Commercializzazione dell’azzardo e processi di finanziarizzazione: la diffusione del gambling negli spazi urbani

Commodification of Gambling and Financialization Processes. The Gambling Diffusion in Urban Contexts

Recently, Italy has become one of the largest European legal gambling markets. This study, using an ethnographic approach, has provided an opportunity to explore the experiences of gamblers and to monitor, through participant observation, how the slot machines that have invaded cafés, tobacco shops and gaming halls, have contributed to partly change some neighbourhoods in Italian cities. Within the frame of reference that concerns the association between progressive financialization of capitalism and the spread of gambling, this paper analyses the various points of contact between the two processes: the «financialization of the everyday» and the extensive availability of gambling products.

Keywords: Anthropology of Gambling; Financialization; Ethnography; Italy