front cover of Vicious Games
Vicious Games
Capitalism and Gambling
Rebecca Cassidy
Pluto Press, 2020
Gambling is everywhere, on our TVs and phones, on billboards on our streets, and emblazoned across the chests of idolised sports stars. Why has gambling suddenly expanded? How was it transformed from a criminal activity to a respectable business run by multinational corporations listed on international stock markets? And who are the winners and losers created by this transformation?

Vicious Games is based on field research with the people who produce, shape and consume gambling. Rebecca Cassidy explores the gambling industry's affinity with capitalism and the free market and how the UK has led the way in exporting 'light touch' regulation and 'responsible gambling' around the world. She reveals how the industry extracts wealth from some of our poorest communities, and examines the adverse health effects on those battling gambling addiction. 

The gambling industry has become increasingly profitable and influential, emboldened by thirty years of supportive government policies and boosted by unnatural profits. Through an anthropological excavation, Vicious Games opens up this process, with the intention of creating alternative, more equitable futures.
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front cover of Vision
Vision
Awakening Your Potential to Create a Better World
Peter Benson
Templeton Press, 2009

According to Peter L. Benson, the capacity to generate vision is among life's most beautiful and unheralded gifts. To him, a vision is more than just a goal, more than just a dream of what could be—it is a summons, a pull towards the future, an inspired call to make real that which should be. In Vision: Awakening Your Potential to Create a Better World, Benson takes readers on an uplifting exploration of this powerful concept.

Starting with examples of great visionary moments in history, such as the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, he crafts a working definition of "vision" and what it means to be visionary. He proceeds by profiling the personalities behind some of the great visions that have shaped our world, covering a diverse set of individuals ranging from presidents who pulled the country through tough times to children whose efforts helped put an end to child labor. Throughout, Benson shares personal insights on his own "big picture" vision and offers instructive questions and exercises that will help reflective readers craft their own visions.
 
This little book of practical inspiration makes it clear that vision is a necessary ingredient of meaningful change. Readers will appreciate Benson's warm and personal approach as well as his interactive approach, which will help anyone come to understand his or her own social and spiritual potential. Vision will be useful to those seeking to find their place and purpose in the world, whether they are new graduates, professionals, parents, or retirees.

 

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