Casino gambling is central to understanding the cultural, social, and intellectual history of nineteenth-century Europe. Tracing the development of casino gambling across this period, this book connects that story to ideas about chance, luck, emotions, and psychology, and reveals how Europeans used gambling to understand their changing world.

Jared Poley is Professor of History at Georgia State University. He is the author of Decolonization in Germany: Weimar Narratives of Colonial Loss and Foreign Occupation (2005) and The Devil's Riches: A Modern History of Greed (2016) as well as co-editor of volumes on religious conversion, money, and migration in Germany.

Introduction; 1. Gambling in the nineteenth century; 2. Visiting the resort; 3. Experiencing the casino; 4. Probability and the casino; 5. Chance and luck; 6. Gambling and the body; 7. Gambling and the history of emotions; 8. The psychology of gambling; 9. What gambling was; Conclusion.