Aging and Personhood in the Landscape of the Mega-Casino: Retirement at the Tables

Authors

  • Joy Ciofi University of Connecticut

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/aa.2019.200

Keywords:

personhood, active aging, casinos, gambling, older adults, value, USA

Abstract

The retirement of the Boomer generation constitutes the largest wave of retirements in US history. This article examines the ways in which mega-casinos as institutions have become new spaces of aging and important sites where the ideals of retirement can be played out. Based on thirty-two months of fieldwork at two of the US’s largest casinos, I argue that these facilities help older adults maintain their personhood by engaging them socially, mentally, and physically through the myriad services and amenities they offer. Dominating narratives informed by Western economic and medical trends call for ‘active aging,’ ‘productive aging,’ or ‘aging gracefully,’ and these related paradigms emphasize social engagement along with physical and cognitive activities as the keys to thriving in old age. The casino environment simultaneously challenges and facilitates these narratives, providing an age-diverse setting in which seniors can exercise, entertain family, acquire gifts, and earn status. Drawing on David Graeber’s (2001) framework for theorizing value, I assert that it is participation in the many activities of the casino, rather than the monetary wins and losses, that has constituted them as valuable places to sustain personhood and achieve the ideals of an ‘active’ or ‘successful’ retirement.

Author Biography

Joy Ciofi, University of Connecticut

PhD Candidate

Department of Anthropology

References

American Gaming Association (AGA). 2013, 2017. “State of the States Report.” American Gaming Association, Washington, D.C.

Back, Ki-Joon, Choong-Ki Lee, and Randy Stinchfield. 2011. “Gambling Motivation and Passion: A Comparison Study of Recreational and Pathological Gamblers.” Journal of Gambling Studies 27:355-370.

Buch, Elana. 2013. “Senses of care: Embodying inequality and sustaining personhood in the home care of older adults in Chicago.” American Ethnologist 40(4): 637-650.

Buch, Elana. 2015. “Postponing Passage: Doorways, Distinctions, and the Thresholds of Personhood among Older Chicagoans.” Ethos 43(1):40-58.

Buch, Elana. 2017. “Beyond Independence: Older Chicagoans Living Valued Lives. In Successful Aging as a Contemporary Obsession.” Edited by Sarah Lamb, 85-97. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

Cardona, Beatriz. 2012. “Dangers and Dilemmas Surrounding the Consumption of Anti-Ageing Medicine.” In Justice for Older People. Edited by Harry Lesser, 35-45. New York: Rodopi.

Cattelino, Jessica R. 2008. High Stakes: Florida Seminole Gaming and Sovereignty. Durham: Duke University Press.

Chapple, Constance, and Stacy Nofziger. 2000. “Bingo!: Hints of Deviance in the Accounts of Sociability and Profit of Bingo Players.” Deviant Behavior 21:489-517.

De Certeau, Michel. 2011. The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Estes, Carroll and Associates. 2001. Social Policy & Aging: A Critical Perspective. New York: Sage Publications.

Featherstone, Mike, and Mike Hepworth. 2009. “Images of Aging: Cultural Representations of Later Life.” In The Cultural Context of Aging: Worldwide Perspectives. Edited by Jay Sokolovsky, 134-144. Westport: Praeger Publishers.

Graeber, David. 2001. Toward an anthropological theory of value: The false coin of our own dreams. New York: Springer Press.

Hoey, Brian. 2010. “Place for Personhood: Individual and Local Character in Lifestyle Migration.” City & Society 22(2): 237-261.

Jiménez, Alberto. 2003. “Working out personhood: notes on labor and its anthropology.” Anthropology Today 19(5):14-17.

Katz, Stephen. 2000. “Busy Bodies: Activity, Aging, and the Management of Everyday Life.” Journal of Aging Studies 14(2): 135-152.

Lamb, Sarah, Jessica Robbins-Ruszkowski, and Anna I. Corwin. 2017. “Introduction: Successful Aging as a 21st Century Obsession.” In Successful Aging as a Contemporary Obsession. Edited by Sarah Lamb, 1-27. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

Lamb, Sarah. 1997. “The making and unmaking of persons: Notes on aging and gender in North India.” Ethos 25(3): 279-302.

Lane, Carrie M. 2009. “Man enough to let my wife support me: How changing models of career and gender are reshaping the experience of unemployment.” American Ethnologist 36(4): 681-692.

Liechty, Toni, Careen Yarnal, and Deborah Kerstetter. 2012. “ ‘I want to do everything!’: leisure among retirement-age women.” Leisure Studies 31(4):389-408.

Lynch, Caitrin. 2009. “Working Retirement: Age and Value in the United States.” Anthropology News (November): 22-23.

Lynch, Caitrin. 2013. “Membership and Mattering: Agency and Work in a New England Factory.” In Transitions & Transformations: Cultural Perspectives on Aging and the Life Course. Edited by Caitrin Lynch and Jason Danely, 188-205. New York: Berghahn Books.

Mauss, Marcel. 1985. “A category of the human mind: the notion of person; the notion of self.” In The category of the person: Anthropology, philosophy, history. Edited by Michael Carrithers, Steven Collins, and Steven Lukes, 1-25. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Myerhoff, Barbara. 1980. Number our Days. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Mikkelson, Henrik Hvenegaard. 2017. “Never too late for pleasure: Aging, neoliberalism, and the politics of potentiality in Denmark.” American Ethnologist 44(4): 646-656.

Moody, Harry. 2009. “From Successful Aging to Conscious Aging.” In The Cultural Context of Aging: Worldwide Perspectives. Edited by Jay Sokolovsky, 67-76. Westport: Praeger Publishers.

Munro, Brenda, with Marlene Cox-Bishop, Wayne McVey, and Gordon Munro. 2003. “Seniors Who Gamble: A Summary Review of the Literature.” Submitted to The Alberta Gaming Research Institute.

Nichols, Mark, B. Grant Stitt, and David Giacopassi. 2002. “Community Assessment of the Effects of Casinos on Quality of Life.” Social Indicators Research 57(3):229-262.

Peace, Sheila. 2013. “Social Interactions in Public Spaces and Places: A Conceptual Overview.” In Environmental Gerontology: Making Meaningful Places in Old Age. Edited by Graham D. Rowles and Miriam Bernard, 25-49. New York: Springer Press.

Portacolone, Elena. 2011. “The myth of independence for older Americans living alone in the Bay Area of San Francisco: a critical reflection.” Ageing and Society 31(5):803-828.

Quinn, Frank L. 2001. “First Do No Harm: What Could be Done by Casinos to Limit Pathological Gambling.” Managerial and Decision Economics 22:133-142.

Rowles, Graham D., and Miriam Bernard. 2013. The Meaning and Significance of Place in Old Age. In Environmental Gerontology: Making Meaningful Places in Old Age. Edited by Graham D. Rowles and Miriam Bernard, 3-24. New York: Springer Press.

Savishinsky, Joel S. 2000. Breaking the Watch: The Meanings of Retirement in America. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Shaffer, Howard, M. N. Hall, and J. Vander Bilt. 1999. “Estimating the Prevalence of Disordered Gambling Behavior in the United States and Canada: A Research Synthesis.” American Journal of Public Health 89:1369-76.

Schüll, Natasha Dow. 2012. Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Sennett, Richard. 2006. “Adrift in the Third Wave: The Disorienting Life of the New Economy.” New Perspectives Quarterly 23(3): 15-19.

Stafford, Philip B. 2009. Elderburbia: Aging with a Sense of Place in America. Santa Barbara: Praeger Publishers.

Vesperi, Maria D. 1985. City of Green Benches. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Volberg, Rachel A., Dean R. Gerstein, Eugene M. Christiansen, and John Baldridge. 2001. “Assessing Self-Reported Expenditures on Gambling.” Managerial and Decision Economics 22:77-96.

Vozikaki, Maria, Manolis Linardakis, Katerina Micheli, and Anastas Philalithis. 2017. “Activity Participation and Well-Being Among European Adults Aged 65 years and Older.” Social Indicators Research 131:769–795.

Weiss, Robert S. 2005. The Experience of Retirement. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Zaranek, Rochelle R., and Peter A. Lichtenberg. 2008. “Urban elders and casino gambling: Are they at risk of a gambling problem?” Journal of Aging Studies 22:13-23.

Downloads

Published

2019-02-08

Issue

Section

Articles