Playing Games: Games and Their Players from Antiquity to the Present

Gaming and gambling have always had a significant role in our lives, starting from the metaphors we keep using when we speak: “game over”, “play your cards well”, “lay your cards on the table”. The book is both a history and a study of the different types of games and of their profound effect on culture and society. The author retraces the early history of games and of their legislations and pitfalls, from Asia to Greece, from India to Middle East, including Italy and Ancient Rome. By exploring the history and the rules of specific games such as cards, lotteries, board games, games of chance, backgammon, billiards, chess, checkers and roulette, this text allows us to discover a world that, if on one side remains risky, on the other reveals its connection to art, mathematics, in a word to human traditions.