Chasing Lightning: Gambling in Canada

Ashley Thomson is a full librarian at Laurentian University and co-editor or co-author of nine books, most recently Margaret Atwood: A Reference Guide, 1988-2005.

Gambling has been a topic of interest to Canadian writers since at least
1922, when William Edgar Raney published The Scandal and Curse of
Legalized Gambling. Written by two reporters at the Windsor Star,
Gambling in Canada includes profiles of casinos across the country
(including the recently built casino in Windsor). Topics covered include
the origins of gambling, business aspects of gambling, gambling
addiction, gambling on the Internet, the attitudes of organized religion
toward gambling, and gambling in the next millennium.

Although occasionally repetitive, the book is lucidly written. It is
not, as its authors claim, “without a bias.” The main title, chasing
lightning, means “throwing good money after bad in a desperate and
doomed attempt to have luck strike.” Perhaps the authors’ real
target is not gambling per se, but stupidity.