Australians lose more money gambling than any other country. But how did we get here? In his inimitable, hilarious style, sports historian Titus O’Reily charts the rise, fall and rise of sport gambling in Australia. We’ll gamble on anything, from two flies crawling up a wall to less important things like federal elections. And thanks to the internet, phones and gambling-tax loving governments, these days Australians can indulge their love of a punt no matter what they’re doing. Aussies could be at the birth of a child or performing open-heart surgery and still put a bet on. It wasn’t always this easy. Once, you could only gamble on sport illegally. Which, it turns out, was actually also pretty easy. But over the last thirty years gambling on sport has been legalised, first slowly and then very quickly. Now almost every ad on TV is about sport betting, and even some of the players are getting in on the wagering. Please, Gamble Irresponsibly traces the history of gambling in Australia from horseracing in the colonial era, through the rise of SP bookies and organised crime, to the commercialisation of the industry and its impact on communities and the integrity of sport. With billions of dollars involved, what are the odds of putting the genie back in the bottle?

Lancelot takes a revealing look at the nightmare that had become her life--beginning with her alcohol addiction, followed by abuse of prescription drugs, overeating, and eventually gambling. This is her journey back from the hell she had created.

Where there's sport, there's cheating. No sport is immune; athletics, swimming, rugby, American Football, cricket, baseball, badminton, motorsports, tennis and curling. Yes, even that sport on the ice with brooms. Almost as soon as humans started playing sport competitively, they started to cheat. They cheated to win, for the fame, for the money and sometimes for reasons that are hard to understand. From the fiendishly clever to the outright hare brained, the borderline to the blatant, Titus O'Reily takes us through the many and varied ways athletes and countries have tried to cheat over the years. There's the winner of the New York marathon who was driven in a car part of the way, the male basketballer whose drug test revealed he was pregnant, the Tour De France where many of the riders took the train, the Spanish Paralympic basketball team who faked being intellectually disabled to win gold at the 2000 Paralympics. As well as sharing an alarming amount of tales involving swapping bodily fluids, Titus takes you through doping, illegal equipment, bribes, playing dirty, faking injuries, wearing disguises, dodgy referees, ball tampering, eye gouging, itching powder, licking an opponent to distract them and sending a dwarf out to bat to shrink the strike zone. Just as sport has become more sophisticated, so has cheating in sport, from state backed doping programs to tiny motors in Tour De France bikes. What does this say about us, that we cheat with such regularity and creativity? Will technology help stop cheating or will it only make it worse?

In this informative and entertaining book, learn from Cousin Sal how not to gamble your life away -- along with many other life lessons -- so you don't have to learn the hard way. Over the last forty years, Cousin Sal has made bets with doctors, lawyers, teachers, agents, bookies, writers, comedians, radio DJs, tv producers, baseball players, front office executives, bandleaders, movie stars, publicists, weed lab owners, hedge fund operators, and even professional wrestlers. From his early days growing up in Brooklyn and Long Island flipping baseball cards to now hosting podcasts and TV shows and managing several offshore accounts we don't talk about, Cousin Sal has truly become the average American sports fan's go to source for gambling tips. So here's how not to do it . . . With hilarious tales of love and loss, winning and (a lot) of losing, crazy family and fatherhood, and a life saga that inspired the Phil Collins' song, "Against All Odds," Cousin Sal has now written THE Vegas super-system, MIT-algorithmic, sharp-approved book for how to gamble like a pro -- or at least not how not to go broke and lose your kids to Child Protective Services.

Bringing together leading match-fixing researchers from different fields, this book offers new theoretical and applied perspectives on this persistent problem in sport and wider society. The book explores the foundations of match-fixing from multiple viewpoints, from sociology and criminology to policy and governance, exploring topics such as the use of network governance theory, ethics and integrity, and management aspects that position match-fixing in sport’s commercial landscape. Featuring cases and data from all around the world, the book explains how match-fixing has become a prominent feature of contemporary sport, and considers the efficacy and practicability of interventions to solve these problems. This is fascinating and important reading for any advanced student, researcher, practitioner, or policymaker with an interest in sport management, sports business, sport policy, sport development, sport law, or criminology.

In sport, the term ‘good bloke’ doesn't mean what it says. Like ‘fun run’, it often actually means exactly the opposite. Titus O’Reily, the sports historian Australia neither needs nor deserves, examines why our nation’s sportspeople are so readily forgiven for doing terrible things. With ridiculous tales from Australia’s chequered sporting history, A Sporting Chance dissects the scandals big and small, the mistakes made in covering them up and the path athletes tread back to redemption. From the Essendon supplements saga and the sandpaper-loving Australian cricket team to whatever it is Nick Kyrgios has done now, Titus reveals the archetypes at the heart of our greatest sporting scandals. There’s the corrupt cop who gave us the race that stopped a nation and the boxing champion who refused to train. There’s the cashed-up businessmen who bankrupted clubs and the commentators who can’t get their foot out of their mouth. And of course there’s the good blokes, like Wayne Carey, Matthew Johns and Shane Warne, who it seems we’ll forgive for absolutely anything. In his rambling and at times incoherent style, Titus asks the question: are Australians really that forgiving of their sporting heroes? With the rise of social media, women’s sport and the drive towards greater equality, are the good blokes of Australia’s sporting landscape an endangered species?

Here is what the experts are saying about this book: Sheryl Anderson, Director of Vanguard problem gambling inpatient treatment center at Project Turnabout. Vanguard is the nation's premier inpatient treatment program for gambling addiction: "Mr. Dahl's insightful analysis into the characteristics of problem gambling are unparalleled in our current understanding of this growing epidemic. Psychologists, gambling counselors, and problem gamblers should all get this book." Devonna Rowlette: Washington State Certified Gambling Counselor II: "I intend to provide this book to all my patients, and I will recommend that every therapist I know do the same. It was also a very pleasant surprise that the book was a pleasure to read. It was very well written, even funny at times. I believe this book will become the go-to first book for the problem gambling industry for a very long time to come." D.G. Smith, Co-founder of Youth Emergency Services (Y.E.S) one of the nation's first phone-in crisis hotlines. It grew from the original location in Minneapolis to over a hundred affiliates in cities across the country: "Suicide is preventable. Intervention is possible. My experience with crisis helplines informs me of that reality. Mr. Dahl's specific step-by-step plan to get the problem gambler to prepare for a suicide attempt well before they get to that awful moment of decision not only has never been proposed, I believe it is pure genius. It will prevent completed suicides in the thousands!" Keith S. Whyte, Executive Director, National Council on Problem Gambling:"This timely book on preventing problem gambling-related suicide is packed with practical tips and recommendations. Gambling addiction is a life-threatening disorder and needs to be taken extremely seriously." If you think that you may have a gambling problem, read this book now before it is too late. Gambling addiction is exploding around the world and it is causing an alarming increase in suicides. Last year in the United States gambling-caused suicides killed approximately the same number of people as all homicides combined! These gambling related suicides are preventable, and this book tells you why, and how. If you have, or suspect you have a gambling problem, this book could save your life. If you know someone who you suspect has a gambling problem, this book could save their life. After dealing with suicide prevention, the book goes on to give you the most comprehensive information anywhere about all the available treatment and recovery options for gambling addiction. Therapists, researchers, counselors, and educators will also learn valuable concepts and tools for dealing with this exploding and dangerous addiction. Reading and learning from this book is a small price to pay to avoid impulsive and preventable suicides.