By Thomas Ruys Smith

In 1836 Benjamin Drake, a midwestern writer of popular sketches for newspapers of the day, introduced his readers to a new and distinctly American rascal who rode the steamboats up and down the Mississippi and other western waterways—the riverboat gambler. These men, he recorded, “dress with taste and elegance; carry gold chronometers in their pockets; and swear with the most genteel precision. . . . Every where throughout the valley, these mistletoe gentry are called by the original, if not altogether classic, cognomen of ‘Black-legs.’” In Blacklegs, Card Sharps, and Confidence Men, Thomas Ruys Smith collects nineteenth-century stories, sketches, and book excerpts by a gallery of authors to create a comprehensive collection of writings about the riverboat gambler.

Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. 2010. 288p.

By Donna T. Andrew

Aristocratic Vice examines the outrage against—and attempts to end—the four vices associated with the aristocracy in eighteenth-century England: duelling, suicide, adultery, and gambling. Each of the four, it was commonly believed, owed its origin to pride. Many felt the law did not go far enough to punish those perpetrators who were members of the elite. In this exciting new book, Andrew explores each vice’s treatment by the press at the time and shows how a century of public attacks on aristocratic vices promoted a sense of “class superiority” among the soon-to-emerge British middle class.

New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013. 328p.

Edited by Toine Spapens , Alan Littler and Cyrille Fijnaut

This is the third book to be produced by members of the Gambling Research Group - associated with Tilburg University's Faculty of Law concerning issues closely connected with the debate on the gambling policies that the European Union and its Member States are pursuing. The first book - Alan Littler and Cyrille Fijnaut (eds), "The Regulation of Gambling: European and National Perspectives" (Leiden, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2007) - mainly considers the legal aspects of gambling regulation, at both European Union and Member State level. The second book - Tom Coryn, Cyrille Fijnaut and Alan Littler (eds), "Economic Aspects of Gambling Regulation: EU and US Perspectives" (Leiden, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2008) - looks at research conducted in the United States and the European Union into the costs and benefits involved in the regulation of gambling.The contributions to this third book turn the spotlight on two social problems: crime and addiction, both of which play a significant part in the institutional debate in the European Union concerning whether gambling should be treated as a service that - like other services - should be subject to the laws universally applicable to the internal market. This volume is primarily devoted to the research that has been conducted in several Member States into the problems of gambling-related crime and addiction. It also examines developments at EU level: what policy is the European Commission currently pursuing and what stance does the European Court of Justice take these days. Crime and addiction problems that can arise in the context of online gambling and at possible ways of keeping them under control are also examined.

Leiden; Boston: Martinus Nijhoff, 2008. 269p.