'The Holy Game of Poker': Gambling, Religion and Neoliberalism
‘The Holy Game of Poker’: Gambling, Religion and Neoliberalism You hate to see another tired man Lay down his hand like he was giving up the holy game of Poker -Leonard Cohen Joyce Goggin This non-peer reviewed entry is published as part of the Critical Gambling Studies Blog. How to cite: Goggin, J. (2020). ’The Holy Game of Poker’: Gambling, Religion and Neoliberalism. Critical Gambling Studies . https://doi.org/10.29173/cgs90 The title for this blog post is taken from Leonard Cohen’s song “ The Stranger ”, about a gambler who places his faith in Poker and follows a chance-led trajectory through train stations and women’s lives. With his attention focused on the game, the stranger watches ‘for the card that is so high and wild, he’ll never need to deal another’. The seeming profundity contained in these lines—the idea of finding the wild card that transcends the need for any other—raises a number of questions - at least to my mind. Therefore, in what follows,