Gambling: Pain, Pleasure and Play

Last Wednesday was the official start of the Football World Cup 1998 - different nations such as England, Italy, Brazil, France, Germany, Argentina, Holland (just to name a few of them) are in a state of excitement. Statistics, theories, speculations, hopes and guesses are circulating: who is going to make it this time? This is the heyday of calculating and betting - not only via the official football pools, but also in innumerable private bets and estimating contests.…