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Roll The Bones: The History of Gambling (Casino Edition)
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 16 hrs and 59 mins
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Publisher's summary
Roll the Bones tells the story of gambling: where it came from, how it has changed, and where it is now. This is the new Casino Edition, which updates and expands the global history of gambling to include a greater focus on casinos, from their development in European spas to their growth in Reno and Las Vegas. New material chronicles in greater depth the development of casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip and their spread throughout the United States. A new chapter better places Atlantic City's casinos into their correct context, and new material accounts for the rise of casinos in Asia and online gaming.
From the first modern casino in Venice (1638), casinos have grown incredibly. During the 18th and 19th centuries, a series of European spa towns, culminating in Monte Carlo, hosted casinos. In the United States during those same years, gambling developed both in illegal urban gambling halls and in the wide-open saloons of the Western frontier. Those two strands of American gambling came together in Nevada's legal casinos, whose current regime dates from 1931.
Developing with a healthy assist from elements affiliated with organized crime, these casinos eventually outgrew their rough-hewn routes, becoming sun-drenched pleasure palaces along the Las Vegas Strip. With Nevada casinos proving successful, other states, beginning with New Jersey in 1976, rolled the dice. From there, casinos have come to America's tribal lands, rivers, and urban centers. In the last decade, gambling has moved online, while Asia - with multibillion-dollar projects in Macau and Singapore - has become a new casino frontier.
Roll the Bones will give you a better appreciation for how long casinos and gambling have been with us - and what they mean to us today. This audio edition includes a brand-new exclusive author interview with background on the book and developments since its print publication.
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Harlem
- The Four Hundred Year History from Dutch Village to Capital of Black America
- By: Jonathan Gill
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
- Length: 19 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Harlem is perhaps the most famous, iconic neighborhood in the United States. A bastion of freedom and the capital of black America, Harlem's 20th-century renaissance changed our arts, culture, and politics forever. But this is only one of the many chapters in a wonderfully rich and varied history. In Harlem, historian Jonathan Gill presents the first complete chronicle of this remarkable place.
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Very Interesting.
- By Joyce Mirowski on 06-05-20
By: Jonathan Gill
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The Billionaires Club
- By: James Montague
- Narrated by: Damian Lynch
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Once upon a time football was run by modest local businessmen. Today it is the plaything of billionaire oligarchs, staggeringly wealthy from oil and gas, from royalty, or from murkier sources. But who are these new masters of the universe? Where did all their money come from? And what do they want with our beautiful game? In The Billionaires Club James Montague delves deeper than anyone else has dared, to tell this story for the first time.
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So boring! There is no cohesive story
- By Patrick Johnson on 02-15-22
By: James Montague
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Supreme City
- How Jazz Age Manhattan Gave Birth to Modern America
- By: Donald L. Miller
- Narrated by: Frangione Jim
- Length: 29 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In four words - "the capital of everything" - Duke Ellington captured Manhattan during one of the most exciting and celebrated eras in our history: The Jazz Age. Radio, tabloid newspapers, and movies with sound appeared. The silver screen took over Times Square as Broadway became America's movie mecca. Tremendous new skyscrapers were built in Midtown in one of the greatest building booms in history.
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the background to the NYC we now live in
- By Marcie on 03-05-15
By: Donald L. Miller
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Americana
- A 400-Year History of American Capitalism
- By: Bhu Srinivasan
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Bhu Srinivasan
- Length: 21 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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From the days of the Mayflower and the Virginia Company, America has been a place for people to dream, invent, build, tinker, and bet the farm in pursuit of a better life. Americana takes us on a 400-year journey of this spirit of innovation and ambition through a series of Next Big Things - the inventions, techniques, and industries that drove American history forward: from the telegraph, the railroad, guns, radio, and banking, to flight, suburbia, and sneakers, culminating with the Internet and mobile technology at the turn of the 21st century.
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Excellent history!
- By L. Maranto on 10-14-17
By: Bhu Srinivasan
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Tokyo Underworld
- The Fast Times and Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japan
- By: Robert Whiting
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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In the ashes of postwar Japan lay a gold mine for certain opportunistic, expatriate Americans. Addicted to the volatile energy of Tokyo's freewheeling underworld, they formed ever-shifting but ever-profitable alliances with warring Japanese and Korean gangsters. At the center of this world was Nick Zappetti, an ex-marine from New York City who arrived in Tokyo in 1945 and whose restaurant soon became the rage throughout the city and the chief watering hole for celebrities, diplomats, sports figures, and mobsters.
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A Man with a fork in a world of soup
- By Kindle Customer on 09-01-20
By: Robert Whiting
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The Big Rich
- The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes
- By: Bryan Burrough
- Narrated by: James Jenner
- Length: 22 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Best-selling author Bryan Burrough reveals how four Texas oil tycoons transformed America. Rising from humble beginnings through hard work and shrewd dealings, they shifted the balance of power in American politics. While hobnobbing with movie stars and presidents, the Big Rich also created the legend of the swaggering Texas oilman with island hideaways and sprawling ranches.
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Big, Sordid, Fascinating, PoliticallyCorrect
- By Darkcoffee on 11-09-09
By: Bryan Burrough
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New World Coming
- The 1920s and the Making of Modern America
- By: Nathan Miller
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 18 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Jazz. Bootleggers. Flappers. Talkies. Model T Fords. Lindbergh's history-making flight over the Atlantic. The 1920s was also the decade of the hard-won vote for women, racial injustice, censorship, social conflict, and the birth of organized crime.
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My High School History Class Never Told
- By Charles Stembridge on 06-29-04
By: Nathan Miller
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The History of Money
- By: Jack Weatherford
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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From primitive man's cowrie shells to the electronic cash card, from the markets of Timbuktu to the New York Stock Exchange, The History of Money explores how money and the myriad forms of exchange have affected humanity, and how they will continue to shape all aspects of our lives--economic, political, and personal.
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Interesting annecdotes, but very biased reporting
- By Dean on 10-13-11
By: Jack Weatherford
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Vegas and the Mob
- By: Al W. Moe
- Narrated by: Jason Sullivan
- Length: 5 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Las Vegas was the Mob's greatest venture and most spectacular success, and through 40 years of frenzy, murder, deceit, scams, and skimming, the FBI listened on phone taps and did virtually nothing to stop the fun. This is the truth about the Mob's control of the casinos in Vegas like you've never heard it before, from start to finish.
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From Bugsy to Binion
- By Patrick King on 08-20-14
By: Al W. Moe
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Last Call
- The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
- By: Daniel Okrent
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 17 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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A brilliant, authoritative, and fascinating history of America’s most puzzling era, the years 1920 to 1933, when the U.S. Constitution was amended to restrict one of America’s favorite pastimes: drinking alcoholic beverages. Okrent reveals how Prohibition marked a confluence of diverse forces, including the growing political power of the women’s suffrage movement and the fear of small-town, native-stock Protestants that they were losing control of their country to the immigrants of the large cities.
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Very Thorough Historical Review
- By Pierre on 11-12-12
By: Daniel Okrent
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A History of Future Cities
- By: Daniel Brook
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
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A pioneering exploration of four cities where East meets West and past becomes future: St. Petersburg, Shanghai, Mumbai, and Dubai. Every month, five million people move from the past to the future. Pouring into developing-world “instant cities” like Dubai and Shenzhen, these urban newcomers confront a modern world cobbled together from fragments of a West they have never seen. Do these fantastical boomtowns, where blueprints spring to life overnight on virgin land, represent the dawning of a brave new world? Or is their vaunted newness a mirage?
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Engaging and Memorable
- By Marcus Vorwaller on 04-15-14
By: Daniel Brook
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Richistan
- A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich
- By: Robert Frank
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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The rich have always been different from you and me, but this revealing and funny journey through Richistan entertainingly shows that they are more different than ever. Richistanis have 400-foot-yachts, 30,000-square-foot homes, house staffs of more than 100, and their own "arborists". They're also different from Old Money, and have torn down blue-blood institutions to build their own shining empire.
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Ho Hum....being rich is work!
- By Scarlett on 06-16-07
By: Robert Frank
What listeners say about Roll The Bones: The History of Gambling (Casino Edition)
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- TJ Fitz
- 04-10-18
Chalk Full of Awesome History
I was voluntarily provided this review copy audiobook at no charge by the publisher.
I really enjoyed this audiobook. I am not an avid gambler, but when I'm staying near a casino I certainly enjoy stopping by and playing some casual games (typically roulette). To my delight, there was a lot of interesting history on the evolution and importance of roulette. I also loved some of the bigger themes of casinos/gambling history that I had no clue about before (like that casinos originated in spas/hot springs for the sick and injured). The book really has a ton of history, and I feel like the author left no stone unturned in his research.
The beginning, where the history was all in foreign countries, was a bit harder to follow just because there were so many foreign names. But once it got to the US, I was hooked and couldn't stop listening. That segment was my favorite part. It did feel like the section between the US gambling and the modern age of internet gambling, where many other current countries were referenced, was sort of haphazardly added in, but it was interesting nonetheless.
The narrator was great, too. His voice was perfect, he kept a good pace, and he had easy to follow rythm.
One minor criticism I did have was with the layout. The book had many chapters, each with many subsections. In Audible, there is no way to skip to the beginning of the subsections. I made sure to place plenty of bookmarks, but being able to navigate directly to subsections would be nice.
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- in1ear (John Row)
- 03-29-18
Gambling
Would you listen to Roll The Bones: The History of Gambling (Casino Edition) again? Why?
I'd need to wait awhile. The info is thorough, and at times it lost my interest.
What did you like best about this story?
I liked the history and how it related to other social events. The story of the Pequot tribe.
Which character – as performed by Eric Martin – was your favorite?
NA
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
You bet your bottom dollar
Any additional comments?
This review copy audiobook was provided by the author, narrator or publisher at no cost. Which I can only assume was voluntary on their part. I am happy to give my honest review of it. I think I'm suppose to mention how reviewing this was voluntary on my part too!
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- cosmitron
- 03-28-18
Everything you ever wanted to know about Gambling.
Would you consider the audio edition of Roll The Bones: The History of Gambling (Casino Edition) to be better than the print version?
Have only listened to the Audio edition.
Who was your favorite character and why?
N/A
What about Eric Martin’s performance did you like?
He did a good job with the material he had to work with.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
N/A
Any additional comments?
This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
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27 people found this helpful
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- Tom Anderson
- 04-24-18
Take A Chance
At the end of the audiobook “Roll The Bones” there is an update by the author on what has happened since the book was written. In it he mentions that this is a condensed version of a previous edition of “Roll The Bones” focusing mainly on casino gaming in all its forms. That being said, it is hard to imagine a seventeen hour condensed version of any book but that is what you have here. Seventeen hours makes for a very long audio book but if what you’re looking for is a comprehensive history of casino gaming then this is the book for you.
Eric Martin does a good job of winding through David G. Schwartz’s written journey of casino gaming from the early, ancient times until the early twenty-first century and from the Middle East through Europe to the United States and now beyond to Asia. I can’t imagine anything has been left out.
If you’re got the time “Roll The Bones” makes for interesting listening.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Tyler
- 10-08-22
Narrator Ruins It
The depth and breadth of the information is stunning. It’s a fascinating journey from start to finish. Bravo to the author.
But the narrator is brutal. He simultaneously sounds like he couldn’t care less about a single word he’s saying, while somehow also managing to sound condescending and pretentious. It’s an awful combination, and one that’s soul destroying to listen to for sixteen hours.
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- Philo
- 03-02-20
Textbook type coverage, I liked second half better
This book is thorough and detailed, which is the right book for a certain listener. For me it dragged a bit in the early European and USA wild west phases. But all along, I was looking for the part that starts about 40 percent into the book, which is the mid-20th century and more recently in the USA with some highlights not only in Vegas, Havana and Atlantic City, but also in Indian gaming, and some international developments since then. With these latter parts I was well pleased. The narrator is among my 3 or 4 all-time favorites, though even that does not rescue the slower bits. The same author's bio of Caesar's founder Jay Sarno ("Grandissimo"), with the same narrator, was a racier story. Overall this definitely met my expectations and needs.
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