'gambling' - this was before lobbyists!) habits of cultures including the Greeks, Romans, Chinese, other random Europeans and all the way through Americans. The message I was getting from this book was that gambling is a universal trait that seems to permeate every society, no matter how any of the other attributes stack up.

A book like this could easily be so boring as to guarantee a good night's sleep. That's not the case here as Schwartz is a gifted writer who is able to connect and reconcile all of the games across the centuries.

I really enjoyed Roll The Bones and I think that anyone who likes history would too. If you are interested in casino gambling, this book will give you some new insight into how it all hangs together.

I recommend this book to all readers.

Roll Them Bones is David G. Schwartz's wonderful account of the history and the impact gambling has made on our lives throughout time. I found this book to be a quick, fascinating, and a entertaining read; it is often difficult to combine so many of these characteristics in one book. Have you ever realized that gambling has been around as long as man has. I found the fact that even monkey's seem to prefer to gamble by their preference in taking chances, rather than going for an action that gets them a set amount of food, whereas the other task would give them a random amount of food which was always less.

Cards, dice, bones, or whatever else was handy, man has always enjoyed games of chance. Historical documentation from the Greeks, the Etruscans, the Eyptians and so much more lays the foundation that forms of gambling have always been popular. Roman emperors were known for enjoying gambling for recreation. Royalty has been known throughout time to enjoy and encourage gambling among the masses.

This is a terrific book as it is an enjoyable read, sprinkled with much historical facts. This historical information isn't given in a format that may be dull, or unexciting, but rather Schwartz does an excellent job of making you want to continue to turn the page. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that enjoys gaming, and those who are history buffs, you won't be disappointed.

Since I like to "roll the bones," I am fascinated by fun historical books on gambling. It seems mankind has been gambling since we were, well, actually rolling the bones.

This is a terrific, entertaining book.

Frank Scoblete: author of Golden Touch Dice Control Revolution! and Golden Touch Blackjack Revolution!

An interesting and invaluable history of gaming in all cultures. Not only does Schwartz cover the games that are still popular in today's casinos he covers games that have fallen into obscurity.

I read this book in one afternoon at the UC Berkeley Business Library. ( For some reason the UC Berkeley Library catalogued "Roll the Bones" as a business title while another of his books "Suburban Xanadu" is over in the general collection). I'm planning on buying it because I enjoyed the writing, I'm familiar with the author's writing through his blog about Las Vegas and betting and I trust his scholarship.

Most of the general reading type books that cover gambling, Las Vegas the mob town, Las Vegas the latest Babylon etc. go for dazzling the reader with stories about scandals, excess, dissipation and various dramas that go into all kinds of human vice.

Roll the Bones is unique because it looks back, very far back to ancient civilizations and very quickly brings those long gone societies to life by uncovering how gambling in various shapes and forms has been present in every culture just like other cultural artifacts such as different art forms, mythology, religion etc.

What's so startling about this is how little seems to have been written about the nature of gambling throughout history ( at least for the general reading public - and in historical scholarship - as far as I know ).

Past cultures just seem to jump to life reading about the Romans, Chinese, Meso-Americans, the French and Mississippi gamblers and much more. Maybe because gambling has been brought out of the closet in US culture and is no longer illegal or only permitted in outposts like Nevada is it acceptable to look back at other societies and read how gambling was just an entertaining past time that has always had participants.

"Rool the Bones" is fun to read because the games that were played in the past are described well and you can almost imagine people still wanting to play them today. Good, informed, entertaining writing here by a genuine historian instead of the usual sort of gambling book written by a journalist. I'm looking forward to checking out David Schwartz's other books, "Suburban Xanadu" and "Cutting the Wire".

I have been researching the history of Tarot cards which led me to explore the history of playing cards. This did not provide enough information for research purposes. I then researched the history of the Carnival season in Venice which in turn led me to the history of gambling. David G. Schwartz' book Roll the Bones has provided me with the remaining research material I required for my research project. This has to be the most interesting and fascinating non-fiction book I have ever read as it captures the history of gambling throughout the ages. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in gambling either as a historian or punter.

Paul Parritt

"Roll the Bones" takes you on a highly informative journey through the history of mankind and tells the story of how gambling has always been a dominate part of all human cultures. From the stone age, through Victorian Europe to glimmering LCD lights of modern Las Vegas. I have read many books on the history gambling but Schwartz, took it to a new level, with the grand scale of a Michener novel. I came away from this book with a clear and truer understanding of not only the history of gambling but how it has effected the human experience, from day to day life, wars, industrial age, rise and falls of governments, economic highs and lows and modern technologies. Roll the Bones not only tells the story of how we have gambled though out history, but in many ways why we gamble in our lives and it is not always in a casino. So please enjoy this book. C E Mitchell

If you want to learn about the history of gambling outside the US, this is it. I think it fell short when the writer reached our shores.

He has an irritating habit of trying to end each paragraph with a witticism. It's really tiresome, not necessary, and most of his attempts fell far short of witty.

A perplexing omission is that when discussing gambling in the Bible, he did not mention the Roman soldiers casting lots for Jesus' clothes. It makes one question the completeness of the work in other areas.

Can a book contain too much information? I was overwhemled several times by detailed descriptions of various games of chance and how they evolved over the years. I think a summary chart of the games, what they were played with, the countries of origin, and their time period would make a helpful and welcome addition to a new edition of this book.

A very good read. A book that kept me glued from beginning to end. Gambling is so ingrained in human DNA that it has always been around and will always be around! What with the budgetary crisis in several nations one sure way of making tax revenue is to spread gambling to every nook and corner of the world!

This history of gambling is interesting for a few pages but then become repetitive and boring. The book is two or three time longer than necessary harming its readability and enjoyment. Maybe as a reference book.......