INTRODUCTION I got interested in the gambling phenomenon since I first arrived in UK.
One of the main reasons must be that in my country gambling is regarded very differently by people as well as by the government. Now I am attracted by the games and in particular, those that are not very spread in the place I live like betting on sport.
But before realizing by myself how gambling is rooted in British culture by observing my friends, people in pubs, casinos or even just by watching TV (poker tournaments, racing channels), I understood it by the word itself.

In my mother tongue’s vocabulary, and as far as I know in the other languages I have been studying, an equivalent to “gambling” does not exists.
I mean a word which sense is “playing for money” does not.
Gambling : “wagering money or something of material value on something with an uncertain outcome in hope of winning additional money or material goods.”

I always thought it was a huge proof to show us how much the phenomenon is important in Briton’s culture.
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAMBLING

Man has always gambled.
All the different human groups that developed in different part of the globe showed evidences of game and gambling in their earliest records.

For example, gambling artefacts have been recovered from ancient China (2300 B.C.), India, Egypt and Rome. A set of ivory dice dating from before 1500 BC were found from Thebes, and writings mentioning gambling were found on a tablet in the Pyramid of Cheops. As early as the 14th century, we have some of the first findings of gambling becoming outlawed; King Henry VIII of England did so when he discovered that his soldiers were spending more time gambling than working on drills and marksmanship.

The idea of blackjack and poker came from the practice of shuffling paper money in China around 900 A.D. This evolved into card playing, which was consequently brought to Europe via the Mameluke Empire. Being