Lotterie, lotto, slot machines / Lotteries, lotto, slot machines
L’azzardo del sorteggio: storia dei giochi di fortuna / The luck of the draw: a history of games of chance
edited by Gherardo Ortalli
cover prize 12 euros
Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche-Viella
Treviso-Rome 2019
44 pages
ISBN 978-88-3313-161-0
(Ludica, 13)
Some anniversaries deserve to be celebrated. So it seemed apt that thirty years of sustained commitment by the Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche to studies in ludicity and the history of games and gaming should occasion a significant mark of recognition.
We decided that this should take the form of a carefully planned exhibition that would convey the importance of the subject, focusing in particular on games of chance, given that gambling has always been the most noteworthy aspect of ludicity because of the many risks associated with its financial implications. We also set out to make the survey serious, clear and accessible, with coverage that brought it right up to the present day. All these features are reflected in this partial catalogue, which stands with the exhibition as a testimony to three decades of dedicated research, published since 1995 in the house journal Ludica.
The contents of this publication correspond to those of the monographic section of the journal «Ludica. Annali di storia e civiltà del gioco», 24, 2018 (pp. 111-144).
Contents
Gherardo Ortalli, Premessa/Introduction, 7
Gherardo Ortalli, I presupposti di una mostra, 11
Alle origini del moderno gioco d’azzardo, 24
I “falò delle vanità” e la stagione del moderno gioco d’azzardo, 25
Si scommette su tutto, 26
Il gioco del lotto, 27
Regole del biribissi, 28
Alberto Fiorin, Glossario dei giochi più trattati, 29
Gherardo Ortalli, The premises underlying the exhibition, 36
The origins of modern gambling, 39
Bonfires of the vanities and the age of modern gambling, 39
Betting on everything, 40
The game of lotto, 40
Rules of Biribissi, 40
Alberto Fiorin, Glossary of games most often mentioned, 41
