| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.2

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.2 | The History Cooperative

Suzanne Morton. At Odds: Gambling and Canadians, 1919–1969. Buffalo, N.Y.: University of Toronto Press. Pp. xi, 272. Cloth $60.00, paper $24.95.
As I write this review I stare at one of the many signs on my block: "Stop the Slot Machines in Hastings Park." The park refers to a nearby race course where betting on horses has been legal for decades, but the park's push for 800 slot machines has provoked intense opposition. Suzanne Morton argues that Canadians have been and remain ambivalent about gambling. In part, Morton's purpose is to explain this "ongoing ambivalence" (p. x) while she analyzes how gambling went from "a stigmatized minor vice to an acceptable activity regarded as appropriate and perhaps necessary to fund the Canadian welfare state" (p. 5).	1
As Morton points out, gambling was never completely illegal in Canada, except on Sundays. Individual betting was permitted, as long as no third party profited. Churches and charities held raffles for products, and carnival games of chance were allowed at agricultural fairs. Finally, betting was permitted at government-chartered race tracks. Morton argues that this last example underscores the continuing influence of a colonial elite. For them, horse racing was "class-appropriate leisure" (p. 11), which they also claimed—even after the carnage of World War I—helped to defend the British Empire with the potential cavalry contribution.	. . .

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