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Popular Culture Review
skill— needed to join the profession. The closest many fans can get to the action is
attending events or posting to internet forums. Gambling, by contrast, is open to
virtually anyone—with the current popularity of penny slots, it seems that no for
tune is too small for the casino. There may be a world of difference between a
penny slot player and a high roller, but in essence they both do the same thing,
albeit on a different scale. In this way, casino gambling is far more accessible than
professional wrestling
Thus, it isn’t that surprising that professional wrestling and casino gambling
are related, if only distantly. Each simultaneously balances the real and the fake,
and each teases its audience with a payoff that it usually never delivers. Each also
relies on spectacle to pull in marks. While spectacle may be four-star restaurants or
a five-star frog splash, it still serves the same purpose—to put “asses in the seats.”
It would seem that fans would get tired of “fat men in their underwear” pretending
to fight, and tune out professional wrestling. One also might think that casino pa
trons would begin to realize that the odds against them will never permit them to
“quit winners.” But both forms of “entertainment” are enduringly popular, mostly
because their formulas were successfully distilled from decades of carnivals.
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
David G. Schwartz
Works Cited
Fiske, John. Understanding Popular Culture. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1989.
Harrah’s Entertainment. Profile o f the American Gambler, 2002. Las Vegas: Harrah’s Entertainment,
2002. Available online at
http://www.haiTahs.eom/about_us/survey/survey_02.5.pdf
Mankind (Mick Foley). Have a Nice Day! A Tale o f Blood and Sweatsocks. New York: Harper Collins
Books, 1999.
Mazer, Sharon. Professional Wrestling: Sport and Spectacle. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press,
1998.
McGowan, Thomas. American Carnival: Seeing and Reading American Culture. Westport, CT:
Greenwood Press, 2001.
Opton, Michael, ed. Nevada Gaming Almanac 2002. Newton, MA: Casino City Press, 2002.
Sheehan, Jack. “Sam Boyd’s Quiet Legacy.” In Jack Sheehan, ed. Players: The Men Who Made Las
Vegas. Reno and Las Vegas: University of Nevada Press, 1997.
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. 2002 Annual Report. Available at
http://ir.shareholder.com/wwe/downloads/annual-2002.pdf