No longer quarantined in Las Vegas, gambling has become as local as our neighborhood cineplex. If there's not a casino around the corner, there's one on your laptop computer. You can bet on the turn of the card, a roll of the dice--but also the NFL, the NCAA, and which Olson twin marries first. It's no wonder that we spend more money gambling than we do on movies, music, sports, video games, and theme parks combined! Here, acclaimed sportswriter Hoffer takes us on a headlong tour, alternately horrifying and hilarious, across our landscape of luck, discovering just how determined we are to gamble. He also discovers that the very institutions that used to regulate this workout are now its biggest cheerleaders: yesterday's numbers racket is today's state lottery; yesterday's mob casino is now part of a Fortune 500 company. And he concludes that people are, mostly, having a good time.--From publisher description.