Poker face: Gender, race and representation in online poker

Abstract

Poker has a historic association with men, masculinity, and male‐only spaces (Morton, 2003). Yet, what often remains absent from contemporary gambling research is a sustained and critical discussion of masculinity itself. My project here is to argue for an approach to gambling research that draws from critical race theory and masculinity scholarship. After briefly mapping out trends in gambling scholarship, I argue that masculinity studies have much to contribute to gambling research. Using Gillian Rose's (2001) “critical visual methodology,” I examine the ways in which social power relations continue to legitimize hegemonic discourses about masculinity and gambling within selected poker websites. I also consider the ways in which social differences are articulated through representations of race and gender in advertisements for online poker and through avatars, the on‐screen representations of players.